As users have grown to love their hand-held interactive devices, current market conditions and engaging applications have poised digital signage for an interactive future.
By Ryan Cahoy
Digital signage has become an important medium for communication, with installations in retail outlets, businesses, hospitals, campuses and government facilities all over the world. While consumers have embraced the signage, the next step in the industry’s growth is to provide the same type of interactive experience that users have with their touch-screen-enabled hand-held devices.
Interactive digital signage is a natural for locations that feature numerous visitors who are unfamiliar with the setting. Some examples include hospitals, which often feature complex traffic patterns; college and universities, which contain numerous buildings; and casinos and hotels, which need to steer large numbers of guests toward amenities and conference/meeting room locations.
Following are three ways that companies can benefit from interactive digital signage.
• Interactive Wayfinding. Companies with large buildings or campuses can be difficult for visitors to navigate, leaving company receptionists and security guards to direct traffic. A touch-enabled digital sign can improve visitors’ experiences, while freeing personnel to focus on other tasks.
Interactive wayfinding systems offer significant improvements over traditional maps. Companies can link event schedules to a mapped location, or link directories of people and departments to a specific location. Zoom-in/zoom-out views offer a higher level of detail, improving navigation. And users can use interactive directories to find specific amenities, such as on-premise restaurants or other services.
In addition to improving everyday navigation, interactive signage also enables companies to react to disruptions such as construction by easily re-routing traffic. Companies also can plot each end-point independently, which redraws all routes automatically if a display is moved.
• Interactive Concierge. While every visitor benefits from the “personal touch,” it’s challenging to provide services around the clock. A touch-screen display can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to help your visitors find what they want, when they want it, with the simple swipe of a finger.
Even when staff is on duty, interactive concierge systems enable companies to post event schedules, point visitors to key amenities and services, and to categorize and organize large volumes of information to be presented on demand. Viewers can navigate and search simply by touching the display. Companies can even use the technology to provide coupons, announce specials and list promotions.
• Interactive Donor Walls. Many hospitals and universities rely on generous donors and patrons for funds, and corporations like to recognize employee achievement — interactive signage is a unique way to show appreciation. Interactive donor walls enable viewers to interact with and search for people who have been recognized.
Viewers can go beyond looking at names and pictures and link to biographies and other donation information. Corporations and entities can display an unlimited number of donor profiles, and enable viewers to navigate and search all of this information by simply touching the display. For special recognition to top donors or achievers, companies can create a “featured donor” section on the display, including text that explains the reasons behind a donation, and a picture of what the donation went towards.
Practical Considerations for Interactive Signage
Before investing in an interactive signage display, companies must consider three factors: durability, cost and return on investment.
• Durability: Unlike traditional digital signage, interactive displays are designed to be touched, and users will poke and prod at them multiple times within a day. The good news is, today’s commercial-grade products are designed to be rugged enough to withstand this use. Protective features such as screen coverings offer more durability, and some products work even in harsh weather conditions, enabling, for example, skiers to wayfind even while wearing gloves.
• Cost: Costs for touch-screen and other interactive signage products have come down substantially within the past year, lessening the gap between traditional and interactive signage. While they still are more expensive, customer expectations will drive demand for interactivity — and prices will continue to drop.
• ROI: With traditional signage, companies estimate traffic count and make assumptions on how many people viewed their message. With interactive signage, companies can run reports on how many people touch any individual item, making it far easier to measure. For example, with interactive signage, a mall can track how many people searched for a specific store. While most companies factor return on investment in purchasing decisions, a smarter approach is to measure their return on objective. Companies must determine what they want to achieve with their interactive display. Some goals include boosting employee productivity by reducing time spent providing directions, improving visitors’ experience by offering in-depth, around-the-clock information, and attracting more visitors to specific amenities and services, such as restaurants and shops. With specific objectives in mind, it is easier to evaluate the investment.
Interactive signage offers numerous opportunities for companies to improve their connection with visitors and customers, and to streamline their ability to provide helpful information. With hand-held devices leading the way, consumers will become more facile with touch-screen technology, and start to expect it in every environment. Now is a great time to evaluate interactive digital signage installations for your business.
Ryan Cahoy is Managing Director of Rise Holdings, the parent company of Rise Vision, a provider of SaaS-based digital signage software, and Rise Display, a system integrator for interactive displays, LED tickers and video wall technology. Ryan will be moderating the seminar “Trends in Interactive Gestural and Touch Screen Applications” at DSE 2010.