Visual elements

Enhance your poster by including relevant visual elements to reinforce your take home message. Visual elements can include graphs, photos, illustrations and flowcharts. These elements should be easy to understand and see from a distance. Good visual elements, that your audience can understand quickly, can replace large chunks of text. Your poster will be one among many. The people reading your poster will only spend a limited time reading it, so you need to get your message across quickly. 

Graphs

Make sure graphs are easy to read and understand. Compare the two graphs below.

Flowchart

If you have a complicated, wordy methods section, see if you can simplify it by creating a flowchart.

Photos

Photos could also be used to enhance your poster or add to the overall message. Use high resolution images that are appropriate for your audience. You might be ok looking at graphic medical images, but your audience may not! 

Some sources of images:

• Flickr Creative Commons
• Wikimedia Commons
• Morguefile
• Britannica image quest

For more information on using copyrighted material and Creative Commons licences, please refer to Module 4: Using copyrighted material correctly of the Academic Integrity Course.

Illustrations  

Simple graphics can be used to illustrate your introduction or methods, but avoid cheesy clipart! Have a look at some articles from Nature and Science to get some ideas about how you can use graphics in your poster.  Nature graphics blog  Scientific American Graphic Science