Design a poster

A few quick tips for making a research poster

Eric Largy

eric.largy@u-bordeaux.fr

ARNA, INSERM U1212, CNRS UMR 5320, Université de Bordeaux

UFR des Sciences Pharmaceutiques, Université de Bordeaux

February 11, 2026

What is a research poster?

Let’s check some examples

Appendix

Poster 1
Poster 2
Poster 3
Poster 4
Poster 5
Poster 6
Poster 7
Poster 8
Poster 9

Poster 10
Poster 11
Poster 12
Poster 13
Poster 14
Poster 15
Poster 16
Poster 17
Poster 18

Poster 19
Poster 20
Poster 21
Poster 22
Poster 23
Poster 24
Poster 25
Poster 26
Poster 27

A poster is a visual communication tool

Helps you communicate to as many people as possible in a short amount of time

• Share your research
• Engage your colleagues and peers
• Get feedback and ideas

Important

A poster is not a paper printed large!

Why make a research poster?

• Source of information
• Conversation starter
• Summary of your work
• Advertisement of your work

A poster is not a paper!

• Focus on a single main message
• Figures tell your story
• Well-ordered, obvious storyline, with clear headings and logical flow

Tip

Use text sparingly, only to support the figures

This presentation in 5 seconds

• Make your main message your title
• Keep your poster visual, simple, clear
• Use text minimally

Message

Define an explicit message

• State key result explicitly in the title
  • “X is a key regulator of Y”
  • “X is required for Y”
• Make the strongest claim your data support
  • Avoid non-committal language like “may be” or “suggests”
• Make it both informative and snappy to attract attention and be memorable
• Interpret the results in conclusion, do not just restate them.
  • “X is a key regulator of Y, and may be a promising target for Z”
  • “X is required for Y, which suggests a potential role in Z”

Let’s check some titles!

Appendix

Poster 1
Poster 2
Poster 3
Poster 4
Poster 5
Poster 6
Poster 7
Poster 8
Poster 9

Poster 10
Poster 11
Poster 12
Poster 13
Poster 14
Poster 15
Poster 16
Poster 17
Poster 18

Poster 19
Poster 20
Poster 21
Poster 22
Poster 23
Poster 24
Poster 25
Poster 26
Poster 27

Audience

Know your audience

Make your poster accessible to a broad audience

• People from your field
  • no effort necessay, will be interested even if poster is not good
• People from adjacent fields
  • May have interesting insights
  • Require context and may not know the jargon
• People from other fields
  • May provide insights/links to distant fields
  • Require explanations of problem and solution
  • Will not understand jargon

Consider the type of event

• Specialists only, e.g. Symposium on the behavior of zebrafish larvae
  • May use jargon
  • May take presentation shortcuts
• Wide-ranging audience, e.g. Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience
  • May assume familiarity with your discipline, but not with your specific topic
  • Avoid jargon and explain concepts that may not be familiar to all attendees
• General audience, e.g. Science festival
  • Explain all concepts and avoid jargon

To satisfy all audiences, you need to

• Provide context and motivation for your work
  • Present the big picture and why it matters
• Use plain language
• Avoid jargon and acronyms
  • unless you are sure your audience will understand them
• Interpret your results
  • All readers should understand their significance and implications

Abstract?

Do not include an abstract on your poster

Writing an abstract:

• Is necessary to be accepted for presentation at a conference,
• Helps you define your message and structure your poster

Note

Your poster is an illustrated abstract, do not include an abstract

An abstract is a concise summary of your work

• State the problem and its significance
  • Context and motivation for your work
  • Answer the question “why should we care?”
• Describe the objectives of your work
  • What question(s) did you ask?
• Briefly describe the methods you used to answer those questions
  • Avoid excessive focus on methods… unless your research is methodological in nature
• What people want to know: State your
  • Main result(s) and their implications.
  • Recommendations based on your results, if applicable

Creating a poster

Plan first

• Define your message and narrative Go to message
  • State your main result and conclusions in plain language
  • All figures and text should support it
• Know your audience Go to audience
  • This will determine the level of detail and jargon you can use
• Know the requirements for the poster session
  • Size, orientation, etc. Go to poster sizes

Plan your workload

• Define milestones and deadlines for each step:
  • Figure preparation, layout, text, abstract, etc.
• Allow time for feedback and revisions
  • In particular if multi-authored
• Remember that printing can take time

Note

Be kind to your PI: check with them early and often to avoid last-minute surprises

Remember: Stay focused on your message

Simple messages are easier to understand and remember

• State it clearly, in plain language
• Keep details to a minimum, only the necessary to support the message
  • Details can be provided orally
  • If someone is interested, they will ask you for more details
• Avoid trying to say too much
  • Can lead to a cluttered poster and a confused audience

Create a clear narrative

Think of your poster as a visual story, for which you are the tour guide, not a paper printed large

• Highlight key patterns and trends in your data
  • Again, omit unnecessary details
• Create a clear hierarchy with bold headings that guide viewers through your research in a logical flow: background → research questions/objectives → methods → results → conclusions → references/acknowledgments → contact information

Tip

Refer to practical tips on poster presentation when creating your narrative

Create a mockup of your poster

• What is essential to convey your message?
  • Discard the rest
  • Avoid focusing on methods
  • Reduce sentence complexity, vocabulary and length

Less is more!

A good layout helps readers understand

Your poster should be

• Neat and uncluttered
  • Use white space to help organize sections.
  • Balance the placement of text and figures
• Have a clear visual hierarchy to guide readers
  • Use headings
  • Objective, results, conclusions, etc.

Warning

Think visually. Important things go first: capture then guide attention.

Layout matters

• Use clearly defined visual grammar to move readers through the poster
  • Be explicit: use arrows, numbers, etc. to guide readers

Tip

A columnar format helps traffic flow in a crowded poster session.

Warning

Avoid fighting reader gravity, pulling the eyes from top to bottom and left to right

Reduce visual noise

• Try to keep regions of the poster empty of text and images
  • Helps to keep things separate or together
  • Can be used to focus the viewers attention
• Limit the use of boxes and lines
  • Use alignment and white space instead
• Place related items together

(Not too much) text

Minimize text, use graphics!

Before talking about text, remember to

• Use figures to tell your story.
• Use text to only support your figures
  • Think of your poster as an illustrated abstract.
• Explain
  • Why your work matters,
  • What you did, found, and recommend

Tip

Avoiding excessive focus on methods, it’s the results and implications that count!

Text guidelines: content and format

• Minimize text
  • Keep text in blocks of no more than 50-75 words
  • Do not create large, monolithic paragraphs of text
  • Avoid full sentences
• Use active voice
  • “We discovered” rather than “It was found”
• Avoid/expain technical terms, depending on your audience
• Avoid acronyms, unless very common

Tip

Edit ruthlessly: less is more. When in doubt, edit out!

Text guidelines: format

• Use bullet points to break up text and make it easier to read
• Use (sparingly) bold/italics/color to highlight key points
• Justify/align text to create a neat and organized look

Text guidelines: size and font

• Text large enough to read from 1-2 m
  • including the text in figures
• Title should be larger
  • Must be readable / attract attention from far away
• Use few fonts (1-2) and be consistent with their use
  • Avoid decorative, hard to read fonts

Tip

Print your poster in A3 or A4 size to check that text is legible

Assess the readability of your poster

Text guidelines: color

• Use color cautiously
  • Dark letters on light background are easiest to read
  • Stick to a theme of 2-3 colors, graph included!
  • Avoid overly bright colors: they attract attention but wear out viewer’s eyes
• Use colors in a consistent pattern, graph included!
  • Must help understanding
• Consider color blindness
  • Use color-blind friendly palettes
  • Use simulation websites to verify accessibility

Keep the background simple

• Pale, pastel colors as a background can be unifying to your poster
• Neutral backgrounds enhance and promote material that’s placed on top

Assess the legibility of your poster

Maintain a color scheme

Remember that you want to be found

Your poster is an advertisement

• Include your name and contact information on the poster
  • Make it easy to find you
• QR code can be useful
  • to share link to poster, paper, preprint, website,
  • but should not be the only way for viewers to find you

Headings are your friends

• Summarize key points
  • Good for viewers in a hurry / short sessions
• Organize your poster by contributing to its visual grammar, guiding your viewers through it

Tip

Remember: make the strongest statements your data allow

Clear visuals are key

Clear visuals should be the centerpiece of your poster

Use plots, schemes, diagrams, photos to illustrate your message Make your data the star!

Good graphics should

• Communicate your message clearly and effectively
• Be simple and uncluttered
• Respect visual grammar: axes, labels, legends, etc.
• Use color to enhance understanding, not just for decoration
• Follow same principles as for the rest of the poster (size, legibility, jargon)

Clear visuals should be the centerpiece of your poster

Include all necessary information

• Include meaningful captions that explain the key message of the figure
  • 1 clear sentence summarising the dataset or stating the key takeaway message
• Label axes and legends clearly
• Label directly on the plot, images
  • Avoids forcing viewers to look back and forth between the plot and the legend
• Avoid adding extra text on poster

viz.seis.me for tips on making good graphics

Be mindful of image quality and relevance

When including an image, it signals to viewers that its content is important

• Make sure that it supports the focus of your poster
  • It needs to convey information, not be decorative
  • If viewers can’t easily see the point, their attention will be lost
• Be ruthless editing images for quality
  • Make sure the resolution is adequate
  • One poor-quality image lowers the poster’s overall quality

Tip

If there’s any doubt, leave it out

Supplementary material

Visitors have limited time to absorb the information on your poster. You can provide a takeaway:

• A small version of the poster as a flyer
• Contact cards with poster title, your name and email
• QR codes linking to your paper, website or additional materials
• A one-page summary of key findings

You may also consider linking to a video to provide a more dynamic overview of your research.

Evaluation

Self-evaluate before asking for feedback Poster 16

Self-evaluate before asking for feedback

Ask for feedback from colleagues

• Share your poster with colleagues and ask for their input
• Be open to constructive criticism and use it to improve your poster

Let’s practice!

Appendix

Poster 1
Poster 2
Poster 3
Poster 4
Poster 5
Poster 6
Poster 7
Poster 8
Poster 9

Poster 10
Poster 11
Poster 12
Poster 13
Poster 14
Poster 15
Poster 16
Poster 17
Poster 18

Poster 19
Poster 20
Poster 21
Poster 22
Poster 23
Poster 24
Poster 25
Poster 26
Poster 27

This presentation in 30 seconds

• Know your audience so that you can communicate to them effectively
• Use large-enough text to be seen from 2 m away
• Place elements to lead the viewer through the display
• Use simple and bold illustrations to support your message
• Make the poster self-explanatory so that you are free to talk
• Keep text to a minimum: a viewer should “get it” in 30 seconds
• Use neutral, dark colors on clear background for readability
• Eliminate visual noise: When in doubt, edit out!

Presenting your poster

“Walk me through your poster” = Start a conversation

• Use your poster as a visual aid
• Talk viewers through your poster. Do not read the poster
  • Explain why the problem is important
  • Use the graphics to illustrate and support your findings and recommendations
• Prepare a pitch for different types of audiences / available time
  • 30 seconds: casual browsers
  • 1-2 minutes: engaged viewers
  • 3-5 minutes: those wanting specifics and deep discussions
• Get feedback: this is one reason you are presenting your poster!

Make sure to include

• Context of your work and why it’s important
• Your objectives and questions
• What you did
• What you discovered: this should be your main focus
• What your discovery means in terms of the context

This should be easily found on your poster, so that viewers can follow along with your presentation

Be prepared to answer questions

• What did you find?
• What will you do next?
• What are the implications of your findings for X/Y/Z?
• What might you have done differently?

Practical tips

• Install your poster neatly on the board before the session starts
  • to avoid last-minute stress and technical issues
• Be approachable and enthusiastic about your work
• Face your audience, not your poster
  • Stand beside (not in front of) your poster
  • Points to the elements of your poster as you talk about them, but do not stare at them
• Do not read, do not overwhelm viewers with too much information
  • Give details only if asked, stay relevant to question asked

Going further

Appendix

Paper sizes Go back to planning

Poster 1 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 2 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 3 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 4 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 5 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 6 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 7 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 8 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 9 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 10 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 11 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 12 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 13 (online) Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 14 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles Back to supplementary

Poster 15 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 16 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles Back to evaluation

Poster 17 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 18 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 19 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 20 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 21 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 22 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 23 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 24 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 25 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 26 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles

Poster 27 Back to practice Back to intro Back to titles