Consider just a few touchscreen ideas and their benefits:
- Interactive wayfinding maps get more students to events faster and easier.
- Touchscreen directories let students connect with faculty and staff quickly.
- Real-time interactive shuttle maps let students wait indoors for safety and convenience.
- Interactive queuing systems with updates can lower perceived wait times in line.
- Students can save time by pre-ordering food or merchandise at food courts or bookstores.
Go Social
Generation Z has also been characterized as seeking validation and acceptance through social media. They value peer opinions and have a lot of their conversations online.
Showing social media on your digital signs puts students in their comfort zone. Since they’re used to checking social networks frequently, they’ll be attracted to that content. You can attract students to your social networks by highlighting student accomplishments, promoting their events, sharing photos and other good news.
Students can access multiple social networks on one screen to see photos, posts or tweets in one place. If they don’t follow your social networks off campus, the attraction of a touchscreen can draw attention to get them engaged.
Go Mobile
Every student has a phone, tablet or laptop. Take advantage of this by delivering your communications in formats that are mobile-friendly.
Digital signage systems often let you export your messages as feeds that can go to your school app, intranet or website. This saves you time because you only have to create the message once, and students see the same message across all digital portals so they’re more likely to notice it.
Wayfinding is one of the most popular interactive offerings found on campuses today. If you design it in a responsive HTML5 format, it will size perfectly to any screen or website where you want to include it. You can also offer a mobile wayfinding app that students and visitors can use on to go. This uses beacons placed throughout your campus to provide turn-by-turn directions.
Another option is to include QR tags in messages so students can instantly scan to get more information. You can also encourage them to take pictures of messages by offering a reward – a discount at a café, for example – so they’re more likely to remember the message.
Keep it Simple
Remember that time is the key factor for engaging students. You have a couple of seconds to get their attention and entice them to engage with your message. Keep messages short, visual and give them a quick way to get more information or take action – read, share, act and remember.
Once you’ve mastered your digital signage messaging and delivery, your tech-savvy students will come to rely on your communication portals as much as their favorite social networks.
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