Content

Purpose-first: Rules to create immersive digital signage content and experiences

Meghan Athavale, CEO at LUMO Interactive, spoke to Digital Signage Today about the changing landscape of digital signage, to share rules for content development, and to share insights from her multihyphenate journey as a digital signage pro, a game designer, a digital artist, and a startup co-founder.

Image: Adobe Stock (generated with AI)

June 7, 2024 by Daniel Brown — Editor, Networld Media Group

The pace of tech has never been faster, and it's hard to keep up in the digital signage industry (and life itself) as AI is poised to transform nearly every aspect of life, from business to education — and even the arts.

A flurry of AI announcements has filled industry news recently — Fable has launched Showrunner, a platform to allow users to make their own TV shows via AI prompts; Korbyt has made AI a major priority in digital signage software development; and 22Miles unveiled a range of AI tools for wayfinding.

Perhaps more than any industry, digital signage is consistently at the forefront of emerging technology while deeply incorporating the power of art and human dynamics via content, whether creative is made for DOOH ads, a university, or a corporate campus.

Because of this dichotomy between art and technology, and because of the ever-faster evolution of our industry, it seemed like the perfect moment to reach out to a leading innovator in the digital signage space (who also happens to be an artist). Meghan Athavale, CEO at LUMO Interactive, spoke to Digital Signage Today via email interview to dive deeper into the changing landscape of digital signage, to share rules for content development, and to share insights from her multihyphenate journey as a digital signage pro, a game designer, a digital artist, and a startup co-founder.

Q and A with Meghan Athavale

Q:Could you briefly introduce yourself and your work to our readers?

A: My name is Meghan Athavale, but I also go by my artist's name, Meg Rabbit. I'm a digital artist and entrepreneur, originally from Thompson Manitoba. In 2010, I started an interactive software company called LUMO Interactive with my friends, Curtis Wachs and Keith Otto. We make a software platform called LUMOplay that allows anyone with a projector or digital display to make large scale, custom interactive experiences.

Q:What's your take on AI (including genAI) in the digital signage space as a content creator?

A: I think generative AI has a lot of potential to help generate great concepts, and a lot of potential to create misleading and actively harmful content. Like all truly disruptive tools, there is a lot of misunderstanding about what AI is as a whole, and what it can do. Simplified, AI is a way to predictively generate output from a prompt based on an evolving training set, where the prompt and the output themselves become part of the training. The output can be text, images, video, or processes like code.

I think artists are collectively navigating the ethics of using these tools, and there's no one right answer to how to use them ethically. These are the questions I ask myself:

Is it my intention to create something that has to be unique to me/my client?
If I contribute my ideas/prompts into this tool, can my input be used to produce content or train a product that I don't trust?
Is the output of this prompt potentially misleading the audience, or misrepresenting a product, service, or individual in a way that is harmful?

If the answer any of these questions is yes, then I don't use AI.

Q:"Experiential" is the theme in so many industries, perhaps especially in retail. How do you gamify events and spaces to create a memorable experience?

A: I always recommend approaching projects purpose-first. If the purpose of the experience is to engage customers more personally with a brand, for example, I try to understand the customer's unique qualities, and try to uncover connections between those qualities and the brand's products and services so that an experience can be created around those connections. If the purpose is to educate visitors, then I identify the learning goals and find out where the visitors are going to be most receptive to and enthusiastic about receiving that information.

Gamifying things doesn't always mean badges and challenges. In my opinion, the best games invite the player to explore, and reward them for engaging in a way that is meaningful and memorable.

Q: Somewhat related, what's your advice on adding digital experiences to product lines?

A: Respect your development team. Whether you're adding a fully functioning mobile app to control a light or using a QR code to deliver your user guide, give your dev team time to build, test, and polish the unboxing experience, plan for ongoing updates and changes, and implement a clear communication and update process so customers understand the maintenance associated with any digital component of your product. You should include your digital strategy in your entire product life cycle, which means that your digital elements should not hit end of life until your product does. This is especially important with cloud-enabled products like digital signage, appliances, and toys. Nothing will hurt your brand more than a product that loses functionality over time because your development strategy was poorly managed.

Q: Digital signage is seeing something of a renaissance in education. Can you say a word about what you've learned about doing digital signage and content the right way in the school context, particularly around the k-6 space?

A: Teachers are busy. Many schools are underfunded. The best digital signage solutions in education acknowledge this reality, and provide free, easy to access training and resources designed to save the education market time and money and help them do their jobs better.

Companies making products for education are better off investing in research-based case studies than in flashy marketing. Education is not an industry for novelty – it's an industry that needs help, and the pandemic proved that digital signage is especially well-positioned to step in and provide resources that address a lot of the problems, whether is giving classrooms more effective remote-learning solutions or arming teachers with content and delivery platforms that help them manage larger class sizes.

Q: Why is content still overlooked in so many digital signage projects, and can you share advice for businesses about picking a good content partner for digital signage?

A: I think this is a business model issue. SIs and AV integrators still operate largely on a dealership model that isn't great at recurring revenue or long-term community management, whereas content, because of its reliance on software and stock subscriptions, has very readily adapted to a model of recurring revenue and long term, value-add planning.

The best way to find a good content partner for your long term projects is to find a stable creative agency that will support your company's transition into a sustainable recurring revenue model with a solid reseller, affiliate, or rev-share program. Companies like these work well with other creatives and will have a great reputation among other content creators. Avoid companies with a high transiency rate, poor process documentation, and bad partner or customer ratings.

Q: Can you share some of the most important rules for creating/developing digital signage content?

A: Rules for digital signage content:

Projectors do not do the color black. That's not how light works. Use an appropriate screen if you want contrast.
People get bored. The more often someone sees your content, the more often you need to change it up.
Every digital display that can be touched is a touchscreen. There's no excuse not to make your screens interactive, and giving your audience agency to see what they want to see is how you get them to look.
There should be a CTA on every screen, and ideally it should be tailored to whoever is looking.

Q: You wear a lot of hats as a CEO of a self-funded startup (something many of our readers can relate to!) What are some of the biggest challenges and lessons you've taken from this journey?

A: My biggest challenge in the beginning was knowing who to take advice from. Like many founders, I suffer from imposter syndrome, and in my case it was infinitely worse because I didn't graduate from high school and have literally no business education. Being self-taught means I didn't have the benefit of tests and feedback to let me know when I was doing a good job. My only indication was whether we were able to pay our bills or not.

I learned that there are good and bad ways to make money, and that this distinction is deeply personal. For me, VC funding is not a good fit. It's important that our company remains an inclusive, supportive place for people with disabilities, and that our service is customer-focused rather than profit-driven, which means that we're better off as a lifestyle business. It took a long time and a lot of painful meetings to realize this, but since then, our team and our customers have all been much happier.

Nowadays the biggest challenges are related to being self-funded. I'm ambitious, and there are so many cool things I want to do and create. Every day I have to remind myself that it's okay if I don't get everything done. I'm learning to prioritize focusing on work that will lead to long term sustainability rather than getting distracted by the latest cool gadget or content trend. It's still challenging, but I think it's made me a better leader.

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About Daniel Brown

Daniel Brown is the editor of Digital Signage Today, a contributing editor for Automation & Self-Service, and an accomplished writer and multimedia content producer with extensive experience covering technology and business. His work has appeared in a range of business and technology publications, including interviews with eminent business leaders, inventors and technologists. He has written extensively on AI and the integration of technology and business strategy with empathy and the human touch. Brown is the author of two novels and a podcaster. His previous experience includes IT work at an Ivy League research institution, education and business consulting, and retail sales and management.