Introduction > Presenting Science > Poster Presentations > Content

Content At the end of the day, colour and structure will entice an audience to read your poster, but it's the content that will keep them interested, or not! People will often try to cram as much text as possible into their poster to ensure the full extent of their research is presented. This approach, however, should be avoided because too much text on a poster appears overwhelming and will put people off. It's far better to have a summary of your work rather than try to cover every last detail. Particularly at conferences, there may be tens or even hundreds of posters on display, and the audience will be drawn to visually attractive posters, but in particular those that require little effort to read. There are several ways to get your content across in a visually-appealing manner: font should be sans-serif eg Arial or Verdana text should be readable from about two metres away, therefore it has to be large, with headings highlighted bullet points and short sentences will ensure you write concisely and therefore avoid the use of unnecessary text (waffle!) unjustified text on the right hand side makes your work easier to read, particularly for those who have dyslexia. Fully justifying the text can produce large gaps between the words which can appear untidy as well, particularly if your columns are narrow text boxes allow your sections to be separated from each other. Psychologically, several small boxes of text are easier to read than one large box photographs can give your audience a 'snapshot' of your research without having to read paragraphs of text. Make sure though that you use the highest quality setting on the camera so the photographs doesn't distort when your poster is printed. Don't just add a photograph because it's colourful or pretty - it has to be relevant to your poster.

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