In the following sections, we outline suggestions for how to keep the deployment and upkeep of a digital signage system streamlined. This covers how to request digital signage, organize content and your content library, create messages and layouts that cohesively bring together the intent of the system, and other basic tips for making your system successful.
Basics
We want to ensure that digital sign administrators have at their disposal information about best practices to ensure that signs have the greatest impact and maximize engagement with their various audiences.
Digital signage presents an opportunity to enforce a sense of community. This Digital Signage White Pages should be used alongside the OTC Editorial Style Guide, OTC Social Media Style Guide, and the Website Standards and Guidelines to ensure successful digital signage.
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Basic Content Guidelines
In an effort to maintain consistency in message and branding, we have established some basic content guidelines that should be met before displaying content. By following these simple guidelines, your message will look more professional and reach more people.
Design Tips – The Basics
While designing for signage can be similar in many ways to designing for other digital media - and in some cases, even print - there are a few major differences to consider. Digital signage is a powerful medium with the ability to distribute multiple ideas and messages at once. By following some simple guidelines, your displays become a powerful source of information-sharing.
Don’t pack the message with too much text.
Keep the type size as large as possible, especially for headlines.
Utilize either three lines of text with five words, or five lines with three words.
Don’t use more than 2 fonts.
Utilize easy to read fonts; avoid script unless dictated by design guide.
Use color for contrast and clarity.
Don’t try to use too many colors at the same time. It confuses the space.
Too many colors will cause the viewer to lose specific focus and reduce clarity.
Use color to enhance or guide the viewer’s eye to the most important information or call to action within the message.
Contrast and visibility are still foremost even when applying photo backgrounds and graphics to your messages.
Make sure that you’re setting yourself up for success by working in the right colormode. RGB is designed for working with digital media such as screens.
If done well, you can guide the eye to critical information through a visual hierarchy. The headline is the piece of information that most viewers will read first. They may not go on to read the rest of the information, so the headline should accurately represent the content of the message.
This text should be the largest and boldest piece of information within the message.
Remember also to include a “Call to Action” for each message.
What should the viewer take away from it?
What would you like the result to be?
Clearly communicate what the intent is every time.
Utilize bright colors and high contrast as well as size for emphasizing the most important information.
Establish a campaign
Each campaign will have its own unique goals and strategy. Since we are a college campus, campaigns can be as simple as fall, spring, and summer. The majority of the information is apt to remain the same. However each semester usually has a slightly different focus. The style of each campaign should differ from one another. If the sign remains unchanged for too long the viewer will no longer notice the information being displayed. To avoid stagnant signage make sure each campaign has a unique style. Even if the information stays the same across campaigns the change in style will draw the viewers’ attention.
Content can be scheduled in advance. It is a best practice to schedule at least a week in advance. However updating with each new semester should be sufficient.
Beware of having time sensitive information displayed past its date.
For instance, if you have an image that broadcasts about a specific event be sure to have it scheduled to no longer display after said event.
Screens advertising an event should run only for the 4 weeks prior to the event.
College calendar can be displayed for the entire semester
Screens showcasing OTC content may be scheduled for a semester at a time.
Websites such as Pexels provide royalty-free images.
You can find approved OTC graphics in R:\Digital Signage Repository
Information / Content to be displayed (in order of priority):
Communicate emergency information – Initiated via PR
Campus and/or building utility outages – Initiated via Sign Owner
Campus wide events
Orientation
OTC Weekly Events
Commencement
Finals
Hazing Prevention Week
Sexual Assault Awareness Week
Other events, promotions or information from the office of Public Relations
Building / Department Information
Directory / Campus Map
Room changes
Announcements (weekly / daily)
Student Organization / Department Activities
Preview designs
Stand back at least 6 feet from the monitor.
Read content forward and backward to gauge how long a new viewer might take to read the message entirely.
Content Guidelines
Here we will explore the ideas presented in previous pages in more detail, with examples of what to avoid when creating content.
Broadcast
When campaigns are aimed towards reaching the largest audience possible, content is typically run across a group of displays or even all locations. This is usually seen with editorial content or automated content such as RSS feeds.
Targeting
Advertising campaigns generally require a higher degree of targeting to produce strong ROI. Content is targeted to displays based on geographical proximity, demographics, display size, language and more. For example, if OTC has a special group visiting all signage can switch to welcome them or directly display information to that group.
Adjacency
Content in sponsorship or co-marketing campaigns might need to be played one after the other.
Saturation and Separation
On the other hand, some content needs to be spaced as far apart in the loop as possible, as in the case of competing products.
Message Scheduling
More frequent exposure to messaging is better than LONGER exposure. By repeating messages more frequently in a rotation, the audience is more likely to internalize the topic or call to action.
Message duration is typically from 5 to 12 seconds.
This depends first and foremost on where the signage is being displayed. If this is in a high traffic area with lots of foot traffic, the duration will most likely be less, perhaps 5 seconds only.
Messages displayed in areas with a ‘captive’ audience (waiting rooms, lobbies, in front of elevators, etc.) can be displayed longer, or have more complex elements (animations, longer descriptions, etc.)
Read your message forward and backward.
Reading the message backward gives you an idea of how long it will take someone seeing it for the first time to read it in its entirety.
The average rule is that a viewer needs to see the message 7 times before internalizing it.
Changing where the message is displayed, changing the composition of the message, colors, images utilized, etc. will help reinforce it. If you’re utilizing QR tags or other elements that encourage viewers to interact with their mobile devices:
Make sure to allow enough duration time of the message so that the user can actually capture the information being shared.
Allow at LEAST 10-20 seconds for these types of messages.
Multi-Scheduling
Slots play a different message depending on the time of day, the day of week or a calendar date. For example, a breakfast menu could be displayed in the morning while a regular menu airs after 11 AM and broadcasts the daily specials.
Emergency communications
In some cases, screen takeovers are necessary. For example, emergency alerts should be able to display important information on the screens in a matter of seconds to guide travelers to safety in emergencies.
Simplicity
If there are too many elements fighting for space within the message, information is lost.
Don’t try to utilize too many visual elements in terms of excessive pictures, fancy fonts or colors.
Make sure what you add enhances the message, not distracts from it.
Learning when an element is not adding to the overall message is an important asset.
Consider your audience
Typography
Most of your messaging will be conveyed through the use of typography, thus making it one of the most important elements to consider when creating content.
Script or other fonts with excessive flourish are difficult to read at a distance and should be avoided for signage.
The strongest options for legibility are sans-serif fonts such as Arial, which when applied with a strong line weight are bold and easy to see.
Keeping in mind the College’s brand standards and guidelines will also be important. The College’s guidelines for font use on the Web can easily be adapted for digital signage, as they follow many of the same principles.
Legibility and Readability – This is the most important
Make sure you know where each of the digital signs will be displayed and how far away the viewer will typically be.
All designs must be created with this distance in mind, or else text may be too small, too crowded or illegible in other ways.
Color, font choice, size and amount of text, as well as contrast, all play an important role in whether or not your message will read from a distance.
Keep the 3x5 rule in mind!
Safe Areas
Make sure that content is designed with enough of a buffer around the edges of the message to keep it from being lost or hard to read. While it is fine for photos and other graphic elements to bleed off the screen, if your text is too close to the edge, the impact is lost.
Utilizing Outside Content
While much of the content used within your system might be created by dedicated members of the Creative Services team, automated outside content helps minimize the amount needed to be created from scratch. This includes utilizing websites, video, RSS and ticker feeds and other data that can be displayed on the digital sign. Websites such as Pexels provide royalty-free images.
Copyright Conditions
With assets gathered from outside sources, please consult the copyright rules. Make sure that all messages meet the College’s standards in relation to its adherence to copyright.
Playlist and Layout Scheduling
Playlists and layouts should be managed to enhance content, and to make sure that audiences see and remember the communications on them.
Playlists should have 7-10 messages in busy areas with lots of foot traffic.
With each message at around 7 seconds each, this causes the content to loop roughly once per minute. This increases exposure.
This avoids too many moving parts on the screen, making it appear cluttered and disorganized.
Good options are the date/time and weather for this.
Having your content contained within a branded layout will also help avoid the feeling of over-stimulation.
Consider using themes (branding, seasonal, holiday, etc.) to tie your messaging together.
To make sure your signs don’t become irrelevant:
Change content daily or every couple of days.
Change the design and background every 6-12 months. This will give your signage a completely new look/feel.
Common Mistakes with Digital Signage – What to Avoid
Trying to put too much on screens.
Not every feature or option within the software needs to be shown at one time.
Things can be displayed between multiple layouts and at different times of the day. Not only does this keep your signage from looking cluttered, it also reinforces the relevance of the information on the screen and keeps viewers engaged.
Don't let the messages get stale.
If you’ve forgotten what is on your signage, it’s likely your viewers have as well.
Make sure to update content at the very least every 3 weeks.
After time, stale content can turn your sign into background noise. Once you lose your viewers, it can be difficult to get them back.
Not updating software and hardware.
While the technical manager of the system will likely address this aspect, it is important to keep in mind on all levels. New features are constantly being added to the software that runs your signage.
If software and hardware don’t get updated regularly, this may impact performance of the system as a whole.