From conceptualising to launch, let us take you through the process of creating jaw-dropping digital signage content!
Creating digital signage content that achieves exactly what you want can be a tricky, frustrating process. There are so many things to consider from design to accessibility to whether or not you want to make it interactive that it can be hard to know where to start, much less know the entire process of getting your digital signage content off the ground.
Well, not to worry! We’re here to take you through the finer points of creating awesome digital signage content.
1. Prioritise the most relevant content
It’s essential when it comes to planning, designing and implementing a digital signage content layout that you’re aware of exactly what your digital signage offering needs to achieve. It’s also important to know that there is no single correct way to do this, so here are a few pointers to start you on the right path:
What are you trying to achieve with your digital signage content?
Are you trying to attract potential new customers, or provide a better experience to your existing ones? Perhaps you’re looking for a new way to keep your staff members informed? No matter what it is, you should have clear goals for what you’re trying to achieve with signage and should keep this in mind throughout the whole process of designing your content.
What appeals most to your target audience?
One of the best ways to ensure that you’re staying consistent and on-message with your digital signage content is to make sure that you know exactly who you’re trying to appeal to. If, for example, you’re digital signage displays will be facing potential customers as they walk past the window of your shop, you would want to create bold, eye-catching signage content. If you then wanted to provide additional information to those customers once they’ve entered the shop, you would want to provide more detailed, informative content.
Create a content hierarchy
Before you even place the first piece of content of digital signage content down, it’s important to know exactly how each piece of content will be weighted in terms of their relevance. When deciding on the importance of each element of your digital signage content, you should consider:
- Where will the content be located – do you want to adhere to an existing design concept such as the rule of thirds, or do you want to go more free-form?
- Sizing – which elements of your digital signage layout should be prioritised in terms of size? Is it more important to have eye-catching images front-and-centre, or would you prefer to lead with more informative content?
2. Make it accessible
Arguably the most important objective of your digital signage content design is that it’s accessible and doesn’t alienate anyone who might use it.
Accessibility doesn’t have to be to the detriment of design and doesn’t have to create extra work, it just requires you to be mindful of the requirements of your users. It’s also vital to ensure that the content that appears on your digital signage displays is accessible from a visual design perspective. As this article from digital signage experts Sixteen:Nine points out, design elements including low-resolution images, fonts that are difficult to read, and a lack or overabundance of text can not only lead to your digital signage content looking less than desirable, it can also make it far less accessible to a wide range of people.
3. Make it interactive, but only if it’s beneficial
With the advent and increased accessibility of display technology with touch functionality built-in, you have an incredible opportunity to make your digital signage content interactive.
This can add a wealth of new ways to entertain and inform people with interactive image galleries, browsable product information, digital brochures and much more. This breadth of choice of interactive elements, however, can also lead to a confusing user experience if it’s implemented sparingly and thoughtfully.
“Digital signage should inform the user without wasting their time. Adding interactivity for interactivity’s sake bogs the user experience down and achieves the precise opposite goal. “
When you’re deciding on what should be featured in your digital signage content layout, think about whether or not a particular piece of content would really be improved by having interactive elements added. Digital signage should inform the user without wasting their time. Adding interactivity for interactivity’s sake bogs the user experience down and achieves the precise opposite goal.
In the case of displaying multiple images in a layout, this may well be the case. You’re more likely to create a positive interaction between your signage content and a user if multiple images are displayed in a carousel rather than each of them being displayed separately on the screen. There’s an added benefit of this example in that an image carousel would take up significantly less space on the screen compared to separate images.
4. Get feedback
If you’ve followed the previous steps of our guide, your awesome new digital signage layout should be taking shape quite nicely! It’s important to keep in mind, though, that feedback is an essential part of ensuring that your digital signage content offering is actually providing a tangible benefit to your customers.
So, ask them what they think, and don’t be afraid to make changes to your signage once it’s published.
So, you’ve got your digital signage content design nailed. Now, you need the hardware and software to show it to the world. At LamasaTech, we’re here to help with that! We can give you everything you need to get up and running with digital signage, including an extensive range of hardware, intuitive software, design & layout services, and much more!
Get in touch to learn more about how we can help bring your digital signage content designs to life!
