1. Project Planning Plan - Prepare - Procrastinate Absolute Minimum Time: 2 weeks Templates and Design Habits Save Time: Investment of First Time Designing Pays Off IDEaS staff on occasions have perform miracles, However, Dont rely on it! Save time for – Corrections in spelling, typos, missing info –Pictures that dont print, –Formatting problems –traffic jams at the plotter,

2. Content Scope it Out Purpose: To Communicate Scientific/Technical Information, VISUALLY Understand the Constraints of Presentation: –Space is limited – Find out what you have – Use it all –Time is limited, Actual one-to-one contact time is very short 11 second to trap the prey Up to 10 min for them to devour your work Let them have hours to digest your work by giving them a reprint Work Most on Sparking Interest and on Keeping it, VISUALLY

3. Content Sharpen the Focus of the Poster DO NOT TRANSPOSE YOUR TECHNICAL PAPER!! Carefully narrow the focus of your poster Decide on a single key point. Focus should be: Keen interest to the audience or Controversial At the very least, Memorable Point must be visible from 10 feet away. Dedicate 1/3 of the Poster to that Point. Rather than Condense the Manuscript, Expand the Abstract

4. Content Prioritize Audience can have a short attention span. Prioritize the message. Attention follows the following pattern:Title Large Pictures or Color Diagrams Interesting Subtitles Large Problem Statements AbstractConclusions All the rest Attention can be lost anywhere along the way.

5. Content Use Priority to Convey the Message Tell the Story around the following Subtitles and prepare the content to fill the sections:TitleAbstractIntroductionMethodsResultsConclusionsAcknowledgements Eliminate all Non-Essentials Get rid of common knowledge, unprocessed data, and the mundane. If you must, bore them in the reprint.

6. Content Visually Demonstrate the Point Use Graphs Not Tables Try Bulleted Items Not Verbose Paragraphs Use Arrows to Show flow Not Words Label Graphs Directly Do Not Use Legends Get directly to the Point and Reiterate it.

7. Content Finally: Relevance- each element should have a purpose in the overall design Proportion- size should relate to the importance of the object Direction- signpost the order in which you want your poster read. The design needs to guide the reader from point to point. Consistency- no piece should be in isolation. A design is an integrated whole.