

Any graphs or visuals must be easy to understand by all of your intended audiences.Your poster should generally include graphics, and they should (i) make sense and (ii) be of high quality.Formatting should be consistent across the poster.And ideally from a few feet away – don't use too much text! But don't be constrained by this: some of the best research posters use unique layouts to get the information across. A typical poster will have 4-8 of these sections laid out in 3 or 4 columns – your decisions on layout should be guided by what best helps the information flow for the reader. Information is generally broken down into distinct sections, such as Background, Objectives, Methodology, Results, and Recommendations.You can find a wealth of guidance and tutorials online with a quick search, but there are general principles that apply when creating a research poster: Research posters remain a favoured communications format, particularly at conferences, fairs and exhibitions. If you're not much of a designer and don't want to stretch to paying a professional, use online tools such as those mentioned above, or a service like Templafy for a Powerpoint-specific option. Presentations do not need to be really stylish, but the better yours looks, the more enjoyable it will be to watch.

And make sure it all works before you begin.

Use images of reasonable quality and make sure that they're relevant and interesting – they are talking points for your presentation.
POSTER AND INFOGRAPHIC HOW TO
Lib Guide! Consult UCD Library's guidance on creating graphics and using free images or the UCD image catalogue. Find further advice on how to turn your research into an infographic in Professor Mark Reed's Fast Track Impact blog post.
POSTER AND INFOGRAPHIC SOFTWARE
You can create your own infographic from scratch using software like Microsoft Powerpoint, or use free or paid online services which offer templates that do the work for you, such as: Below are a couple more examples of infographics from here at UCD. To the right is an example of a graphical abstract from the PeerJ journal (credit: Viputheshwar Sitaraman / Draw Science). Although many graphical abstracts take the form of an infographic, some researchers might choose to make a more creative visual summary (like a comic, a movie-style poster or even a video). They can be also used to create a so-called "graphical abstract", a single image that gives a quick overview of your paper or article, helping draw attention to it. As well as on social media, graphical abstracts can help your research stand out at conferences, in media releases, in presentations (see below), and in your manuscript itself. A good infographic takes the heavy-lifting out of explaining complex research, and can be designed in sharable formats for social media and other channels. Infographics might include some element of data visualisation, so check out our dedicated page on how to create them.
