"Refining our Craft"
The 3rd Annual Information Architecture Summit sponsored by ASIST
Baltimore, Maryland
March 15-17, 2002

Due to the excitement surrounding the exchange of deliverables, and the success of local cocktail hours devoted to this subject, ASIST is adding a new feature to this year's IA Summit: a call for posters.

The topic for posters is clear thinking visualized. How do you use diagramming to understand a problem? To communicate a solution? Now's your chance to trot out your killer deliverables, or scratchy scribbles that make your IA really work. We encourage work by students, developers and designers, work of a specialized nature, work concerning new features, design elements, methods or processes, controversial topics, and work in progress. For those new to posters, please scroll down to the "What makes a good poster" section.

Posters will be judged on the basis of a one-page summary and a poster mock-up. The summary should place the work in context and make one or two innovative points. A panel of subject-matter experts will evaluate the summaries using the following criteria: originality, importance and generality of contribution, soundness of rationale or demonstration, quality of written and graphic presentation, and adequate citation of relevant literature. Poster mock-ups will be reviewed on the basis of easy understandability.

Prepare a one-page summary containing title and authors, contact information, keywords, abstract, and text describing the poster content. A PDF of the poster will be required at the time of the conference to Also prepare a mock-up of the actual poster. The mock-up is a graphic layout of the content of the poster. This can be a sketch; however, a reduced image of the intended poster is preferred.

Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by mid-January, 2002. The one-page summaries of accepted interactive posters will be published in the ASIST Conference Companion. Note that because of the late submission deadline there will be no opportunity to prepare new versions of the summaries, so your submission material must be prepared carefully. Electronic versions of accepted interactive posters will be published on a CD-ROM.

At the conference, interactive poster presenters are provided a 1.1 meter high by 2.3 meter wide (44x92 inches) display space. Presenters are required to be available at their posters during designated presentation times.

Every year some submissions are returned without review because the authors failed to follow the guidelines established by the conference committee. Don't let this happen to you! Please follow the steps in this checklist in preparing your submission, and double-check that you have met all the requirements before sending it. Read the General Submission Instructions. Note that submissions must be in English, and delivered by email. Attatchments of mock ups must not exceed 500 kb. if size exceeds 500kb, mockup must be posted on a separate website and a link provided. Prepare the two-page poster summary in the Conference Proceedings format. Prepare the mock-up. Be sure that your submission contains no proprietary or confidential material. Submission of video or pictures of identifiable people should be done only with the understanding that responsibility for the collection of appropriate permissions rests with the submitter, not ASIST.

What Makes a Good Poster

Poster Presentation Allow ample time, at least several weeks, to prepare your poster. A good poster is uncluttered and clear in design. It has legible text and logical organization. The main tenet of a good poster design is simplification. Use a crisp, clean design and a strong title. Do not tell the entire project history. Present only enough data to make your key point. The text material should be reduced to convey your points quickly and clearly. The most successful posters display a succinct statement of major conclusions at the beginning, followed by supporting text in later segments, and a brief summary at the end.