Just Out-of-Home

Digital Signage Content 101

March 19, 2009 at 3:19 pm 2 comments

I’ve discussed my thoughts on wirespring and it’s architect, Mr. Bill Gerba before on the blog and why you should read his blog and follow him (@billgerba) on Twitter. Simply put; he is very insightful in many thing in the Digital Signage / Digital Out-of-Home world. I’ve also waiting for him to make today’s post “Content for Digital Signage: Motion and the Infamous Ticker” in order to for me to finalize the concept I had for this post for a long time now, which I dub; “Digital Signage 101.” This title has probably been used actually… Hmmm, but SO good that this guy is going to have to add “Content” as a new category on this blog. Anyway, following are 3 sections and links that anyone in the DS and DOOH industries should read and synthesize in your brains. It WILL make you a better Content Producer, digital signage / Digital Out Of Home Ad network, although justoutofhome.com does not offer a refund policy. After all, the knowledge Bill gives out is Free; although it shouldn’t be, and you are sure to learn. Summaries are as follows:

Making great digital signage content: A quick reference guide:

• Making great digital signage content: The serial position effectPlace your most important messages at the beginning and the end of your list. Introduce the first item on the list at a slower speed, and leave enough time at the end for people to remember the last item. If possible, choose your two best messages and get rid of the rest.
• Making great digital signage content: Get better recall with chunking and codingGroup key phrases or concepts together — batches of three usually work nicely. Repeat important words and phrases 2-3 times in a row for reinforcement. Consider using alliteration and rhyme, since people are trained to respond well to these patterns.
• Making great digital signage content: Optimize for context and eliminate distractionsUse imagery and symbols that are relevant to the viewer. These should make sense based on the tasks viewers will be looking to complete when they see your screens. Be careful when including images that are very attention-grabbing, like people’s faces and pictures of babies. These can easily divert attention from your core message.
• Making great digital signage content: Crafting your copy and call-to-actionKeep your text simple and clear. When writing your call-to-action, start it with a verb, keep the verb and subject close together, and either leave the call-to-action on screen the whole time, or show it several times per spot.
• Making great digital signage content: Sorting out font faces, sizes and stylesUse sans-serif fonts and large font sizes so that viewers can read your message at-a-glance. Don’t use too many fonts in a single piece of content, and don’t go overboard with colored text. Avoid writing in all caps.
• Making great digital signage content: Does color matter?Choosing one color over another rarely has any impact on the success of your content. So, pick colors that meet your business and stylistic goals, e.g. those that match the color schemes of your venues or advertisers.
• Making great digital signage content: Use contrast to your advantageMore contrast between foreground and background is a good thing. A minor change like increasing the contrast by 10% can make the content easier to read, and recognizable to a much larger audience.
• Making great digital signage content: Motion, silhouettes and animationUse motion selectively: you don’t want to interfere with readability or comprehension. Give people enough time to read the text, and don’t move your text around abruptly. When you’re animating an element, try to pick something that has a strong and easily-identifiable silhouette. Consider keeping your logo and other important features on the screen at all times, without excess motion.
• Making great digital signage content: Composing shots and scenesRemember that digital signs have more in common with posters than with TV. Match up your text and visuals, and treat each slide like it’s a stand-alone poster. Use visual transitions to link related slides within a larger piece of content.

Making great digital signage content: Motion, silhouettes and animation

1. Just because you can make it move doesn’t mean that you should. Chances are, the out-of-home environment where your digital screens are located already has a lot of visual clutter. This is true for retail stores, health clubs, airports and practically everywhere else. Adding motion to multiple screen elements may not make them any more noticeable or visible from a distance. So far we’ve only found this to be true in very cluttered environments, but you’ll have to try it in your own venues to be sure.
2. Don’t let motion interfere with readability or comprehension. This one’s easy: if you’re relying on text to get your message across, and the motion you’ve added makes the text harder to read, your content’s performance is going to suffer.
3. You get only 1.5 – 3 seconds of full attention for glance media. Thus, any period when important text or other critical message components are off the screen is potentially a missed opportunity to connect.
4. Leave enough time to read the text. Don’t trust your own judgment — if you’re the designer, find somebody who hasn’t seen the content before and make them read it. If they can’t read your message at least three times in the alloted amount of time, either take out some text or leave it on screen longer.
5. Treat moving text like it’s not there at all. I’m not talking about a slight jiggle or flash here and there, but if you have content whirring across the screen from left to right, nobody’s going to be able to read it — or at least, not all of it. So if you really want to make sure there’s enough time to read your text, don’t count your transition times towards the amount of time you’re leaving it on screen.
6. Motion on the periphery is more subtle than motion in the middle of the field of view. A small animation on the border of your screen will exaggerate the eye’s natural left-to-right sweeping motions as it reads along. Putting animation in the middle of the screen next to text will pull the eye away from the text during these natural eye motions, which are known as saccades.
7. The most important features of your spot should be static. If you have an easily-recognized or well known logo, a common catch phrase or slogan, or some trademark imagery, keep it on screen for the full length of the clip. That way, even people who don’t get the chance to see the clip in its entirety will still be able to associate what they’ve seen with your brand or core message.

Content for Digital Signage: Motion and the Infamous Ticker (Those of you who know me, know my stance on them Tickers… Anyway, some key finding from the CNN’s use of Tickers; I like case studies. BUT read this entire post as well)

So “that’s about it.” ~ You’ll have a lot of reading to do, and will need even more time to take it all in and actually execute these principles, but whether you are on the DS side, or the Ad side, the basis of content creation starts right here.

Entry filed under: Brainstorms & Campaigns, Content. Tags: Bill Gerba, content creation, content creation guide, Content Quality, Digital signage, Digital signage Advertising, tickers, wirespring.