Top 5 tips for designing a scientific poster

What makes a great research poster?

Have you ever spent hours designing a scientific poster only to wonder if it will actually be effective and stand out in the crowd? Creating a winning poster doesn't have to be challenging and time consuming. A well-designed scientific poster should catch the eyes of passers-by, and inform them concisely and instantly about your research. Our expert science design team has put together a guide to help you create a memorable and compelling scientific poster. Whether you're creating your first poster or you're an experienced poster-designer, these tips are versatile and quick and easy to apply to all research posters.

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Before you start

Check the poster guidelines from your institution or conference:

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Also consider...‍

The submission date. Take into consideration how much time it takes to design the poster, ask for feedback, and print.

‍Your audience. Who will be looking at your poster? How much do they know about your topic?

‍Your research. What information do you want to include? What is the key topic or result that you want to highlight?

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Top 5 tips for poster design

1. Keep margins/padding consistent: Equal spacing between sections helps reduce clutter and improve readability of the content.
2. Arrange sections in a grid: Grid organization helps the audience quickly locate information on a poster. Information should flow from left to right, top to bottom.
3. Pick one section to highlight (TL;DR format): What is one key area of your research that you want the audience to focus on? Draw attention to that section by giving it a different colored background or section header.
4. Apply text hierarchy: Highlight section titles or key information by bolding or increasing the font size. Ensure the text is large enough to read at a distance.
5. Format figures specifically for posters: Look at all figures as a whole; the colors, labels, arrows should all be consistent from one figure to another. Make sure the figures are high resolution so they look nice and clear when printed.

Check out our Poster Design webinar to see these tips in action! Here are some useful timestamps so you can quickly jump to the sections you're interested in: Consistent margins/padding (7:00), Arrange sections in a grid (7:40), Emphasize headers and sections (10:55), Text hierarchy (11:47), Poster specific figure formatting (27:38).

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What are common poster design mistakes?

Well designed posters use visuals to capture attention and better educate your audience while poorly design posters may leave an audience confused or uninterested. These are some common design mistakes to avoid in your next poster:

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Can BioRender help you create a research poster?

Design beautiful research posters in minutes with Poster Builder. It allows you to easily create posters using drag-and-drop components, automatic resizing, and professionally designed templates. Experience quick and easy poster-making with this free, powerful tool, built by scientists for scientists.

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Full Downloadable Infographic (Square)

Click here to open a fully editable and downloadable version of this infographic in Biorender.

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Full Downloadable Infographic (Long)

Click here to open a fully editable and downloadable version of this infographic in Biorender.

The visuals used in this article were created fully in BioRender and are available as editable templates.

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P.S. Want to design your own infographic? We created this template so you can get started quickly and easily!

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References:

1. BioRender Learning Hub | Designing a Winning Poster & Live Poster Makeover. (2022). BioRender. https://learn.biorender.com/tutorial/designing-a-winning-poster-live-poster-makeover
2. 7 top tips for creating a research poster | proofed’s writing tips. (2020, June 12). Proofed. https://getproofed.com/writing-tips/top-tips-research-poster/