Crafting a poster – rules of 👍 + basic dataviz rules

Ilya Kashnitsky

14 November 2019

Science paper

D’Mello, A., & Flynn, O. (2019). Respect the poster. Science, 366(6466), 766–766. https://doi.org/10/ggcpmx

Key points 📍

take it seriously
put content first
be confident
don’t be discouraged

#betterposter

Let's fix academic posters! Prepping a poster for #SIOP19 and sick of the old “wall-of-text” poster design? Watch this cartoon to see a new, faster approach to designing research posters. Includes templates. #betterposter https://t.co/wyXhiP5CKl pic.twitter.com/UBYB2GzIv9
— Mike Morrison (@mikemorrison) March 25, 2019

https://twitter.com/mikemorrison/status/1110767696705146880

https://www.cochrane.org/news/betterposter-templates-cochrane-colloquium-attendees

examples

Congratulations to #NICHD Trainee, @renee_kramer, the latest poster session winner at #PAA2019! Her research focused on Understanding Associations Between State-Level Policy Factors and Very Short Inter-Pregnancy Intervals in the US. Congrats, Renee! pic.twitter.com/ofhLXFt8Qo
— DSDR at ICPSR (@DSDRdata) April 13, 2019

first time using the #betterposter format! Had a blast at #TED2019 pic.twitter.com/tnjbdoawPp
— Kelsey Dunn (@KelseyTDunn) November 8, 2019

Come check out my 2 award winning #betterposter in the #ACRM2019 expo hall. Poster #s 108 and 120! pic.twitter.com/1WXLUZEdwc
— Brittany N. Hand (@BN_Hand) November 6, 2019

Had a great time presenting about #nurse demographics and how they are not a significant factor in job-stress and sickness presenteeism & the need for workplace interventions at #wsh2019 using the #betterposter format and representing @UAZNursing pic.twitter.com/6yc25SfkWT
— Jessica Rainbow PhD RN (@JessicaGRainbow) November 7, 2019

I had a great time presenting my poster @NCSMHtweets! Clinicians and researchers were so much more willing to engage with the #betterposter design inspired by @mikemorrison. Highly recommend for your next conference! pic.twitter.com/zInaYeBrpM
— Grace Woodard (@graceswoodard) November 9, 2019

Excited to be presenting my first poster of my PhD at @Rothamsted PhD symposium using the #betterposter layout pic.twitter.com/K30JAIAPTZ
— Tom Oliver (@Tomoliverbees) November 12, 2019

dataviz based betterposter

The poster I presented at #AAICSatellite in Sydney! Took a different approach with the design this time courtesy of @mikemorrison's #betterposter format :) pic.twitter.com/zRC6xpCgBT
— Nhi Hin (@NhiHin) September 30, 2019

The issue with #AcademicTwitter promises is that it's very tricky to find them back. I presented a {tricolore} map of 🇺🇸 US counties in a poster in Nov 2018 at 🇳🇱 Dutch Demography Day.#rstats #dataviz #poptwitter
post: https://t.co/piO9pEwZRB
code: https://t.co/BaugE2Zvnj pic.twitter.com/yNXQg3aoMm
— Ilya Kashnitsky (@ikashnitsky) May 14, 2019

On Friday I'm presenting this colourful poster at #PAA2019. With @jm_aburto we use @hafenstats's {geofacet} #rstats package to tell the story of homicide crisis in 🇲🇽
preprint: https://t.co/DidgMD0qdM
code: https://t.co/TuXQPnDfAo pic.twitter.com/leSkttITzR
— Ilya Kashnitsky (@ikashnitsky) April 8, 2019

Thanks so much for the template! My coauthor Michael Ribers made a poster for #NBERSI2019 based on it. We were super happy with the result.👇
#betterposter pic.twitter.com/PFlMVAcfjT
— Hannes Ullrich (@hannes_ullrich) August 5, 2019

Factsheet: vluchtelingenstromen binnen en tussen continenten. Veruit de grootste aantallen worden opgenomen in Afrika en Azië. In absolute aantallen nam het aantal niet toe in afgelopen 50 jaar. Relatief tot de wereldbevolking nam het zelfs af. @NatureNews https://t.co/FvqUr8OrLL pic.twitter.com/4LessFlF4J
— Ruben van Gaalen (@rubenivangaalen) November 5, 2019

the importance of titles 💡

intriguing

www.jstor.org/stable/2950909

funny

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-018-9493-1

provocative

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2982-5

short and direct

https://doi.org/10.1038/35087589

dynamic

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1069675

double title – anchor + description

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.10.018

other tips 📍

size matters 👠

Presenting my beautiful map at the 1st poster session at @epc2018, 7 June 12:30. Also exposed at @NIDI_KNAW booth before and after. You are welcome to explore, discuss and have a copy of the note, soon to be published in The Lancet.#rstats #dataviz pic.twitter.com/4er3R3Dqem
— Ilya Kashnitsky (@ikashnitsky) June 5, 2018

Check conference guides and print the poster as big as allowed

Great innovative #dataviz approach by @Acosta_Kike_ & Alyson van Raalte to visualizing cohort and period effects in cohorts on a lexis surface. Very useful and widely applicable + super beautiful.#PAA2019 #rstats pic.twitter.com/dCv5hxZa7z
— Ilya Kashnitsky (@ikashnitsky) April 12, 2019

use visuals 🤩

The posters at the first #WIC2019 poster session are arranged around 3 themes: (1) Demographics differentials in life satisfaction and well-being, (2) Health and well-being over the life course, and (3) Migration and well-being. pic.twitter.com/g45HuZMNVo
— Wittgenstein Centre (@WiCVienna) November 11, 2019

Make sure each element of the printed poster is readable from 1 meter 🧐

Come and see our poster on Intergenerational relationships and wellbeing of immigrants and natives! With ⁦@ValeriaBordone⁩ ⁦@ValkHelga⁩ #wic2019 pic.twitter.com/3Vg6fxPKPF
— bruno arpino (@brunoarpinoFLR) November 11, 2019

print outs 📄

I am happy to announce that our paper (@ikashnitsky and @jschoeley ) is published today in @TheLancet https://t.co/bgKJqD8IbL
We let the data speak colours!#demography #rstats #dataviz
Check out my post: https://t.co/otjkhDvJ1M
and github repo: https://t.co/WlDSg7Uj2t pic.twitter.com/VWHyKDsuBN
— Ilya Kashnitsky (@ikashnitsky) July 20, 2018

if possible, choose the place wisely 🤔

Great job Miki, Tanisha, Maria and Sam pic.twitter.com/4W3b5yvbZH
— Lukar Thornton (@lukar_t) November 8, 2019

poster pitch talk

2, 3, or 5 minutes? huge difference
if you have 2 min, use 1/2 – grab the attention
sell your poster

invite people to come to your poster

#EPC2018 Come to see my (with @jschoeley ) poster at 12:30 today.
Full text: https://t.co/keh4XBWFLP (have a printed in color copy at the poster)#rstats #dataviz pic.twitter.com/D82IwkFRxC
— Ilya Kashnitsky (@ikashnitsky) June 7, 2018

basic dataviz rules

before we start

https://twitter.com/RuJEconomics/status/1191697644499984384

rule 0 – DO VISUALIZE YOUR DATA

Anscombe’s Quartet

http://i.imgur.com/QA3Ss8D.png

hhttps://twitter.com/JustinMatejka/status/859075295059562498

https://i.imgur.com/Ym0oKHj.png

https://i.imgur.com/T7xz3UN.png

https://i.imgur.com/MxUNZxV.png

Remade the @WSJ measles vaccination visualization using ggplot2 and the animation package #rstats pic.twitter.com/cnIScD9ymI
— Michael Lee 🚴📊🇷 (@mikeleeco) June 19, 2017

Plots don’t have to be overly complicated to be powerful

Friday and don't know what to do? Train your #ggplot2 skills! 📊
My first blog post “The Evolution of a ggplot (Ep. 1)” is online 🎉https://t.co/fWG4PmyyhU

Thanks to @R4DScommunity @rstudio @dataandme for all the neat #rstats tricks! #tidyverse #DataViz #TidyTuesday #R4DS pic.twitter.com/RRMTSjXFgj
— Cédric Scherer (@CedScherer) May 17, 2019

Austria vs Germany ⚽️ The First 111 Years #AUTGER international #football results since 1907:
🇦🇹 10 wins
🇩🇪 25 wins
✖️ 6 draws#dataviz by @tinafrank & @metropop_eu pic.twitter.com/iRjXmpNsOe
— ramon bauer (@metropop_eu) June 3, 2018

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-the-oldest-person-in-the-world-keeps-dying/

rule 1 – text should be horizontal

http://www.b-eye-network.com/view/2468

http://demographer.com/dsitl/08-cleveland-dot-plots/

https://ikashnitsky.github.io/2019/dotplot/

example of a figure improvement

https://doi.org/10/ggbtpx

https://gist.github.com/ikashnitsky/2800295e304b4858be553432de4a0d11

https://twitter.com/ikashnitsky/status/1192901559568523269

rule 2 – on slides, text should be as large as possible

https://i.imgur.com/u1nCiJt.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/bYePASN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/nvNEc2F.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/KpBVKP1.png

rule 3 – mind colors, especially regarding colorblind friendliness

This #map shows the international status of #abortion law in September 2019.
Source: https://t.co/XROvIgWtnb pic.twitter.com/dTXoBN7YMC
— I Fucking Love Maps (@IFckingLoveMaps) September 28, 2019

https://www.toptal.com/designers/colorfilter?orig_uri=https://infographic.statista.com/normal/chartoftheday_13680_the_legal_status_of_abortion_worldwide_n.jpg&process_type=protan

rule 4 – highlight what’s important for the story

https://barcanumbers.wordpress.com/2018/12/06/who-are-the-best-finishers-in-contemporary-football/

Dataviz principles

https://policyviz.com/2018/08/07/dataviz-cheatsheet/

https://ft-interactive.github.io/visual-vocabulary/

https://serialmentor.com/dataviz/

http://socviz.co/index.html

Jonas Shoeley’s slides

https://github.com/jschoeley/idem_viz

thank you! @ikashnitsky ilya.kashnitsky@gmail.com