FAQs taken from a workshop on departmental competition and conference posters given by Robert Burbidge & Mischa Weiss-Lijn, UCL Computer Science and Sira Technology centre (13th March 2000)

• Questions asked at the start asked at the start of the workshop
• What's important for conference posters?
• What's important for PhD posters?
• How do get the title right?
• How do I get the most out of fonts?
• How do I get a clear layout?
• What content should I include?  

• How to make it eye-catching: title, graphics
• What font sizes?
• How much information? How much detail?
• Layout - how to avoid just using A4 blocks
• When would you do a poster? - competition, conference, application specific, departmental (advertising)
• Why bother - dissemination, collaboration, communication, advertising
• Viewing process - interactive/non-interactive, environment, gaining & holding attention
• Practicalities - printing, lamination, cost, 2D/3D, production software 

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• eye-catching & immediately communicative
• attract people; but make it clear rapidly what it's about: don't waste their time and yours
• some subjects inherently visual but all subject can be explained or illustrated visually
• don't give too much detail - because you want to leave the viewer asking for more as this engenders communication
  • have your contact details on the poster (including a URL)
  • pocket with your business cards
  • mailing list for interested parties
  • pocket for viewers' business cards
• follow up on the above two points or it's a waste of time getting the contacts
• perhaps attach additional material, e.g. pre-prints

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You're unlikely to be around when people read it so it needs to stand on it's own.

• It's got to be clear, and simple for people who don't know the area
• It's got to address peoples doubt
• You want the reader to know the topic of your research,and what your particular contribution to the topic/area of research is so that they can get in touch if their doing the same sort of thing.
• Clearly define the research topic/area of your research within CS
• Put contact details on it.

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• The title should be the hook, i.e. it should catch peoples attention and make them want to read on
• the phrasing of title should be descriptive (not necessarily of everything)
• it can be followed by a subtitle with more detail
• the font colour and size should allow it to be read from a distance
• place the title all of the way across the top of the poster (to be seen over milling bodies)
• the hook can be funny or controversial; but don't overdo it
• humour does not travel well
• font style should be simple and readable

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• in general text and background colours should contrast
• dark backgrounds require good production, be careful
• red is not a good colour
• use simple fonts
• don't mix fonts without good reason
• remember that some people are colour blind (red/green or totally), e.g. for multiline graphs use different colours and different line styles

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• portrait generally better over landscape
• be consistent with layout (use of colour, spacing, arrows etc
• Consider the flow
• • conventions, e.g. left-right, up-down, may not be adhered to by all viewers
  • You can use:
    • numbers
    • arrows
    • be consistent with the colours, etc of these markers
    • don't confuse flow information with content
    • make sure the point start is obvious
    • reward the viewer for making a transition from one point to the next
    • consider fixation points
    • some audiences may not be used to non-linear (networked) diagrams
    • some points may be isolated, e.g. glossary, background, biography, techy bits (not all of these though - don't make it too fragmented)

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Here are some things to consider:

• what's your contribution?
• what's new?
• what's background?
• research question
• open questions
• future directions
• ultimate goal, this communicates the objective and, hence, clarifies the content
• where does it fit in?
• application context
• start at the beginning and lift the viewer up

In general you need to answer questions the viewer is likely to have:

• What is this all about?
• Why should I be interested?
• So how did you do it then, bigshot? Huh?
• Who are you anyway, where can I get more information?