Creating impactful digital signage is more than just putting together a pretty collage. For the best results, you need to consider who your target audience is, what goals you hope to achieve, and how your digital signage display can help you achieve your goals in your digital signage layout design.
By paying attention to both the big picture and smaller details, you can maximize the ROI of your digital signage solution.
Below are seven digital signage layout design for creating a visually impactful digital signage layout that will grab your audience’s attention:
1. Be Clear on your Target Audience
Digital signage isn’t a one size fits all sort of solution. Before you can create a visually impactful display, you need to be clear on who you’re creating it for.
For example, a digital signage display that is highly appealing to urban females ages 25-40 might fall flat with the suburban males ages 18-24.
Don’t just think about who you’re targeting, but the setting as well. For instance, digital signage displays in trade shows have completely different goals than digital signage displays at airport terminals.
Remember: the same communication strategies, content applications, imagery, and lingo won’t work for everyone. So, ask yourself these questions as you create your digital signage display:
- Who is my target demographic?
- How does that demographic like to communicate / what’s appropriate?
- When and where will they see this signage?
2. Make your Display Stand out Visually
In order to capture your target audience’s attention and help them retain your display’s information, think about what makes a visual element stand out.
Have you ever heard of Fitts’ Law? According to this concept, the size of a target and its proximity to your line of sight has a direct correlation to how quickly you’ll notice the target. That is to say: the bigger and closer it is to the eye, the faster you see it. Common sense, right?
And yet many people fail to consider this idea when designing, whether it’s for web, print, or (you guessed it) digital signage.
So how can you make use of this concept in your layout?
Zero in on the messages that you want to pop and assign them more real estate. Or, bring attention to them by incorporating a different color or shading to attract the eye to these elements.
Your goal is to create a series of content that not only catch the eye, but also provides information in a clear and consistent way.
3. Don’t Get Too Fancy With Fonts
When you look at a billboard, you typically notice the imagery before text. Likewise, digital signage is a primarily visual medium, so it’s best to avoid lengthy sentences. Think of words as design elements that support your visual assets.
Build your layouts around your visuals and use short sentences/phrases to reinforce key concepts. While there are plenty of cool fonts out there and lots of unique ways to play with size and color, viewers should be able to read the text easily and understand the message you’re pushing without too much effort.
Making a word or two pop can be done with a serif or sans serif font but for readability choose simple, unfussy serif fonts.
4. Take Control Of Your Color Palette
“More” is not necessarily better when it comes to color in your digital signage layout. Using too many colors or the wrong color combinations can work against you.
Consider both the setting and the audience when choosing your color palette.
Lillyan Wamaitha is the Marketing Manager at Mvix, headquartered in Sterling, VA. Her team is passionate about creating informative resources to educate digital signage users about using content and design to communicate better.
For example, a brightly colored digital display might be a perfect fit outside of a children’s play center in the mall, but could flop when positioned near a high-end home decor store, or come across as garish in an airport where people are just trying to find basic information like flight schedules.
Choose colors aligned with your branding, but also take into account signage location—choose a palette that is appropriate, appealing, and complementary to the nearby environment.
5. Embrace White Space
Sometimes it’s not about what you do with your space, but about what you don’t do. Negative space, or the “empty” spaces without imagery or words, can give the viewer cues as to where they should look next.
If your layout has too much content and doesn’t give the eye a break, the viewer may do the mental equivalent of shrugging, saying “eh, too hard” and just move on.
Manage white space throughout each of your content layouts and make sure your text, images, and widgets have room to breathe. Cluttered displays distract from your messaging and can be downright annoying to any users who bother to look.
6. Create a Call to Action
If you’ve grabbed a viewer’s attention, don’t waste the opportunity! Invite them to take the next step by including a call to action (CTA) on your digital signage.
But not just any CTA will do the trick. Give them something simple but specific to do. Some examples might be to:
- visit your company website
- take advantage of an in-store promotion
- use your hashtag on Instagram (for instance, to win a prize).
If you’re using digital signage in your storefront, this is an easy way to drive foot traffic inside and bridge your physical and digital assets.
When including a CTA in your digital signage, don’t be shy about it. Take charge: use strong wording and verbs to help propel action.
Pro tip: Create a sense of urgency with a deadline or a date on your CTA for best results!
7. Think Outside The Box!
While you want serious results, you can still have some fun with your digital signage display. Some of the most effective displays embrace a little bit of humor.
So go ahead, make your audience smile–or even laugh! Digital signage content apps let you integrate all kinds of animations, images, memes, jokes, or social media feeds into your digital signage layout to support this goal.
Put some thought into your presentation! It can make all the difference between someone engaging with your digital signage or simply walking by.
Read Next: These 5 F’s are the Keys To Better AV Design Solutions
The Key to a Visually Appealing Digital Signage Layout
The not-so-secret secret to visually appealing digital signage? Taking the time to plan out your overall goals, and then tailoring the colors, imagery, and design so that they can all work in tandem to help you turn your goals into reality.
By getting clear on your target audience, educating yourself on some design basics, and making intelligent decisions with your colors, typestyle, and space, you can create compelling digital signage layout that can help your business grow and thrive.
If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!
Leave a Reply