This category showcases some of the creative poster designs that are created around the University in support of teaching, research and outreach. The IT Learning Programme delivers poster workshops to many departments. The judges have noticed that over the years the standard of poster design has increased, and although the workshops can’t take credit for all of this, a number of the shortlisted entries were by ex-workshop participants.
There was a record number of entries and, as in recent years, the judges decided to award two prizes: Best Poster and Most Innovative Poster, with some honourable mentions.
Winner – Best Poster: Milton Barbosa da Silva for ‘The role of an abundant species in food web structure’
Winner: Best Poster OxTALENT 2015
Judges say: A very attractive poster, making good use of colour. The clever use of the bubbles guide the reader through the poster.
Milton says: The poster was presented (and peer reviewed) at the Joint 2014 Annual Meeting of the British Ecological Society and French Ecological Society. It was entirely designed in PowerPoint. I included the most important information in circles connected by lines following the natural flow of reading (left to right, top to bottom). The circles and lines were meant to create the image of a web; a first visual signal to catch the attention of network researchers. I selected the essential information by asking myself whether I would include it in a 3-minute informal description of my research. I tried to make all non-essential information (in the smaller circles on the right) less visible by using light grey and smaller font size in order to make the poster clearer without taking too much out. This way, the details of the methods and results were still available to the ones really interested in knowing more. The combination of colours was chosen to match the dark background, but also the logos and pictures that I already knew I would have to include in the poster. I also highlighted some words in blue, which are the most important parts of the essential information. If you only skimmed through them you could at least quickly get the idea of the work being presented. I designed the poster to tell a short story around the main idea I wanted to communicate: we test the effect of species loss on food web structure and stability. Computational models show that cascading extinctions can occur following species removal. We decided to test it in the field and removed a species from a food web. The manipulated web showed lower complexity and stability. This was a surprise given that the removed species had no connection with the other species in web, which indicates that indirect effects can play an important role in food web structure and stability.
Created using: PowerPoint
Winner – Most Innovative Poster: Jill Boggs for ‘Why do students make the same mistakes again and again?’
Winner: Most Innovative Poster OxTALENT 2015
Judges say: The poster design sets the context even before the reader becomes engaged in the content.
Jill says: Using educational icons (a red pen, lined notebook paper, sticky notes, and a teacher’s correction), the poster was designed to immediately convey to passers-by that the topic was about education and errors in student writing. My goal was to simultaneously appeal to three groups of poster conference attendees: a) those who wished to glance and move on could quickly understand that I was researching error correction, and that I had used some kind of experimental design to do so; b) those with a bit more interest could skim the bolded expressions and take a quick look at the graphically depicted study design and results I had obtained at that point; c) those who wished to know about the study could take the time to read through the information without having to wait for me to finish speaking with another poster conference visitor so they could ask about the study.
Though I generally agree that less (text) is more, I find that people often want to know something, but they don’t wish to know it badly enough to ask. Therefore, I thought it was important to make provisions for this group who wanted to know but didn’t wish to interact. Judging by the reactions of the poster conference attendees, I feel that the poster accomplished my intended goals for the three groups.
Created using: PowerPoint.
Honourable Mention – Best Poster: Kanta Dihal for ‘Nerd-on-Nerd Violence’
Honourable Mention: Best Poster OxTALENT 2015
Judges say: A dramatic image and good layout contribute to an eye-catching poster.
Kanta says: This poster covers the first chapter of my DPhil thesis. In my thesis, I research the way modern physics is communicated in various forms of literature (popularisations and science fiction). In the chapter I based the poster on, I look at two scientific conflicts which were expressed in popular science works, and the assumptions the authors made in terms of their audience while attacking their fellow scientists. I designed the poster to have a clear, understandable and eye-catching overview of my thesis. Fortunately, astrophysics has the great advantage of being known for the beautiful photographs from the Hubble telescope (all available in high resolution under a Creative Commons licence), one of which I used for the background. Researching science communication makes me very aware of the necessity of being able to communicate my own research well, to people of all backgrounds, so I avoided all use of jargon.
Created using: PowerPoint
Honourable Mention – Best Poster: Giuseppe Del Gobbo for ‘Improving the Seismic Performance of Non-Structural Systems Using Viscous Fluid Dampers’
Honourable Mention: Best Poster OxTALENT 2015
Judges say: A ‘traditional’ poster layout well executed with an excellent eye for detail and choice of colours.
Giuseppe says: Engineering posters are traditionally structured, formal and use large blocks of text. I kept the mandatory structured design, but considered aesthetics in order to make the poster more engaging. The information is structured in six sections which were clearly identified and separated by blank space. Bullet points were used to minimize text and some text is highlighted in order to draw attention to major points. A single font was used for the main text that is easily read from a distance and at all sizes. Text size was consistent and a minimal number of sizes were used based on text category (heading, body text, figure label). I selected a small number of colours when creating my colour scheme. All figures were labelled and designed so that they can be understood without reading the text. I positioned the conference and University logos in the bottom corner rather than on either side of the poster title. This removes cluttering and allows readers to focus on the research title. A QR code was provided which links to my research profile. Colour and instructions were included in order to draw attention. The profile has a picture of myself so that readers could approach me during the conference as well as contact details and information about my research.
Created using: PowerPoint, Excel QR Code generator
Honourable Mention – Most Innovative Poster: Susila Davis for ‘Are We There Yet? A Study of Oxford University Press Pathways to School Improvement’
Honourable Mention: Most Innovative Poster OxTALENT 2015
Judges say: A poster design guaranteed to make people stop and engage with the content.
Susila says: The main purpose of the poster was to convey my research design, along with elements of the conceptual framework (‘design-based research’) and background literature based around ‘school effectiveness’ and ‘school improvement’. The layout attempts to parallel the cyclical nature of design-based research where a particular product is:
- designed – in this case the Oxford University Press (OUP) Pathways online platform for primary schools;
- ‘enacted’ or used by educational practitioners – ie teachers, school senior leadership teams and other stakeholders;
- studied and analysed by the OUP and the present researcher, in terms of usability, sequence of tasks and user perceptions and routines in school and on the platform; and
- redesigned and/or reconceptualised based on the analysis and synthesis during the previous stage(s).
So in line with this cycle, one of the unique features of the poster is the ‘Start’ icon at the top left where the viewer is invited to begin the review process. Often, viewers may be unsure where to start reviewing a poster in some sort of sequence, eg being first able to understand the background of the study before the methodology, and before the findings and so on. The Start button was therefore employed to aid viewers, as generally they tend to have a short time to view each poster. Arrows were then added to guide the viewer through the research ‘journey’, in order to give a sense of the rough route travelled by the researcher and indeed the OUP. The final arrow denotes the ‘restarting’ of the research and design journey ad infinitum, much like the design-based research cycle. One other unique feature to highlight here is the judicious use of words. Some posters, certainly in the social sciences, can be comparatively wordy. In contrast, more use was made of diagrams to aid viewers both familiar and less so with the research literature, in drawing out the gist of the poster in a shorter time. In fact, the poster is also displayed at the OUP, in order to communicate the research design to stakeholders outside of the department. In summary, the poster attempts to put across the cyclical and partly sequential nature of the research journey, running in parallel with the viewing process. The design uses more diagrams than text in paragraphs and suggests a route to view the poster. The main aim was to create an assembly of images and text that convey the research and its design in an engaging manner, accessible to viewers both inside and outside of academia, an important feature, certainly in the field of education.
Honourable Mention – Most Innovative Poster: Amina Ismaeel for ‘The Battle Between Cancer and the Immune System’
Honourable Mention: Most Innovative Poster OxTALENT 2015
Judges say: A colourful, simple layout used to good effect, with clear bright graphics.
Amina says: I have done this poster at the end of Michaelmas term as a part of formative assessment at the end of the term. It is a summary of my essay which was about ‘Cancer immune evasion mechanisms’. I tried to make simple and attractive with colourful graphs.
Created using: PowerPoint