Pack Prints

Arkansas State University

Poster Design Guide

A poster serves several persuasive purposes: It draws your audience in, calling their attention from across the room. It is an ideal form to present data and summarized findings from research you’ve read. And it serves as an enduring record of your argument, something that can stand without your group to explain it, representing your work on its own.

The genre of the academic poster, in the sciences, typically is prepared in what’s sometimes called “IMRaD” format (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion). The introduction lays out the context for the study, including previous research; the methods section describes how the study was conducted; the results section includes graphs, charts, and other representations of collected data; and discussion considers the implications of the study.

But you’re creating a persuasive poster, which need not follow the same guidelines. You might find that your poster is better organized by type of audience member (could you have one panel for Jonesboro residents, one panel for A-State students, and one panel for elected officials?). Or you might prefer to make your poster essentially a list of frequently asked questions, things that you’ve heard people say when you describe your project to them.

Though it may be tempting to divide your poster along the same lines as your research, giving each group member a section for their own findings, try as much as you can to avoid that temptation. Instead, synthesize your findings: How do your research projects speak to one another? Do they present two sides of the same coin? How are they similar and different?

However you choose to organize your poster, it should:

• Have a title that’s big enough to read from a distance
• Name your group members
• Present findings from the research you conducted for your annotated bibliography and joining the conversation papers
• Include a “call to action” that inspires the audience to do something in response. (Ideally, you’ll have some kind of action available at your table: can people sign a petition? Join a mailing list? Agree to vote for a particular issue in the future?)
• Offer an answer to the “so what?” question—that is, why does this research matter? What do we risk if we ignore it?

Suggestions:

• A trifold board stands up nicely on its own.
• Printed text is easier to read from a distance than handwritten text.
• The space in front of your board is great for interactive elements (a petition to sign, game to play, business cards to take, etc.).
• Pictures, bright colors, and a thoughtful layout can draw audience members to come by your table.
• Don’t be afraid to point audience members to a particular point on your board as you’re talking. It’s good to weave in those findings and help draw people’s attention to where you want it to be.