Poster-Making Platforms

Powerpoint:  You have access to Microsoft Powerpoint for free as a UC student. Go to the Design tab in Powerpoint to edit the slide size so it is poster-sized. 

Canva: Canva is a web platform for graphic design of all kinds. It is super user-friendly and lots of tools and features that help you produce a high-quality product. There are free and paid plans (Canva plans and pricing). You can get a lot of features for $13/month (basically the price of a textbook over the course of a semester). You can share files with other Canva users (regardless of their plan being free/paid) to collaborate on a project. 

Adobe InDesign or Illustrator: You have access to the Adobe Creative Cloud through the UC MyDesk virtual desktop. InDesign and Illustrator are both great for making posters but have a bit of a learning curve if you have never used them before.

Tips for Poster Design

The human brain and eye reading a poster is much like a computer loading a web page. The more that is on it, the slower and harder it can be to 'load' or 'process'. When designing a poster, look for ways to reduce the mental 'RAM' needed understand your idea.

Think about size hierarchy

Size is a easy way convey importance to your audience. Make sure the name of your product is larger than your name; your logo should be larger than the logos other technologies you used (such as the Amazon Web Services logo). Expect the readers eye to gravitate to the largest elements first. What do you want them to see?

No more than 3 fonts

Too many fonts can be distracting and make your poster harder to read. A variety of fonts used well can add visual interest, but keep them spread out. There should be one dominant font - something highly legible and sans serif (Arial, Calibri, and Helvetica would all work) - and up to two accent fonts. 

Use colors/design elements from your product

This is a fast and easy way to make your poster look cohesive and professional. Pick a couple telling screenshots from your product and use them influence your poster design. Use the eyedropper tool in PowerPoint or other software to grab a color from an image. If your design uses hexagons, use hexagons on your poster. If it's a chat room, maybe speech bubbles could be part of your design.

Less is more, and make it meaningful

Remember that this is a poster, not a paper. Any text on the poster should short and to-the-point. Same concept applies to images. Pick a couple large, meaningful images rather than several smaller images of your product.

PowerPoint is the easiest way to create a UC-branded poster with minimal formatting work. You can use PowerPoint on a PC or a Mac, but switching between those two versions midway can result in the loss of some formatting fidelity.

• Begin by choosing a UC-branded PowerPoint template.
• Change the slide size to 48 inches (width) by 36 inches (height). It is important to re-size your slide immediately before adding any content. PowerPoint slide default sizes are 13.333 x 7.5 inches (widescreen) or 10 x 7.5 inches (standard).
• Save your work in safe place that allows collaboration and back-up, such as OneDrive.
• When you are finished editing the poster in PowerPoint, save/print as a PDF IF YOU PLAN TO PRINT THE POSTER. If you poster will be digital only, it should remain as a PowerPoint file (.pptx)

Creating accessible documents is an important way to support diversity, equity, and inclusion. The following content on accessible PowerPoints was curated by the UC Accessibility Network. View the original resource page.

Guidelines for Creating Accessible Microsoft Power Point Presentations (from UC Accessibility Network)

Below are some additional guidelines for creating accessible Power Point presentations.

• Use the slide templates provided in Power Point Layout.  The templates create an appropriate heading and reading structure for a person using a screen reader to easily navigate your slides. 
• Do not add text boxes to slides.  A screen reader cannot navigate to read the text inside the box.
• Create a companion document if you put necessary information in the Notes section of a presentation.  A screen reader cannot navigate to the notes section of Power Point.

Alternative Text Best Practices (from UC Accessibility Network)

Alternative text, or “alt text” describes the content of images, graphs and charts. It should be added to every image that conveys meaning in a Power Point Presentation.  Below is a list of best practices for using alternative text in image heavy presentations. 

• Write a short and concise description of no longer than 150 characters.
• Do not use the filename, “photo,” or “image” to describe an image.
• Indicate the purpose of complex images like charts, graphs and infographics.  
• Write “decorative” in the alternative text if the image does not add additional meaning to the presentation. 
• Identify the required action for images that contain a link (i.e., click the image to go to another web page).