See what's been done!
https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/gps-posters/

Posters from previous years are all online! See what you like, see what you don't like, get a feel for how your poster should work.

Thoughts on major design features:
In general, your poster is a visual aid for a research presentation. It should draw viewers with visuals, provide context to your research, and help you to present. It should not be a research paper.

1. Step back (zoom out), look at your poster from a distance, and decide whether your presentation looks approachable.
2. Make every design element consistent as much as possible. Column alignment, text color and font, text area color, roundness of corners, margins, horizontal and vertical space between boxes, color theme of diagrams and graphs...these are all design elements.
3. Decide how to break the consistency. Does an area of your poster need to stand out? Does a graphic need different colors than the rest of the poster's design? If it looks different, then why? If there's not a good reason why, keep it consistent instead.

Have a look at the examples below. What's gone wrong? What's gone right?