Design is a varied and somewhat delicate subject as what looks incredible to one person can look positively abhorrent to another. But when it comes to your digital signage, things are a little less subjective. Because while one person might love intricate text and bright colours, it might not necessarily read very well when it’s blown up onto a gigantic LED screen.
So, to help all businesses, regardless of size or sector, make the most of their digital signage, here’s a rough guide to ensuring everything is clear, attractive and engaging.
Get the right screens
The first and perhaps most important part of the process is to invest in the right hardware. First of all, consider what kind of content you’re going to be displaying. Is it primarily going to be video content, information or static images? For video, you’ll need an LED video screen or video wall that will allow you to display high definition video, whereas if you’re only interested in displaying information, then a scrolling LED sign might suffice.
A good middle ground option would be a digital information screen. These screens are smaller and more defined than their larger counterparts and are ideal for getting across marketing messages. These screens are also perhaps the most flexible when it comes to the kinds of colours and fonts you can clearly use in your content. Speaking of which…
Basic design principles for digital signage
At the very least, it must be immediately obvious what your images are and what they’re trying to promote and what your copy is saying. Remember, people will be viewing this signage from a distance and multiple perspectives. Basic rules for legibility include:-
Bigger is better – Think about how far most of your viewers are going to be from the screen and choose your font size accordingly. If you’re going to be mounting your screen in a hotel lobby, for example, you might be able to get away with smaller font size. However, if your sign is going to be outside the viewer is going to be much further away and a larger font will be required. Generally speaking, however, if you think you’ve settled on a font that’s big enough, always go a bit bigger.
Brevity is the soul of wit – Stick to the rule of 3×5 when it comes to your digital signage content; three lines of text each with less than five words or vice versa. The more words there are, the less likely the message is to sink in. Of course, if you’re installing a health and safety sign and need to stick to regulation text this rule won’t apply but for all marketing signage, the 3×5 rule is basically gospel.
Don’t mix and match – A design should never use more than two fonts. Different fonts create a contrast that can make your design difficult to understand, particularly from a distance. At most, you should be sticking to two fonts but we’d generally recommend keeping it to just the one, if possible.
Sans Serif is industry standard for a reason – Sans serif fonts might not be the ones you naturally lean towards but they have been proven to be the easiest fonts to understand. That’s why they are used so often – they are the perfect fonts for digital signage. Being unique is all well and good but if nobody can understand your message, it’s not really going to be worth it.
Oh and one last thing; think long and hard before using italics. It might seem like a good idea at the time but they are always going to be significantly harder to read at a distance. The same goes for ALL CAPS. As far as bold is concerned, however, go nuts!
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