8+ Tips to Forever Avoid Tacky Digital Signage!

Accidentally creating tacky digital signage is quite easy to do. Throw the first available visual elements at the screen, use random colors, and pick the most embellished font for your content. The issue, of course, is that no one really likes looking at tacky digital signage. So much so, in fact, that people are not really inclined to look at your display for long, it may also tarnish your business’ reputation.

As we want to avoid it as best as possible, below you’ll find a quick list of tips to apply in your design process to ensure the word “tacky” never crosses the viewer’s mind.

1. Minimalism is your friend

Less is more, particularly with digital signage content. Keep your designs clean, with plenty of whitespace surrounding content elements to avoid cluttering. The minimalistic approach is a must for displays aiming to deliver a message quickly. Yet, even in cases where the user spends more time by the display, such as in a lobby or a similar waiting area, avoid cramming too much info into a display. Separate content into multiple slides and have the content auto-rotate or let the user pull it up on demand.

2. Use consistent branding

Sticking to a consistent color palette makes the content look professional. It’s alright to use more than one font, even though it’s typically not recommended, if you do so with care and stick to the same fonts to maintain a consistent appearance. For example, keep headings in a consistent style, font, and size, so the viewer learns to recognize them faster.

Apply brand consistency to everything. This includes the templates you use, the tone of your messaging, the colors of your advertising, and, of course, the brand logo. Mixing random colors and just throwing some content together instantly cheapens the content and steers you faster toward tacky digital signage!

3. Limit animations and transitions

Animated content is an awesome way to tug at the attention of anyone passing by your display. It is also great to engage a captive audience, reminding them of the display’s presence and inviting them in. With that said, excessive animation comes off as tacky, desperate, and even annoying at times.

Simple elegant transitions between slides are ideal. Even slight movement is enough to pull the viewer in. Sliding transitions are always professional and smooth. Meanwhile, the fastest road to tacky digital signage is putting up non-stop animations, such as spinning or bouncing logos. In case you struggle grasping exactly when and where animations are acceptable, digital signage software eliminates this problem entirely! OnSign apps, for example, contain smooth transitions which bring content in and out. Any animation taking place throughout the content presentation is smooth and professional.

4. Use high resolution images/videos

The hallmark of old and tacky digital signage are generic low resolution visuals and, perhaps even worse, stretched images. They don’t have to be the highest possible resolution known to man, but your images and videos should not appear pixelated. Furthermore, they must be in the appropriate resolution matching the display, to avoid stretched or squeezed images or random empty spaces.

Don’t misunderstand! Gaps and white space between content elements are a very important asset to use, but only when done consistently. Images with inappropriate resolutions mess everything up. The spacing between the elements becomes inconsistent and the visual hierarchy gets thrown off.

This is another instance where digital signage software helps, as you can quickly re-size and tweak your visual elements to ensure they’re the proper height and width relative to other components on the screen. With tags, mark templates for specific screen resolutions.

5. Choose readable fonts

Easy-to-read fonts not only help avoid tacky digital signage but deliver your message faster. Use Sans Serif fonts, like Open Sans or Helvetica, for simple and clean text. Avoid stylized fonts, unless you’re using them in extremely short and large texts, such as your sales promos, where they are clear o read.

6. Use color tastefully

This is another one of those cases where you need to use your judgment and experience. Use colors that have a pleasing contrast and work together. It can be tricky if your brand/logo colors are too harsh when applied to a full screen. You will figure out how to make it work. Apply consistent color to outline frame elements or to the background. Learn more about color combinations by looking at big brands for inspiration.

Digital signage software solves this issue, offering plenty of pre-set color variations that work together. You can even easily apply your own branding by selecting primary/secondary colors to apps, and they will be automatically distributed across the display.

7. Optimize your content!

Below are some short and to-the-point tips which are fairly self-explanatory, but important to mention!

• Optimize content length to avoid the viewer getting bored or overwhelmed by the amount of content. Estimate how long the viewer will give you their attention. For example, in the storefront, a passer-by will give you barely a few seconds, if that.

• Align content elements properly. Make sure all elements are parallel to one another, the white-spacing is consistent, the font sizes make sense, etc. All these things establish a visual hierarchy, guiding the viewer’s eye where you want them to. 

• Preview content in real conditions to get an accurate view of how your content appears. It may appear professional and sleek on your desktop, but when you deploy it to your storefront, the perspective may change!

• Avoid sensory overload. This is an important tip to mention now that we’ve covered all the things that cause it. Too much text, aggressive animations, and ill matching color combinations will overwhelm the viewer. Aside from losing interest, the way they perceive your branding and content will also be affected.

• Proof-read everything! Fairly self-explanatory.

8. Utilize templates for consistency

Templates are the easiest way to ensure consistency. It may take a bit of time to set them up, but once they’re done, maintaining consistency across all your displays becomes a breeze, even if you run dozens of them. Build templates for specific resolutions to ensure no display shows content inaccurately. Try out OnSign and see for yourself!