Get your message across with effective visual displays of data and small blocks of supporting text. Think of your poster as an illustrated abstract.

Tell readers why your work matters, what you did, what you found, and what you recommend. Avoid excessive focus on methods – it’s the results and implications that count!

Overall appearance. Use a pleasing arrangement of graphics, text, colors. Your poster should be neat and uncluttered – use white space to help organize sections. Balance the placement of text and figures.

Organization. Use headings to help readers find what they’re looking for: objective, results, conclusions, etc. A columnar format helps traffic flow in a crowded poster session.
Minimize text – use graphics. Keep text in blocks of no more than 50-75 words – don’t create large, monolithic paragraphs of prose.

Text size. All text should be large enough to read from 1-2 meters, including the text in figures. Title should be larger, to attract attention from far away.

Use color cautiously. Dark letters on light background are easiest to read. Stick to a theme of 2-3 colors. Avoid overly bright colors – they attract attention but wear out reader’s eyes.

Don’t fight reader gravity, which pulls the eyes from top to bottom (first), and left to right.

Include full contact information. You want to be found – the reader should not have to look up anything to find you.