Creating Effective Undergraduate Research Posters: A Comprehensive Guide

Undergraduate research posters serve as a visually engaging medium for students to share their scholarly or creative endeavors at academic conferences and symposia. By blending visual and textual elements, such as images, graphics, tables, analytics, brief explanations, and citations, posters enable presenters to communicate their project ideas clearly and foster discussion with attendees. This interactive format allows students to share their work at any stage of development, making it an accessible way to showcase their research.

Understanding the Purpose and Format

A research poster is more than just a display of information; it's a conversation starter. It allows presenters to discuss their project informally with visitors throughout a session. To maximize its effectiveness, a poster should be engaging, readable, and visually organized, using concise language and accessible design.

Key Elements of a Research Poster

A well-designed research poster typically includes the following components:

Overview of Your Project: Clearly state the central question, problem, creative focus, or theme that your work explores. Emphasize the significance of your project within your field, discipline, or community.
Process & Approach: Describe the methodology employed in carrying out your work. This could encompass your methods, creative process, analytical approach, or exploration techniques.
Key Insights or Findings: Highlight preliminary, ongoing, or completed results. Final results are not mandatory; showcasing the evolution of your research is also valuable.
Contribution and Impact: Explain the unique value your project brings to your field, community, or area of scholarly or creative practice.
Future Directions: Identify emerging questions, next steps, or possibilities for continued work or exploration.

Designing Your Poster: A Step-by-Step Approach

The design phase is critical to creating an impactful research poster. Here's a structured approach to guide you through the process:

1. Planning and Layout

Before diving into design software, it's beneficial to sketch out a layout of your poster. This helps visualize the arrangement of different sections and elements. Consider the flow of information and how to guide the viewer's eye through the poster.

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2. Choosing the Right Tools

Various platforms can be used to create posters, including PowerPoint (to create a single slide), InDesign, Canva, Adobe Illustrator, or any other platform, as long as it adheres to the sizing requirement and can be saved in the file format (PDF/X) that is required for printing.

3. Setting the Correct Size

Adhering to size requirements is crucial. For instance, a symposium might specify a poster print size, such as 42” x 36” landscape or 36” x 42” portrait orientation, with no exceptions for different sizes. Ensure your chosen software is set to these dimensions before you begin designing. In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can change the size of your poster by selecting “Design,” “Slide Size,” “Page Setup,” and entering the correct dimensions for your poster.

4. Adding Content and Visuals

Begin adding headers, text, and visuals to your poster. Consider pulling information from your research notes and brainstorming sessions, keeping your target audience in mind. While the text doesn’t need to be perfect at this stage, aim for clarity and conciseness.

5. Incorporating Logos and Branding

Include the appropriate logos for your university, department, or sponsoring organizations. Ensure you are using the University of Maryland and your Department’s Logo correctly. The Office of Marketing and Communications has a webpage dedicated to the proper use of UMD logos. If possible, use logos with transparent backgrounds for a cleaner look.

6. Applying Graphic Design Principles

Background Color: Opt for light background colors, with white being the most common choice.
Visual Hierarchies: Differentiate each section of your poster using visual cues, such as headings, borders, or color variations.
Font Types & Sizes: Select legible fonts that are readable from a distance. Consider that the average distance between your audience member and your poster when an audience member is walking by your poster could be anywhere from 10-14 feet, while the distance between you and your audience when presenting your poster could be 4-6 feet.
Alignment and Spacing: Ensure proper alignment and spacing for enhanced readability and visual appeal. Proper alignment ensures that content is organized in a coherent and structured manner, guiding the viewer's eyes smoothly across the poster. Adequate spacing between elements allows for clear differentiation between sections, preventing overcrowding and making information easier to digest.
Color Palette: Choose a limited but cohesive color palette. When choosing colors, it is important to select accessible colors and fonts. To ensure your poster meets color-blind accessibility criteria, you can use online tools to ensure accessibility and distinguishability. Dark print on light background is generally best. Remember - some colorblind people cannot distinguish between red and green.
White Space: Utilize white space to increase visual appeal and readability. This refers to the empty space between sections, columns, headings, blocks of text, and graphics.

7. Incorporating Charts, Graphs, and Images

Selectively incorporate charts, graphs, photographs, key quotations from primary sources, maps, and other graphics that support the theme of your poster. Ensure all visuals are high-resolution and relevant to your research.

Example Poster Organization Templates

Here are two example poster organization templates:

Template 1:

Top: Project title, your name, mentor(s), and program or department logo
Left column: Introduction or background, project question, and methods or creative approach
Center column: Key findings, results, insights, or highlights of your work
Right column: Conclusions, reflections, next steps, references (if applicable), and acknowledgements

Template 2:

Top: Project title, your name, mentor(s), and department or program logo
Left column: Introduction or context, key ideas, and methods or creative process
Center column: Visuals, graphics, or examples that illustrates results, outcomes, or main insights
Right column: Summary, interpretations, reflections, conclusions, acknowledgements, and references (if applicable)

Printing Your Poster

Once the poster design is complete, it must be exported to a PDF/X file (if designing the poster slide in PowerPoint, be sure to use a downloaded software version and not web version as it will not convert to PDF/X, click here for a list UO campus computing labs that offer downloaded PowerPoint software if you do not have access ).

It's crucial to adhere to the printing guidelines provided by the conference or symposium. For example, you might need to upload your poster to a specific printing service and physically "release" it for print.

Showcasing Your Research Beyond the Symposium

Consider archiving a video of your work through platforms like the Undergraduate Research Symposium YouTube channel and UO Scholars’ Bank. Scholars' Bank is the University of Oregon's open-access digital archive where UO students, faculty, and staff can preserve and share their research, creative work, theses, and projects with a global audience. This provides a valuable opportunity to continue to strengthen and build on your academic/professional digital portfolio and archive your work.

Examples of Undergraduate Research Posters

To further illustrate these concepts, let's examine examples of undergraduate research posters from various disciplines:

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1. Examining Sociodemographic and Clinical Factors Associated with Smoking Behaviors Among Black Breast and Gynecological Cancer Survivors

This poster investigates the demographic, clinical, and social drivers of health (SDoH) factors associated with smoking behaviors in Black breast and gynecological cancer survivors. The study found a need to focus on smoking in older survivors, particularly as this group is more at risk for other smoking-related chronic conditions.

2. Examining Geographic Access to Specialty Education in Richmond, Virginia

This research examines how the geographic distribution of selective admissions schools (SAS) in Richmond, Virginia, affects student enrollment patterns and access to specialized education. The study found that all SAS are concentrated in the northern part of the city and require the longest travel times to access.

3. Still Faces, Different Places: An Assessment of the Literature on the Face-to-Face Still Face Procedure for Cultural Congruence

This poster explores the importance of cultural congruence between participants and coding researchers in the Face-to-Face Still Face procedure, a technique used to observe mother-infant attachment. The review highlights the need for further research into how a coding researcher’s personal background can influence the coding process and the reliability of results.

4. Using Test-crosses to Investigate Mendelian Inheritance Patterns in Brassica rapa

This experiment examines controlled crosses between anthocyanin-producing (ACN) and anthocyaninless (ANL) phenotypes in Brassica rapa to observe allele inheritance. The F1 generation data suggests that the parent ACN allele was heterozygous.

5. The Romanticization of Human-Vampire Relationships: How 'Twilight' and 'The Vampire Diaries' May Prime Young Women to Accept Dating Violence

This literature review investigates the connection between human-vampire relationships in Twilight and The Vampire Diaries and teenage girls’ acceptance of dating violence and abusive behaviors. The study finds a positive correlation between exposure to media violence and acceptance of dating violence among teenagers.

6. Exploring the Association between Childhood Anxiety and Stressful Urban Life Events

This study examines the association between childhood anxiety and stressful life events in a sample of youth and their families living in an urban, low-income area. Results indicate that stressful urban life events were positively associated with child anxiety.

7. Effects of Gas Exchange Rates Between C3 and C4 Plant Species

This poster compares gas exchange rates between C3 (spinach and basil) and C4 (corn) plants. CO2 levels declined more amongst C3 plants, attributing the higher chlorophyll content.

8. What are the Genetic Influences of Alcohol Sensitivity and Alcohol Metabolism? A Narrative Review of Human Studies

This narrative review explores the genetic influences of alcohol sensitivity and alcohol metabolism, aiming to gain a better understanding of the genetic aspects of AUD. The review identifies a range of variants associated with lower or higher alcohol sensitivity and with a greater or lesser risk of AUD.

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