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Lessons from lingerie
I have said before that inspiration and design can come from anywhere. Today, I think I am really putting that claim to the test. I want to make the case that there are lessons to be learned about...
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Link roundup for May 2013
SpotONA bit of old news that came out just after last month’s link roundup. Better Posters was one of the social media case studies at SpotOn (short for Science Policy, Outreach and Tools Online). If I...
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Critique and makeover: Peruvian medicine
Today’s contribution comes from Kenzo Koike at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine in Florida, and is used with his permission. Click to get the bigger view:The first things that jumped out at me...
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More lessons from lingerie: details versus decoration
A few weeks back, I wrote a post about bras. And I ended with a lesson that I thought could use a little more clarification.Here we have a fairly utilitarian bra. It has everything needed, but no more....
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Critique and makeover: Corn proteins
I’m always grateful to contributors like Madelaine Bartlett from Brigham Young University, who kindly submitted this poster and allowed it to be shown on the blog. Click to enlarge:This is a nice use...
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The most improved graphic award
Making the rounds on Twitter today is this figure from a cancer research paper manuscript (archived in PubMed):That someone would consider this fit for either submission or archiving is surprising. And...
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Link roundup for June 2013
The British Science Association has published Poster Design: A practical guide for scientists and engineers. Most of the ideas in there should be familiar to regular readers of this blog. (By the way,...
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The screen vs. the page
My university has an award-winning annual student magazine called Panorama. The new issue, excellent as always, contained a lesson in this two page spread:What you see on the screen is not what you see...
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Posters should not be usable as drapes
Sometimes, we scientists are the world’s dumbest smart people.Reader Ewan McNay spotted this at this year’s meeting of the American Diabetes Association. He wrote:I think someone inverted length and...
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Critiqe and makeover: Quackenbush! (Because it’s fun to say)
Today’s poster from an upcoming Ecological Society of America meeting comes from lead author Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie and is shown with her permission. Click to enlarge:Caitlin’s poster has a nice...
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Link roundup for July 2013
The NIH has been giving workshops on poster presentations. Here is the latest one from earlier this summer (embed link doesn’t allow graceful resizing to fit in blog column, alas).That the presentation...
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Detective stories: “Whodunnit?” versus “How’s he gonna prove it?”
Academics are curious people. They are driven by questions. They assume their fellow academics are also curious. Consequently, we often write things as though it’s a detective novel.Everything start...
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Critique and makeover: Prediciting pollinators project
Today’s poster is courtesy of Adriana De Palma. This poster is also available from predicts.org.uk. She notes, “At the bottom where it says ‘please pick up a flyer’, I obviously had flyers by the...
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Put down your tablet and phone
I was listening to a webinar on poster presentations, when the host mentioned how it was a big turn off when a poster presenter was “playing Angry Birds when someone is walking by.”Part of the secret...
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Mug shot
Should you put your picture on your poster?I understand the theory. The theory is that by putting your picture on your poster, you make it easier for people to recognize and find you, particularly if...
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Link roundup for August 2013
Katie M. Everson has created The Scientist’s Guide to Poster Design. One resource there that you won’t find here is an tutorial for Adobe Indesign.Also extremely good is this recorded webinar on poster...
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Critique: Protein binding
This week’s poster was originally shown at ISMB/ECCB by Stephen J. Bush, who was kind enough to give his permission to share it with you! Click to enlarge...Without a doubt, the most eye-catching...
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The best picture will usually be the one you take yourself
“This is the best picture I was able to find on the Internet.”There’s no sin in finding images on the Internet. I’m a big fan of Flickr and Google Images, too. But I’ve seen people use crummy pictures...
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Critique: Semiconductors
Today’s poster come from Josh Campbell, and is shared with his permission. Click to enlarge...Portrait posters are always tricky, and this one has a nice clean two-column layout that leaves no...
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Link roundup for September 2013
This animation shows how to improve graphs, with many of the same lessons I talk about here for posters. Hat tip to Mike Taylor and Anna Sharman. I like it, but it goes just a bit too far in pursuing...
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