How to make a good poster

An effective poster can make a strong impact,. In order to be effective, an academic poster should be well researched and effectively organized. It should also be attractively presented. An academic poster is designed to communicate your research – idea, theory, questions, design, results – clearly, concisely, and visually. It should also be self-explanatory. You shouldn't need notes to understand it! It takes skill to summarize a complex topic without losing part of the meaning or connections. What do you need to consider first? How might you use images or diagrams to help convey your message?

Planning content

Since a poster must communicate so concisely, you will need to spend some time identifying your key points. Decide what you need to communicate, and how. What is your main message? What does your viewer need to know? Identify the key points, always keeping your topic or task in mind. Once you've decided on the main content, make a rough draft of the information you need. Decide on the main title and note the graphics you might need, such as photos, diagrams, graphs or charts. Remember: Academic posters need to show evidence of reading and research, so always include references.

Building Plan

After you have decided on your key message it is important to write the story in the form of a table of contents. You can use this as a building plan for the poster. This could be something like this::

·	Introduction

·	Research question

·	Research method

Results

·	Conclusions

·	Recommendations for further research

Important, the building plan depends on the story you tell. Many books on how to write an article or report give useful examples on building plans.

Do and Don’t’s

Make sure the poster can be traced back to you; put your name, email, institute and university clearly on the poster. Limit the amount of text; long pieces of text aren’t read. Keep it short, to the point and in understandable English. Make the poster attractive, even tempting if possible.

Presentation

After making the poster do try to translate your poster into Prezi (or Powerpoint); You can transfer your poster in 5 minutes into a great presentation (linear or interactive).