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Creating a Poster

Step by step instructions on creating a poster; general tips and ideas for poster design

Evaluation Checklist

Poster Evaluation Checklist

Basics

o  Title and other required sections are present

o  Complete author affiliation & contact information is included

o  The poster conforms to the requirements of the conference or program where it will be presented

o  Font is consistent throughout

o  Spelling is correct throughout

o  Grammar is correct throughout

o  Acronyms are defined on first use

o  Content is appropriate & relevant for audience

Design

o  All text can be easily read from 4 feet away

o  Flow of the poster is easy to follow

o  White space used well

o  Section titles are used consistently

o  Images/graphics are used in place of text whenever possible

o  Bullet points/lists are used in place of text whenever possible

o  All images are relevant and necessary to the poster

o  Charts are correct – i.e. appropriate type for data, data is correct & correctly represented

o  Text color and background color are significant in contrast for easy reading

o  Background color doesn’t obscure or dim text

o  Images are clear, not pixilated or blurry

Content

o  The “story” of the poster is clear

o  The content is focused on 2-3 key points

o  Title is clear & informative of the project

o  Problem, or clinical question, is identified and explained

o  Current evidence related to project is listed

o  Objectives are stated

o  Methods are described

o  Results are presented

o  Conclusions are stated

o  Implications to practice and to other professions are presented

o  References are listed

o  All content is relevant and on the key points

o  Content is not duplicated in text and graphics

Oral Presentation

o  Presenter greets people

o  Presenter is able to give a concise synopsis of poster

o  Presenter is able to explain all diagrams and sections

o  Presenter speaks fluently – i.e. doesn’t stumble, leave sentences/thoughts hanging

o  Presenter has questions to ask viewers

Evaluation Tools & Summaries

The following links are to surveys & rubrics with questions you can use to critique & improve your poster

  • 60-second Poster Evaluation  (by G. Hess)
    Provides 9 categories with a ranking from 0-2
  • Poster Evaluation Rubric (adapted from Hess)
    Chart format of Hess' evaluation
  • Research Poster Evaluation Rubric (by CSEE)
    Includes evaluation of poster content, not just graphics & design
  • Creating effective scholarly posters: A guide for DNP students. (USD only)
    Discusses poster presentations as an excellent venue for students to successfully share the results of their scholarly projects; includes an evaluation rubric. Christenbery, T. (2013). Creating effective scholarly posters: A guide for DNP students. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners., 25(1), 16-23.

Class Exercises-1

As an exercise, apply the criteria in the poster evaluation checksheet on the back of your handout to the examples on this page. Complete an evaluation for your assigned poster. 

The following examples illustrate issues with contentdesign and layout, and graphics.

  • Can Suburban Greenways Provide High Quality Bird Habitat?
    https://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/examples/BirdsInGreenways/BirdsInGreenways.jpg
     
  • Will Manatees Still Exist in 2100?
    https://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/examples/Manatees/Manatees.jpg
     
  • Gene Flow in Lions
    https://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/examples/GeneFlowInLions/GeneFlowInLions.jpg

 

Class Exercises-2

As an exercise, apply the criteria in the poster evaluation checksheet on the back of your handout to the examples on this page. Complete an evaluation for each example, then compare your evaluation with ours. 

The following examples illustrate issues with contentdesign and layoutgraphics, and an overall example.  Each includes a version needing improvement, and a revised version of the same poster. 

1. Content Example

http://lgimages.s3.amazonaws.com/data/imagemanager/25128/contextexample-first.jpg

2. Design and Layout Example

http://lgimages.s3.amazonaws.com/data/imagemanager/25128/designlayoutex-first.jpg

3. Graphics Example

http://lgimages.s3.amazonaws.com/data/imagemanager/25128/graphicsexample-firstversion.jpg

4. Overall Design Example

http://lgimages.s3.amazonaws.com/data/imagemanager/25128/overallexample-first.jpg

 

Class Handout

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