Blog

Don't let buying your digital signage be the most fun part

Have you ever gotten all excited about buying something, but had that excitement turn to disappointment when it was actually delivered? Here's how to avoid that happening when you buy digital signage.

December 17, 2015 by Frank Kenna — President, The Marlin Company

Have you ever gotten all excited about buying something, but had that excitement turn to disappointment when it actually got delivered? For example, almost all of the stereo/AV/cable TV equipment I’ve bought over the years turned out to be way more complicated to use than I thought it would be. But you know what? I seldom thought about that part when shopping. I was enamored of the great sound or fantastic picture I experienced in the store, and never really thought about the four or five remote controls with hundreds of buttons on them I’d eventually have to navigate on a typical evening.

Workplace digital signage is very similar. Maybe you first saw digital signage in a company you were visiting and thought of all the great things you could do with it at your place. However, you probably didn’t think about the nuts and bolts of actually using it. But you should, because if it’s not easy to use, you won’t use it. 

One of the primary considerations in determining ease of use is comparing the digital signage’s intended objective versus its design. If those two things don’t match up, keep looking. For example, maybe you recently admired a digital sign at a retailer showing items for sale. You realized that the sign was probably checking inventory levels, the weather outside and the product shipping schedule, resulting in it displaying the perfect product for that moment. However, while that sign was nicely designed for that purpose, it might be a bad fit for workplace communications because the objectives are very dissimilar. That’s because you’ll likely want to post existing Web content, HR materials, KPIs and CEO videos, each of which has different sources and play times. And you’ll want to schedule their display times according to very different criteria. For instance, if you’re in in a shift environment, you may want to post certain content to appear three times per day, once at the beginning of each shift. But in retail, the audience – shoppers – changes every few minutes. Almost every aspect of digital signage design has similar conflicts depending if it was designed for retail, restaurants, airport and train stations, advertising (think Times Square) ... or the workplace.

Yes, you can use a system designed for retail (or other categories) for your company, but you may not like it, because there will likely be workarounds you’ll have to do on a regular basis to get stuff to come out right. 

The bottom line is to buy the right tool for the job. If you do that, you will actually enjoy using it as well as buying it. Don’t let the fun end the first time you try to post content!

About Frank Kenna

---

None

Connect with Frank: