The purpose of a poster is to deliver a message to your audience. It doesn't matter how much work went into that message if the audience can't read your poster. The following guidelines will ensure that your poster can deliver its message.
When arranging your content, keep in mind that as English readers we read left to right and top to bottom. You will want to arrange your content so that the introduction is in the top left and the conclusion is in the bottom right. Here are two options for arranging your content. The red star represents the starting point and the orange arrows represent how the eye will move across the poster.
A research poster should be
White space refers to what may be considered the "blank" parts of the poster, but it is still important. White space is used to group information by creating margins around your content. The following example does not use enough white space:
Without enough white space, you poster's content loses meaning. The body text blurs together and the whole image feels cramped and overwhelming. Would you take the time to read this poster or move on to the next? Can you tell what message is being delivered to the audience?
This is an example of a good use of white space:
Each piece of information on this poster has its own space and is surrounded by margins. The blue lines on the poster are guides that were used to place all of the content. You can create your PowerPoint file with these guides to place your content the same way. This will ensure that you have enough white space.
The best research posters are consistent and easy to read. This is why you should only use a maximum of two fonts and that these fonts should be the same sizes across your content. Never sacrifice readability for style.
Title: 48-60 pt Sans Serif font
Author's Name/Section Headings: 32-40 pt Sans Serif font
Body Text: 18-28 pt Serif font
Captions/Footnotes: 12-18 pt Serif font
Color is a great tool for catching someone's eye, but when used incorrectly your poster becomes difficult to read. Since the purpose of your research poster is to deliver a message, color should be used with purpose.
Types of Color Vision Deficiency
Image Credit: Joeybatt on Pixabay, modified for "You'll Be Amazed How People with Color Blindness See the World"
Source: boredpanda
Here is an example of using color incorrectly:
Using a dark background with light text makes everything more difficult to read - and will use much more ink when you are printing. Combining all of these colors gives the poster an unprofessional appearance, and it is difficult to know where to start reading.
This is an example of using color with purpose:
This poster consistently uses three colors: orange, green, and black. It uses orange to highlight important information, green as the font color, and minimal amounts of black in the university logo and on charts that needed a third color to deliver their message. All of their colors have a high contrast against the white background and each other.