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Laura Miller (Bio)
Director of Marketing
KioWare

Digital signage tips for targeting teens

Tuesday, 25 February 2014

Do website usability rules translate to digital signage?

As hardware providers, software providers, and application developers for digital signage, we sometimes leave the “content” portion of digital signage to our clients. We assume that advertising agencies and in house marketers have the content piece of their message under well in hand. While that is often the case, it is particularly important to make sure that the digital signage applications and content are both developed with the end user and usability in mind.

Digital signage user interface testing and standards seem to be less well researched and defined than those in the website usability/UI/UX industry. Utilizing some of the learnings from web design, we can extrapolate some digital signage best practices. Specifically what differences should be considered when designing digital signage for a teenage audience?

According to a study by the Nielsen Norman Group, there are many incorrect stereotypes about teenagers. Unlike the stereotypes, teens are not “supremely tech savvy”, they don’t “use smartphones for everything” and they don’t “want everything to be social.” They also don’t “just want to be entertained online with graphics and multimedia.”

Some website usability findings to consider when creating digital signage:

Teens perform worse than adults because of insufficient reading skills.
Teens have dramatically lower levels of patience.
Teens do not like small typeface.

A few web usability tips that translate well to digital signage or are already a part of the digital signage lexicon:

Don’t talk down to teens.
Teens don’t like the heavy, glitzy, blinking graphics that designers think they like. They prefer clean, modest, but still cool designs.
Minimize the amount of text.
Interactivity is appealing, where possible.

For more on website usability for teens, and to see if additional findings also translate for digital signage, visit NN/g at http://www.nngroup.com/reports/teenagers-on-the-web/

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Posted by: Admin AT 11:03 am | Permalink | 0 Comments |

Using digital signage to show brand humanity

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Moments of institutional greatness are captured when corporations, governments and individuals respond to current events and tragedies with grace, humanity and compassion.

For example, France changed the lights on the Eiffel Tower to reflect the colors of the South African flag in honor of Nelson Mandela's death.

Chicago teams sent the Boston Herald an advertisement supporting them for being Boston Strong after the Boston Marathon Bombing.

In an article on BrandChannel.com, branding experts show how brands should respond to tragedy and/or triumph. They provide an example from a running site that posts support for the Boston runners in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing. The post shows support without pushing a product.

Digital signage can add value in a similar way. Recognizing current events and acknowledging those that may be impacted by the event can have a strong impact on the perceived intentions of the brand. It is kind.

Using the example of Nelson Mandela's death, a company that wants to show awareness and compassion might change their digital signage to reflect their sympathies. An action such as this wouldn't be authentic (in this example) for a Dunkin Donuts or Bank of America, but might be spot on with a brand like United Colors of Benetton or Coca-Cola that pride themselves on being international in scope and appeal.

While content that shows awareness of current events can illuminate the humanity of a brand, it can also be used inappropriately and with poor results, as in the Epicurious Twitter example referenced in the Brand Channel article:

The list of social media brand auto schedule "don'ts" is long but includes this automated tweet from the NRA in the wake of the Colorado theater shooting:

Digital signage users can learn from the mistakes brands make in social media. They can modify their content on the fly to reflect their awareness.

The key tips for digital signage from the social media world are simple:

Show humanity.
Have compassion.
Build a real community.

Digital signage helps to bridge the gap between advertising and life in a way that print advertising can only do with the purchase of a full-page ad in the Boston Herald. Digital signage can help brands to bring their online humanity to their real life customers with one authentic and appreciated tribute. What brands have you seen that could benefit from showing some humanity?

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Posted by: Admin AT 10:09 am | Permalink | 0 Comments |

Kiosk usability testing and end-user research

Tuesday, 04 February 2014

Usability can make or break the success of any new website, application, or software. Also known as the UI (user interface) or UX (user experience), usability refers to the user's ability to successfully navigate a product in the manner intended to accomplish the desired tasks. There are entire industries built around better understanding these experiences, from optimizing a website checkout process to encouraging users to visit a particular page. These research industries use buzzwords like Voice of the Customer, Consumer Obsession, and User Experience Advocate and they staunchly advocate that nothing be deployed without an extensive cycle of research, testing, revision and testing.

Why usability testing?

Why is usability testing so necessary? While the layout, process, verbiage and navigation of a website, program or application may make sense to those involved in the design, they don't always seem so obvious to the user. Age, technical savvy, and education may play a role in how a user navigates, but so too may cultural differences, intended goal, and fresh eyes. Knowing your user, and their abilities, goals, and environment are key components to creating a successful product.

Why does UX matter?

Why should we care about User Experience? Self-service kiosks are responsible for setting up a user's experience with a brand. There are many moving parts in a kiosk deployment. Three that come to mind from the start include: hardware, application/program, and lockdown software. Watching how these things work together to make for a comprehensive user experience is an important component to a successful and enjoyable user experience.

Kiosk usability fail

Here's one example of how a kiosk deployment can fail (and yet, still "succeed") in a restaurant environment. The waiter, in this example, finds a workaround for a system that is not serving their needs. It's a must read for any naysayers of usability testing and observation as a means of testing and refining software. According to the author, "Computer systems are not always used as the developers suppose." As evident in this example, computer systems are not always used as the developers intended, nor as they would hope. More importantly, a complicated system is not always the answer.

The only way to know how users will interact with your kiosk is to observe them via lab controlled usability testing and in-field studies. In addition to traditional observation techniques, technologies such as heat mapping and eye tracking can also be used to better understand the user experience. Kiosk software with server capabilities can also assist in gathering usage statistics. In future posts, we'll identify common usability errors, solutions, and research methods.

Are you observing your kiosk in action? Does your client allow time for testing? What is your favorite example of something you discovered (and corrected) through usability testing?

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Posted by: Admin AT 10:18 am | Permalink | 0 Comments |

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