• Don’t insert too much text: keep in mind that the #1 criticism of posters is that they have too much text. Don’t copy and paste large portions of text from your paper to your poster. Summarize and pull out key concepts as appropriate.
• Use fonts that are large enough to read from 6 feet away. When you are designing a poster the normal 12pt font is way too small for anything. You will be using fonts as large as 85pts and maybe even larger.
• Don’t overcrowd your poster – you want to make use of visual breathing room – whitespace.
• Use color and shading in textboxes to add emphasis and contrast
• Use bullets and lists to effectively establish flow and information hierarchy while reducing blocks of text.
• Make effective use of concept diagrams to display information visually and reduce the overall amount of text.
• Present data in a manner that is visually enlightening and clearly emphasizes findings.
• Make effective use of images and photography – make sure images are high quality and not distorted.
• Make sure all tables and figures are clearly labeled so they are clear to the viewer.

Review the Posters 101 presentation to learn more.