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Digital Sign Content Best Practices

Follow these guidelines to make the most of your screen designs:

Begin by Designing for Accessibility

Providing access to users with disabilities is not just a good idea, it is the law for public institutions. And you can make your signs accessible to a wide range of users with a few adjustments. Besides, these guidelines are helpful for all users:

Text should be easily visible at a reasonable distance from the sign.

Always ensure that text colors have high contrast with the background color.
Avoid neons colors and white characters on dark backgrounds.
Keep your font sizes large, especially for your main messages. See the the Digital Signage Association (DSA) guide, page 25 (PDF) for a good technique.

The exception to this would be for screens meant for interaction, where the user is standing directly in front of the sign. Even here, though, keep in mind viewers with older eyes or low vision.
Serif fonts work well for long text passages, but digital signs are the wrong medium for paragraphs of text. It's best usually to stick with sans-serif fonts.

Interactive signs should have alternative accessible designs.

Accessible elements (e.g., buttons) must be placed between 36 and 42 inches when measured from the floor.
Consider accessibility when designing your wayfinding content (such as stairs and accessible entrances).

Keep It Simple

Digital signage is communications at a glance.

Keep your words few and short; rewrite a few times to get it progressively more concise
Write in phrases rather than full sentences
Use active voice and action verbs
Deliver a single focused message per screen

Optimize Your Visuals

Simple, relevant images are better than complex ones that draw the attention away from your message
When creating graphics or video, specify a size that matches or exceeds the output resolution you have selected. Also use standard aspect ratios. See the DSA guide, pages 23-24 for more information.)
When developing a screen with multiple content zones, remember that less (fewer zones) is often more (effective), as too much information will overload and disinterest many viewers. See the DSA guide, pages 27-28 for more.)

Call to Action

Getting your viewers to act requires a simple, strong, clear message.

Use strong verbs in a concise phrase
Give the specifics needed to act (e.g., dates, places, phone numbers, a short URL or QR code)
One way to highlight the call to action is by using a text color that contrasts with the other colors used

Consider These Others

Time delay:
- If your sign presents a rotating series of screens, consider the environment when deciding the loop length:
  - A medical office waiting room would probably warrant a longer time between screens, as patients have time to read and want to maintain a relaxed ambiance.
  - A hallway where people busily rush by may call for a short delay, as a screen change may grab their attention. Yet the viewer must have time to read the message.
- For a a refreshing non-pattern feel, try mixing the duration times from screen to screen in a set.
Feed the monster:
Keep your content fresh, or your viewers are likely to start ignoring your signs. See the DSA guide, page 13 for strategies.
Try before you apply:
Before you make a screen public, test it to make sure that what you saw on the computer is what you expected it to look like on the actual signs, especially with regard to aspect ratios and readability from likely viewing distances.
Learn your audience:
Try experiments with your content and watch to see which increase dwell time (the time passersby spend actively reading and/or interacting with a sign)

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