1. Keep it Simple – Shorter words and phrases are easier to read – phrases with 3-4 words work well, but a single word can draw lots of attention as well. Each screen should only contain one focused message. Think of writing active, headline-style phrases rather than full sentences.

2. Repetition – Make sure to repeat your key message at the beginning and end of a segment. You may also want to consider using more than one segment to deliver the same message in different ways.

3. Call to Action – A call to action will tell your audience exactly what you want them to do and how you want them to do it. Start with a verb and keep the subject close to it, such as in the phrase “Ask a salesperson for details.” Then let your audience know when and where the action will take place, if applicable. You should also give information that allows them to act, such as a telephone number or Web URL.

4. Use Images Wisely – Complicated visual elements can easily draw attention away from an important message. On the other hand, simple, relevant images can be pleasing to the eye and help viewers remember the message.

5. Aesthetics Matter – Pay attention to aesthetic details such as font and color contrast. You should always use sans-serif fonts because they are the easiest to read. Likewise, high contrast between the foreground and background on a screen can make the content easy on the eyes.

7. Timing – The amount of time it takes to convey your message must be the same as the amount of time it takes a viewer to read it. If it takes a viewer 6 seconds to pass a screen, then he or she will probably only be able to read the screen for 4 seconds, which means that you have 4 seconds to convey your message.6. Text Size Over Screen Size – While it may seem that a big screen will be able to grab more attention, the message is ultimately the most important element of a digital sign. As you can see in the picture below, larger text on the same screen is more noticeable.

8. Display – It’s important to consider the field of viewing your audience will have. You should make sure that you position digital signs in places where they will be seen by as many people as possible, but that depends on the space you display them in. A screen placed higher up will be visible in a large area with lots of foot traffic, such as an airport. However, in narrow spaces like the aisles of a grocery store, screens tend to work better at eye level.

9. Know the Support Format – Due to the wide variety of formats available for images and video, you need to make sure that you presentation will work on all of your devices. The universal formats for images are JPEG and PNG. For videos, it’s generally easiest to stream a video you upload on YouTube, or to download a video from a cloud storage server and save it on your local display.

10. Test the Final Product – This may be the most important thing you do before officially putting your presentation on display to the public. First, you need to ensure that what you see on your computer screen is still effective and readable on the actual screen you will use, both in terms of the size of the screen and the distance from which people will read it. You should also consider the aspect ratio – perhaps the screen that will display your message is proportionally much wider than your computer screen. Most presentation software will have settings to help you easily change the aspect ratio. Finally, it is essential that you check spelling and grammar, because any errors could compromise the integrity of your message.

About the Guest Blogger:

Chuck Lorrell is a construction management enthusiast who writes about various topics including everything related to construction and is the owner of the site Construction Management>.

Category: Digital Signage Guest Posts

Written by Guest Blogger: Heather McDaniels

When you see a message scrolling or flashing across a billboard, or a video advertisement on the side of a stadium, or even short videos streamed on scoreboards at ballgames, you are seeing products of what is known as the digital signage industry. You are of course familiar with the concepts of advertisement and entertainment in public places, designed to meet a large audience; the digital signage industry is essentially an extension of these ideas, by which the same advertisement and entertainment are brought to the public through digital media. Now, thanks to the spread and usefulness of wireless internet, digital signage seems to be expanding even more, to the point that it will likely soon be surprising to see a billboard that does not change periodically, or a message that does not scroll endlessly.

Already, it is a bit strange to think back just a few years to when digital signage was a far smaller industry. Billboards used to always be solid, painted, and unchanging, and television screens in public areas (such as airports or the hallways at large stadiums) could sometimes only display one message. Now, it is extremely common to see billboards that can change their messages several times per minute (vastly expanding the number of advertisements they can display in a given amount of time), or screens scrolling messages that used to have to be posted one at a time, or one per screen. This is how far the digital signage industry has come just in the last few years, and, again, with the spread of wireless Internet, the industry will continue to grow.

Just like anything else that can use a wireless connection, the absence of cables and physical connections essentially signals a massive increase in speed and convenience. Not so long ago, you had to connect your computer by a cable reaching to a phone jack in the wall in order to access the Internet; now, you need only connect wirelessly to the nearest available network to enjoy high-speed, reliable Internet access. It is the same with the digital signage industry. Advertisers and entertainers are now able to mount television screens and other media display mechanisms just about anywhere they want, and can remotely, wirelessly cause messages to run across them. This is just another way that wireless Internet has improved the clarity, scope, and efficiency with which we do things – and the networks and speeds involved are only getting bigger and faster.

Category: Digital Signage Guest Posts

Christmas is fast approaching and we decided to review a product before the end of this year. It has taken us a while to complete this review as it involved using a video camera and editing the video but from this experience we can hopefully improve our processes and review more products next year.

AS7 Audio Tripper

Reviewed By: Advertise Me

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Category: Digital Signage Reviews

Sometimes being a digital signage solution provider can be a tough and challenging job. Not only do you have to represent the company you’re selling the product for but you’re also consciously looking after the best interest for the client and here’s a typical dilemma:

One of our clients requested a feature to a digital signage software component which wasn’t that much of an issue except we required the services of the digital signage software company and there was a cost associated with this feature (the client was happy to pay for this). But all this came with  a little  unanticipated catch – the client was required to upgrade to the latest version of the software before the modification patch would work. Many of us might be thinking,  “That’s easy, there’s no harm in doings so as the latest patch will resolve and fix previous bugs”…. Ummmmmm…. WRONG!!!

By upgrading the software we found quite a number of bugs and spend quite a number of hours investigating and then reporting the issue to the manufacturer whilst the client had to workaround the problem. Fortunately, we provided the client with a test environment and didn’t upgrade the development system with the latest software.

I’m not sure whether many of you have experienced this but upgrading to the latest version can actually introduce new bugs. What’s worse is that a considerable amount of time can be spent investigating the issue and the  time for this may not be chargeable – who do you charge for this type of work…. the client who has already paid for a working solution ? or the digital signage company who supplied the dodgy software?

This is a tough one and I’ll like to hear from anyone who has been through this experience.

So there are a few lessons that I have learnt from this:

1. ALWAYS make sure you test the upgrade or software patch on a test unit or environment

2. ALWAYS back up your content or system before applying any patches as you’ll  never know the state of the unit after the reboot

3. PLAN for any changes you make to the system and carefully provide detailed rollback plans in the event the change failed

4. TRUST and have some faith that the developers have done their testing but acknowledge that they cannot test all the different scenarios

5. Make sure you charge someone for your work or include this as part of your Maintenance and Support costs… or even better get the manufacturer to conduct intensive testing with your configuration before applying any patches or upgrades

6. IF IT’S NOT BROKEN LEAVE IT AS IT IS… sometimes making a simple change can break the entire system… but if you’ve done the above point 2 & 3 correctly then this shouldn’t be an issue.

Have you been in this situation? Tell us what you think.

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News