Creating Effective Posters
Content and Presentation: A High-Level View
HCI Graduate Student OrganizationIowa State University
February 8, 2005Steven Pautz
Two Key Elements
Content
Presentation
Both are necessary
Two Key Elements
Content
Presentation
Both are necessary
Two Key Elements
Content
Presentation
Both are necessary
Content
Chef Customer
Storytelling
Conciseness
Visuals
Chef Customer
Focus on the final outcome,
not the ingredients or recipe.
They’re here for the meal, not the kitchen
This project helps people:
• Avoid mistakes
• Stay relaxed at work
• Communicate better
• Have more fun
To create this project, we used:
• C++
• VR Juggler
• GLSL
• Who cares?
Chef Customer
Storytelling
Grab their attention,
Build interest,
Then reward it.
Relevant? Memorable? Engaging?
90% of Big Important Things have major problems.
This is not a good thing.
Here’s what we’re doing to help:
• Random cool idea
• Progress towards solution
Storytelling
Here’s what we did:
1. Random cool idea
2. Build it
3. See if it works
4. Do the steps really matter?
Conciseness
Appetizers first.
Keep the signal; lose the noise
Long text passages discourage reading and reflection.Concise passages encourage it.
Conciseness
Gosh, there’s a lot of text over here. Do you really want to read all of it? Is this actually going anywhere? The only way to find out is to trudge through the whole thing! Skimming could help, but it’d work much better if this passage were actually written to be skimable. In any case, text exists to be read, so if a passage doesn’t encourage reading then it might as well not exist. To make effective—and rememberable—content, then, we have to encourage reading. Needlessly-long passages of text don’t do this; shorter ones usually do.
Visuals
Words + Pictures > Words
The C4 in widescreen mode
Visuals
When in widescreen mode, three of the C4’s screens line up to form a single wall with a single, extra-wide image displayed across it. This opens up the C4 space, giving viewers significantly more room.
Presentation
Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity
Presentation
C ontrast
R epetition
A lignment
P roximity
Contrast
If two elements aren’t similar,
make them very different.
Concord, contrast, or conflict
Don’t be a wimp”“
Contrast
First Heading
Boring old text. Nothing to see here. It just goes on and on, saying nothing. Seriously, stop reading.
Second Heading
Boring old text. Nothing to see here. It just goes on and on, saying nothing. Seriously, stop reading.
First HeadingBoring old text. Nothing to see here. It just goes on and on, saying nothing. Seriously, stop reading.
Second HeadingBoring old text. Nothing to see here. It just goes on and on, saying nothing. Seriously, stop reading.
Repetition
Repeat the same visual elements
and features.
Recognizable consistency
Repetition
ObjectiveMore boring old text. Nothing to see here. At least it’s not Latin.
Method
More boring old text. Nothing to see
here. At least it’s not Latin.
ResultsMore boring old text. Nothing to see here. At least it’s not Latin.
Objective
More boring old text. Nothing to see here. At least it’s not Latin.
Method
More boring old text. Nothing to see here. At least it’s not Latin.
Results
More boring old text. Nothing to see here. At least it’s not Latin.
Alignment
Create visual connections
among all elements.
Nothing should be arbitrary
Alignment
A Major ProjectWith a fancy subtitle!
What We Did
We’ve made a lot of progress. The end of the presentation should be coming up soon.
We’ve made a lot of progress. The end of the presentation should be coming up soon.
What We’ll Do Later
More free food, and some better text, hopefully. Then class.
A Major ProjectWith a fancy subtitle!
What We Did
We’ve made a lot of progress. Theend of the presentation should becoming up soon.
We’ve made a lot of progress. Theend of the presentation should becoming up soon.
What We’ll Do Later
More free food, and some bettertext, hopefully. Then class.
Proximity
Related items should be grouped together.
Unrelated items should not.
Closeness implies relationship
Proximity
• Design• Purpose
• Behavior
• Interface
• Implementation• Backend
• Frontend
• Evaluation• Analysis
• Formative
• Summative
• Design• Purpose
• Behavior
• Interface
• Implementation• Backend
• Frontend
• Evaluation• Analysis
• Formative
• Summative
Content
Chef Customer
Storytelling
Conciseness
Visuals
Presentation
Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity
The Big Picture
Content and Presentation
Start with the purpose
Develop content and presentation together
It’s about the viewer’slearning experience(bon appétit!)