Digital signage content ideas that people actually read

Before the list of ideas, the three rules that separate a screen people read from expensive wallpaper.

One message per item. A slide with a headline, a supporting line and a price is a message. A slide with five bullet points is a document, and nobody reads a document while walking past it.

Write for the distance. If people stand two metres away, the smallest type on the screen should be readable from three. Halve the number of words and double the type size, and the screen improves immediately.

Everything expires. Every item gets an end date when it is created. A board full of old notices teaches people the board is not worth checking, and that lesson is very hard to unteach.

• The current promotion, the same one the window poster carries, so the message is consistent
• Price and offer for the product the screen is standing next to
• Category guidance at an aisle end: what is here, what is new, what is ending
• Supplier funded placement, which the play record can evidence for the brand paying
• Waiting content at the till: loyalty, the app, returns policy, opening hours
• Weather sensitive items, because an umbrella offer on a wet morning sells
• Staff side notices in the back office, never scheduled to a public screen

• The menu itself, held as items and prices rather than as a flat picture
• Dayparts: breakfast, lunch, afternoon and evening on the same board
• Two or three items with photography, not the whole menu with photography
• Allergen and dietary marks, shown on the board rather than asked at the counter
• Sold out items greyed or removed from a phone in seconds
• What is on tonight: live music, quiz, the match, the kitchen closing time
• A queue screen with something worth reading, because the wait feels shorter

• Current waiting time and clinic status, taken from the system you already run
• Seasonal health information relevant to the people in that room
• Which services this site offers, and how to book them
• Registration steps and paperwork, in the languages your patients use
• Practice notices: holiday cover, new staff, a closure next week
• Slow transitions, larger type and no sound, because the audience is anxious

• The class timetable by studio and hour, following the source it already lives in
• What is on now and next, on the studio door
• Personal training, challenges and membership offers, on a daypart that matches the audience
• Induction and safety reminders in the free weights area
• Opening hours over a holiday, which is the question reception answers most
• Community content: results, milestones, a member's achievement with their permission

• Timetables and room changes, published the moment they are made
• Today at a glance in reception: events, visitors, where to go
• Canteen menu and allergen information, updated daily
• Student work, results and fixtures, on a loop that refreshes
• Exam notices and a quiet mode for the buildings that need it
• An emergency override that takes every screen and lifts when told

• Company notices that are too short for an email and too important for a chat channel
• Live dashboards from your own systems, shown as pages rather than as exported pictures
• Meeting room status at the door
• Safety, security and facilities messages where people walk, not where they sit
• Recognition: the team that shipped something, the anniversary, the new starter
• Travel, weather and transport disruption near the exit at the end of the day

• Corporate video with sound, in a space where nobody can hear it
• A slide that is a screenshot of a slide from a deck, with eight point type
• The same loop for six months, which the staff stop seeing before the customers do
• Nine items in a rotation, when the average person sees two
• Anything with a date in the past still on the wall
• A screen that has been black for a week, which is worse than no screen at all

Give each screen an owner and a slot in their week. Fifteen minutes on a Monday, with a template that only needs words changed, keeps a network current. Use dated posts so old items remove themselves, and use a digital signage CMS where content is fields rather than flat artwork, so changing a price does not require a designer.

Then check the record. The screens that matter are the ones people walk past, and the only way to know they are still doing their job is proof of play.