1. Office of Undergraduate Research
Poster Construction
Office of Undergraduate Research

2. Your Message
Do not attempt to include ALL of your findings and everything that you know on your poster
Just because you do not include information on your poster does not mean that you cannot discuss it
Focus your message

3. Your Audience Get your audiences attention in 3 seconds
Give them your primary message within 30 seconds
Know your audience- is this an interdisciplinary conference? Discipline specific?
Adjust your presentation based on your audience
Avoid using jargon at interdisciplinary conferences
Make your presentation have a real world connection/significance

4. Poster colors
Printed posters should have a light background (e.g., white) with dark text
Projected presentations (e.g., PowerPoint) should have a dark background with light text
Avoid using 3+ colors on poster
Avoid extremely bright and/or distracting colors
You should use colors consistent with your university (e.g., navy and gray). Try to avoid blue/orange and red/black combinations
Avoid red/green colors for color deficient individuals

5. Design & Organization
Use white space – don’t use borders and lines to separate columns. All ink should be information ink. White space will balance and separate text and figures.
Your poster should be symmetrical. Use the Align tool and align everything – this is VERY important
Make headings informative
Poster should read left to right and top to bottom

6. Graphics & Images
All images and graphics should be used when they can communicate the message better than text could
Make sure they are not pixelated (zoom into your poster at 100% and look at image)
Graphs should be simple and 2-D
Include captions
Try to use 50% images and 50% text (for both visual and verbal learners)

7. Other tips
For printed presentations, use serif fonts (e.g., Times New Roman)
For projected presentations, use sans-serif fonts (e.g., Arial)
All text should be 24 point font at a minimum
Avoid using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
Make text left-justified
Use bullet points and avoid full sentences when possible. (Remember: would you want to stand in front of an essay taped to a poster board and read it?)

8. Use & Acknowledgements
This presentation was drafted using information from the previous Office of Undergraduate Research website.