7 Best Practices for Digital Signage

Digital signage can be a great communication tool for your business if its design accommodates accessibility and visual appeal. You can use it to market your products or services or convey information to your customers.

However, to benefit maximally from your digital signage system, you need to follow some proven practices for content creation, font sizes, layout, dimensions, and so on. Here are some digital signage best practices to consider.

1. Design for Accessibility

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) maintains that all electronic and IT information should be accessible to persons with disabilities. Digital signage lies in this category, so ensure your digital signs meet this requirement. Here are some things you can do.

• Interactive Elements

Ensure all interactive signage elements like buttons, keypads, or touchscreens are placed not higher than 48 inches from the ground.

• Text

The text in your digital signage displays should be large enough to allow easy readability from a reasonable viewing distance. Indeed, you can even display various text sizes and try reading them from a distance to determine the best for your design.  

• Displays

Your wall-mounted digital signs shouldn’t go beyond 4 inches from a wall into the path of travel. Any display that exceeds 4” violates ADA guidelines.

2. Make Legible Copy

Design your copy in a way that it’s easy to see, read, and understand from a distance. Most of your viewers will be at least 5 to10 feet away, so take that into account. Moreover, to keep up with digital signage best practices, here are four rules of thumb to remember when styling your text.

• Be Brief. Limit the text amount to 3 lines of text, each not exceeding 5 words, or 5 lines of texts not exceeding 3 words.
• Use Ideal Font Sizes. Your ideal font size will depend on how far your viewers are from the screen. Ensure the font is large enough to support good visibility from a distance.
• Use Sans-Serif Fonts. San-serif fonts are generally easy to read at a glance. Other great fonts include Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, and Open Sans.
• Avoid Italics. Italicized words are difficult to read from a distance, so avoid them unless absolutely necessary.

3. Consider Your Digital Signage Content

Digital signage is effective when matched with quality content. Hence, take time to plan and perfect your content strategy. Considering the average person today has an attention span of about 8 seconds, you have very limited time to impress your customer.

Therefore, when designing content, start by identifying your target audience and then create content that appeals to them. Also, consider when the content will be playing. Some types of content might perform better at certain times than others, such as when schools are opening or during certain seasons.

4. Know Your Viewing Pattern

Design your digital signage content depending on the viewing pattern for display. The three main viewing patterns include the following.

• Point of Transit

This occurs in high-traffic areas that people pass through as they move from one point to another. These people are often in a hurry, so messages should be short, concise, and in large fonts. As a result, some ideal display examples include event announcements, calls to action, and daily reminders.

• Point of Wait

This refers to signs in high interaction areas like elevators, lobbies, and waiting rooms. Since viewing times are longer, you can display longer messages with heavier content, such as directories, wayfinding maps, news, calendars, and videos.

• Point of Sale

At the point of sale, digital signs are viewed for longer periods and should help viewers in their buying decision. Hence, some great content ideas are promotions, sales, menu boards, and discounts.

5. Perfect Your Call to Action

If you want your viewers to take a specific action, like visiting your website, taking advantage of a discount offer, or using a certain hashtag on social media, ensure your message is clear, strong, and concise. Also, give specifics (locations, dates, times, social media handles) and be precise.

6. Think Carefully About the Color Scheme

Less is always better when coordinating colors. However, don’t use too many colors or mismatching colors. Before settling on any color scheme, consider the location of your digital signage and your audience. Also, while bright colors might suit a children’s arcade, they may not be the right fit for a dental clinic or an airport.

Additionally, consider your business branding when choosing colors. Some digital signage solutions have templates you can save, allowing you to use the same branded color schemes for your displays.

7. Don’t Overlook the White Space

It may be tempting to cover your digital signage displays from top to bottom with text and images. But this can affect the visibility of the main message. Having empty white spaces without text or images helps viewers focus better on the message.  

On the same note, ensure your main messages, videos, and images have some room around them to prevent clutters. Having too many things in one space can make the content tiring and stressful to read.

In a Nutshell

When used well, digital signage can enhance client/customer engagement and improve your bottom line by supporting your marketing efforts. Hence, consider the aforementioned digital signage best practices to achieve these objectives.