Tired of trying to figure out how you’ll cram all your research onto a single poster in time for your upcoming conference? Good news: AI is here to make your life easier. AI-powered language models like ChatGPT, CopyAI and other artificial intelligence tools are going to be a game-changer for researchers and scientific communication in general over the next couple of years.
In this blog post, we'll explore 9 AI prompts and tools that can assist you in designing a visually appealing and informative research poster that will masterfully communicate your research findings. If you use these hacks, you’ll be shocked at how painless the poster-making process can be.
Prompt 1: Typography and Color Palette
Choosing the appropriate aesthetic through font and color scheme is crucial when creating an engaging research poster. Here’s an example of a prompt that would generate possible fonts and color schemes for your poster:
“Generate design ideas for an ePoster on the topic of 'The Effects of Climate Change on Coral Reefs'. Provide me with a color palette and typography suggestions that would convey the seriousness of the topic while also being visually appealing to a wide audience. Please include at least three different color options and two typography options.”
Just replace the topic with your own, and boom–ChatGPT will produce three potential color palette/font combinations that reflect your topic.
Alternatively, you could turn directly to AI-driven tools to analyze your research content and generate color palettes and text styles that complement your topic. Tools like Adobe Color, Coolors, and FontJoy use algorithms to analyze images and suggest complementary color schemes. You can simply upload an image related to your research or input keywords, and the AI tool will generate a selection of color palettes and font pairings that match the image or keywords, saving you time and effort in selecting the right colors and fonts for your poster.
Prompt 2: Image Suggestions
AI algorithms can also analyze your research content and suggest relevant images, graphics, or visual elements. Input keywords related to your research, and the AI tool will provide you with a list of suggested visual elements that match your research area. This can help you come up with unique and eye-catching images for your poster.
A prompt to find the perfect visual could be,
“Describe potential image suggestions for an ePoster on the topic of 'The Effects of Climate Change on Coral Reefs,’ and share some copyright-free stock image websites where I can find those pictures.”
This prompt is an easy way to enhance the visual impact of your poster and make it more engaging. Remember, nobody likes staring at a wall of text.
Prompt 3: Design Templates
Rather than having AI provide design suggestions piece by piece, you can ask it to create entire potential templates as well, such as:
“Generate pre-designed templates for a research poster on the topic of 'The Impact of Renewable Energy on Climate Change.' The poster should include sections for Introduction, Methodology, Results, Conclusion, and References. The design should be visually appealing with a modern and clean layout. Provide at least three different template options in table format with variations in color schemes, typography, and visual elements that convey the concept of renewable energy and climate change.”
Did you notice that “in table format” part? It will prompt the chatbot to put its design suggestions into a table (as opposed to a list), like this:
This makes it super easy to compare the template suggestions to one another, offering a quick and easy way to create a professional-looking poster without starting from scratch.
Prompt 4: Data Visualization
AI-powered tools like Datawrapper and Infogram use algorithms to transform raw data into meaningful charts, graphs, and infographics. These tools can analyze your data and provide suggestions for the most suitable data visualizations to convey your research findings effectively. You can also customize the visualizations based on your preferences and easily incorporate them into your poster.
Here is a prompt that can be customized with the type of data, time period, and health outcomes, to generate a meaningful chart that effectively communicates the research findings and insights to a wide audience:
"Generate data visualizations for research data on the topic of 'The Impact of Air Pollution on Public Health.' The data includes measurements of air pollution levels (PM2.5, NO2, etc.) and corresponding health outcomes (respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, etc.) over a 5-year period. The visualizations should effectively communicate the findings and insights from the data analysis and be visually appealing with a modern and professional look. Provide at least three different visualization options, including bar charts, line graphs, and scatter plots, with appropriate labels, titles, and color schemes that convey the relationship between air pollution and public health."
Prompt 5: Catchy Titles
This one is pretty straightforward. Using a chatbot like ChatGPT, try something like:
“Generate a catchy title for a research poster about [insert jargon-ridden subject matter here].”
You’ll be surprised at how readily AI can process dense subject matter and condense it into something digestible and suitable for a poster title, even for scientists outside your discipline. If you don’t like what is initially suggested, try changing the wording of your request or getting more specific with what type of title you are looking for.
Prompt 6: Layout Suggestions, Content Organization and Flow
AI can also help organize and structure your poster content effectively, creating pleasing and balanced poster layouts. Algorithms analyze your content and propose suggestions that optimize the organization of your poster, ensuring a logical flow of information while maximizing both visual impact and economy of space.
“I am designing a research poster titled ‘Exploring the Limits of Superconductivity in High-Temperature Systems.’ Suggest a potential layout including number of columns for a research poster with two visual elements such as photos or graphs and the headings Title, Background, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and References.”
Prompt 7: Text Summarization
This one is probably our favorite. AI algorithms can analyze your research content and generate concise summaries that can help you condense your text and highlight the key points, making your poster more reader-friendly.
Rather than summarizing your research by yourself–or worse, just pasting your whole abstract onto your poster–you can have ChatGPT do it for you, either section by section or the entire abstract at once.
Prompt 8: Proofreading and Grammar Check
Everyone agrees that ensuring that your poster is polished and error-free is fundamental; this hack is a must. Once you’re done with your poster, copy and paste the text into a tool like Grammarly. It not only automatically detects grammar errors, typos, and other language-related issues in your content, but will suggest corrections as well.
Prompt 9: Accessibility Recommendations
Ensuring that your research is inclusive and accessible is fundamental. Thankfully, you can use tools like AccessiBe to analyze your poster's design and provide recommendations to make it more accessible for individuals with visual impairments. AccessiBe analyzes your design elements for accessibility compliance and provides suggestions for improvements. For instance, it may detect low-contrast text or missing alternative text for images, and provide recommendations to accommodate those with disabilities.
There you have it
Incorporating AI prompts into your research poster design process can significantly streamline and enhance your poster creation process, resulting in visually appealing, well-organized, and impactful posters. If you’re tired of using the same-old techniques to create your poster, you’ll want to give these prompts a try.
Important Note: It's important to use AI-generated content responsibly and always review and validate any suggestions before finalizing your research poster to ensure accuracy and compliance with ethical standards. Also, AI-generated suggestions are not a substitute for your own creativity and design instincts, so exercise discernment.
Experiment with these AI-powered tools and techniques to design your next research poster. If you’re impressed by your newfound creativity and efficiency, be sure to let us know what you think @eposterslive and [email protected].