Diseño De Un Posters

Biophysical Journal

Volume 71

December 1996

3527-3529

Teaching Biophysics

Do's and Don'ts of Poster Presentation

Steven M. Block
Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA

WORDS OF CAUTION This guide offers advice on preparing a good scientific poster. As with all communication, which is an art form, there is no single recipe forsuccess. There are many alternative. creative ways to display and convey scientific information pictorially. Occasionally, breaking with tradition can pay off, but not always. More often than not, an iconoclastic approach will revile and repel, rather than amaze and astound. Consider yourself forewarned. Unless you have some prior experience under your belt, or feel pretty certain of your ground,it's a better idea to leave experimentation to the laboratory and stick with tried-and-true methods for your poster presentations. The suggestions here certainly won't improve your science but, if followed, may help you to communicate your message. You should, before deliberately departing from these guidelines---and they are only that---at least attempt to understand the reasoning behind theadvice. Remember that when it comes to posters, style, format, color, readability, attractiveness, and showmanship all count. Take the time to get things right. POSTER LAYOUT AND FORMAT DON'T make your poster up on just one or two large boards. These are a clumsy nuisance to lug around. They put large strains on poster pins and often fall down. They frequently don't fit well into the poster space youare provided. They don't lend themselves well to rearrangement. alignment, or last-minute modifications. DO make up your poster in a large number of separate sections, all of roughly comparable size. The handiest method is to mount each standard-sized piece of paper individually on a colored board of its own of slightly larger dimensions, say, 9.5 x 12 inches, or thereabouts. This frames eachposter segment with a nice border and makes for a versatile poster that can be put up anywhere, yet knocks down easily to fit into a briefcase or backpack for transport. DON'T write an overlong title. Save it for your abstract. Titles that use excess jargon are a bore. Titles with colons in them are a bore. Titles that are too cute are even more of a bore. DO keep your title short, snappy, and ontarget. The title needs to highlight your subject matter, but need not state all your conclusions, after all. Some good titles simply ask questions. Others answer them. DON'T make the title type size too large or too small. DO make your title large enough to be read easily from a considerable distance (say, 25-50 feet), so it will perforce span more than one printed page. Nevertheless, the title shouldnever exceed the width of your poster area (particularly if you are sharing half a posterboard with a neighbor!), nor

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should it ever occupy more than two lines. If things don't fit, shorten the title; don't reduce the typesize. And remember that titles in all capital letters are harder to read. DON’T leave people wondering about whodid this work. DO put the names of all authors and institutional affiliations just below (or next to) your title. It's a nice touch to supply first names rather than initials. Don't use the same large type size as you did for the title; use something smaller and more discreet. This is not the cult of personality. DON’T use too small a typesize for your poster. This is the single most common error.Never, ever, use 10- or 12-point type. Don't use it in your text, anywhere. Don't use it for captions. Don’t use it for figure legends, and annotations, footnotes, subscripts, or anything else. Don't ever use small type on a poster. Remember, no one ever complained that someone's poster was too easy to read. Got it?! Good! DO use a typesize that can be read easily at a distance of ~4 feet or...