Easy Digital Signage: a Checklist of Features for Assessing the Usability of Software

This article will provide businesses with a comprehensive checklist of features to assess the usability of digital signage software, ensuring they choose a solution that is easy to use and effective for their needs.

Digital signage is a way for companies to modernize their marketing, increasing brand awareness by upwards of 50%, improving the customer experience, and taking advantage of cost-effective advertising spaces that lead to increased sales and even reduced wait times.

Given all of these benefits, usability is crucial for digital signage, and usability comes by way of easy digital signage software.

The checklist of features for assessing the usability of digital signage software

As a business, what are the features that give you better access to easy digital signage? Easy-to-use digital signage should include a user-friendly interface and a template library that makes it simpler for you to develop cost-effective advertising, as well as scalability for when your business needs to expand, support, and more.

User-Friendly Interface

One of the most important aspects of an easy-to-use digital signage solution is a user-friendly interface. As the customer, your business shouldn't have to struggle to figure out the interface with which you are working. When you are trying to display advertisements and dependable ways to reduce perceived wait times for clients and customers, you need software that's easy to manage.

Template Library

A template library is an integral part of easy digital signage software. This type of software should provide professional-looking templates that you can use to display a wide range of information, and this can include things like company updates, menus, directories, or weather forecasts. 

Every company is different, and your needs regarding digital signage might change from time to time, which is why having a template library is so crucial. Access to a professional-looking template library makes it easy for you to browse templates that are pre-installed, make adjustments so they are personalized, or create your own content in a matter of minutes.

Content Management System (CMS)

A content management system is software that provides you with the ability to display the things you create using your template library on any of the screens that you have within your company. Digital signage content management systems are best when they support a variety of media, including live stream, video, animation, image, and text.

Integration Capabilities

Where easy digital signage software is concerned, integration capabilities allow you, as the business, to connect with other external data sources. This type of connection means that the content you display is much more relevant and dynamic. Some options include connections to internal databases or news updates. You might even need displays for real-time weather or social media feeds. These types of connections and integrations can encourage customer engagement. 

For example:

• Retail industries might want to use integration capabilities with an internal database so that staff members can look up what products are still available and in which quantities, having that information quickly on display. 
• Digital displays outside of event centers and concert venues can use the same type of integration capabilities to display content from internal databases that reflect how many tickets have recently been sold for specific shows or how many spaces are left at an upcoming event.

Remote Management

Remote management enables easy-to-use digital signage capabilities for business owners and employees who need to be able to manage the displays on digital signage no matter where they are. 

This is particularly important for people who might need to change the displays but are not currently at the office or in the storefront, who want to update based on holidays, or who need to immediately change digital signage following things like natural disasters or emergency changes.

Scalability

Scalability with easy digital signage software makes it possible for businesses to adapt to their changing needs and to grow their business without incurring unnecessary costs. Scalable software means that functionality and quality stay the same while companies can do things like handle an increased number of audience segments or expand the number of networks they have across different locations.

This goes hand in hand with Remote Management capabilities, which allow businesses to oversee all of their digital signage from a central location even if the displays are in geographically different locations, including different rooms, different cities, and different states.

Content Scheduling

Content scheduling is another key feature that businesses should look for when using easy digital signage options. While remote management does make it possible to manage and change the display content, updating different templates based on things like season and content scheduling makes it possible for businesses to engage customers who fall into different demographics.

For example:

• An office that has digital displays outside of conference rooms can change the content based on the meeting schedule, scheduling the display material for whichever groups are using the facilities.
• Retail companies can use content scheduling to display different materials based on the time of day, especially if, for example, older demographics show up during the day while younger demographics and families do so in the evening.

Support and Training

Good digital signage should include support and training, especially when you first get started. Training will help you understand and interface no matter how easy the layout is, and ongoing support will be available when you run into challenges. Be sure to verify the type of support. Some software comes with different levels, such as standard entry-level packages or enterprise-level packages, each of which might come with different levels of support, such as chat only or phone calls.

Conclusion

There are several key features to look for in easy-to-use digital signage software, including good support and training, an easy-to-use interface, scalability, content scheduling, remote management capabilities, and integration. It is essential for businesses to assess usability to ensure successful digital signage deployment. Use this checklist when evaluating digital signage software options so that you can trust that your solution is the right one.