PART I Define, Conceive, Prove, Document
Chapter 8 Documentation
8.5 Poster
8.5.1 Guidelines for Posters
As part of the Capstone Design Course, you are required to prepare a technical presentation of your project in PowerPoint, a brochure/information sheet, and a poster form This document provides some basic guidelines for the preparation of your posters
Your poster must be prepared to present technical information about your project A poster is simply a static, visual medium (usually of the paper and board variety) that you use to communicate ideas and information about your project The material presented on your poster should convey the essence of your design project, including the problem that your design solution will solve, specifications, engineering analysis, technical drawings, illustrations, or solution photographs of your design, and your testing and operational results
Before you start your poster project, stop and think! 8.5.1.1 How Much Poster Space Are You Allowed?
The purpose of poster presentations is not to have boards upon boards of information You are restricted to a 24 inch × 36 inch poster size in portrait orientation Make sure you include a small (12 point font) date on the bottom right of your poster Your team can print your poster at the ECC after ultimately designing it and proofreading your mate- rial The information presented on your poster must be accurate and without any errors
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8.5.1.2 Format
Make sure you include the following:
• Title, telling others the title of the project, the team members, and the sponsor
• critical information such as date, sponsor(s), acknowledgments, appropriate URI logo, sponsor logo (ask permission)
• Summary of the design project stating your problem definition, design/
solution approach, the critical features of your design, performance results, future enhancements, etc
• An Introduction that should include clear statements about the problem, the design specifications, competitive solutions, and key features of your design The introduction should lead to a description of project goals and objectives
• Theory/Methodology/Approach section explains the basics of the engineer- ing analysis technique you are using You should also state and justify any assumptions so that your results can be viewed in the proper context
• Design section that you use to show illustrative examples of the main designs created during your project
• Testing section explaining how you tested your design Did your design solution pass your tests?
• Conclusion section, listing the main findings of your project, and
• Further Work section that should contain your recommendations and thoughts about how the design could be improved, other tests that could be applied, etc Therefore, you have to present certain pieces of information but have limited space So, before you rush away to the computer, spend a few moments or even hours plan- ning your presentation
8.5.1.3 Planning
Planning is essential There are several stages in planning a presentation 8.5.1.3.1 Gathering the Information
First, ask yourself the following questions
• What are the objectives of the project?
• Has someone done the work before?
• How has your team approached the problem?
• Why did your team follow this particular approach?
• What are the principles governing the techniques your team is using?
• What assumptions did your team make, and what were your justifications?
• What problems did you encounter?
• What results did you obtain?
• Have you solved the problem?
• What did you discover?
• Are your analyses sound?
Although the above list is by no means exhaustive, it gives you a rough idea You have to stand back and think again about the Whats, the Hows, and the Whys of the
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project that you are doing You have to critically examine the approach you have taken and the results you have obtained
Ideally, it would be best to do this throughout your design project In doing so, you will have a clearer idea of the objectives and contributions you have, or have not, been able to make
It would be best if you brainstormed within your team Write your answers on a large piece of paper, not necessarily in an ordered fashion The intention is to note as many points as possible not to miss any important aspects The ordering and prun- ing of the information come later From your list, note the common areas, topics, or pieces of information, and group them Use color or number coding or circles and lines to help you identify and categorize the information This activity should help you focus further on the content you can use confidently
8.5.1.4 Content
If you follow the above guidelines, then the content is more or less determined by you However, given that you have limited space, you now have to decide between what is essential and what is not Your decision should be based on at least two factors, namely:
• What are you trying to achieve by presenting the posters? Is it to sell a design? Is it to tell people what your team has done? Is it to say to people of a new invention or discovery? Is it to convince people that your design is better than another or solves a particular problem?
• Who will be attending the presentation? Are they technical people? What is the level of their knowledge of your design project?
The answers to these questions define the type of content to include and set the pre- sentation’s tone
8.5.1.5 Design
An advertising billboard is a poster If well designed, it will be attractive and engender a lasting impression; earnest but not dull Importantly, it should shout out to you – “buy me!” or you would think, “I want that!” Similarly, in using posters to convey technical information, they should be designed such that readers think “Yes!” or “I see!” and leave with the impression that they have learned something new
Some rules of thumb in poster design:
1 Plan
2 Keep the information simple
• make full use of the space, but do not cramp a page full of information, as a result, it can often appear messy
• be concise Use only pertinent information to convey your message
• be selective when showing results Present only those that illustrate the main features of your project However, do keep other results handy so that you may refer to them when asked
3 Use colors sparingly and with taste
• Colors should be used only to emphasize, differentiate, and add interest Do not use colors to impress!
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• Try to avoid using large swathes of bright garish colors like bright green, pink, orange, or lilac
• Pastel shades convey feelings of serenity and calm, while dark bright colors conjure images of conflict and disharmony
• Choose background and foreground color combinations with high contrast and complement each other - black or dark blue on white or very light grey is good
• It is better to keep the background light as people are used to it (for example, newspapers and books)
• Avoid the use of gradient fills They may look great on a computer d isplay, but the paper version can look poor unless you have access to a high- resolution printer
4 Do not use more than two font types
• too many font types distract, especially when they appear on the same sentence
• fonts that are easy on the eyes are Times-Roman and Arial This is Times-Roman
This is Arial
5 Titles and headings should appear larger than other text but not too large The text should also be legible from a distance, say from 4 ft to 6 ft
6 Do not use all UPPER CASE types in your posters It can make the material difficult to read Just compare the two sentences below:
EXAMPLE OF A LINE WHERE ALL THE CHARACTERS ARE IN UPPER CASE
Example of a line where only the first character of the first word is in the upper case
7 Do not use a different font type to highlight essential points Otherwise, the fluency and flow of your sentence can appear disrupted
• Use underlined text, boldface, or italics or combinations to emphasize words and phrases
• If you use bold italicized print for emphasis, then underlining is unnecessary 8 Equations
• should be kept to a minimum
• present only the essential equations
• should be large enough
• should be accompanied by terminology to explain the significance of each variable
9 A picture is worth a thousand words … (but only if it is adequately drawn and used appropriately)
• graphs
• choose graphs types that are appropriate to the information that you want to display
• annotations should be large enough, and the lines of line graphs should be thick enough so that they may be viewed from a distance
• do not attempt to have more than six line graphs on a single plot
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• instead of using lines of different thicknesses, use contrasting colored lines or different line styles to distinguish between different lines in multi-line graphs
• multi-line plots or plots with more than one variable should have a leg- end relating the plotted variable to the color or style of the line
• diagrams and drawings,
• should be labeled
• annotate pictures to explain what you are showing
• drawings and labels should be large and clear enough so that they are still legible from a distance
• do not try to cramp labeling to fit into components of a drawing or dia- gram Use “arrows” and “callouts” for annotations
• clipart should only be used if it adds interest to the display and comple- ments the subject matter Otherwise, they distract attention from the focus of the presentation
• can also be “dangerous” as you may spend more time fiddling about with images and choosing appropriate cartoons than concentrating on the content
10 Check your spelling! 11 Maintain a consistent style
• inconsistent styles give the impression of disharmony and can interrupt the fluency and flow of your messages
• headings on the different pages of the poster should appear in the same position on all pages
• graphs should be of the same size and scale, especially if they are to be compared
• if bold lettering is used to emphasize one page, then do not use italics on others
• captions for graphs and drawings should be positioned below the figure
• titles for tables should be positioned at the top 12 Arrangement of poster components should appear smooth
• you are using a poster to tell a story about what you have done and achieved The way you arrange the sections should follow the design project timeline
13 Review
• make draft versions of your poster sections and check them for
• mistakes
• legibility and
• style
• try different layout arrangements (for example, it may not be best to put the conclusions on the bottom right where it may be difficult to read)
• ask your teammates, friends, colleagues, or professors for their “honest”
opinions
• be critical
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