Photo Credit: Freepik
The way a building is arranged determines how easily people find their way moving within it. The layout setting makes it easier for visitors to be intuitive and think about where they might likely find certain facilities or offices. Information quality also determines how easily people move around.
Studies show that buildings that lack signage cause greater stress to visitors trying to find their way. Quality information promotes smooth flow and discourages people from stopping to ask for directions causing human traffic. Airports and hospitals attract higher human traffic and digital signage wayfinding creates a smooth movement flow.
Limitations presented by traditional signage
Traditional signage picked pace in the 1920s but began phasing out in mid 1990s. At that time, digital signage took huge strides and has been improving since then. Surprisingly, airports and hospitals use traditional signage at a certain percentage to date. You will find pylon signs, banners, billboards, and channel letters in strategic places around these facilities.
These signs meet expected goals to a certain degree but their limitations make them unfit for such busy facilities. A pylon sign or billboard for instance is static displaying the same information day and night unless it is pulled down. Removing it causes another problem because it gets scratched, torn, or dirty making it unusable.
Replacing means going through procurement processes to request quotations, do LPOs, and wait for supply. Mounting it takes another cost and yet it cannot last many years before either fading away or being destroyed by harsh weather. Its cost never remains constant but changes based on prevailing economic circumstances.
The static nature of traditional signage presents limited interactivity making it harder to monitor its actual success. You cannot tell how many people viewed it, the actions they took, their thoughts or feedback. You can only guess based on the people who decide to contact you through email or telephone.
Things like posters, old-form noticeboards, and wall signs offer limited targeting. You can only display general information for use by everyone who passes by or sits in a waiting bay. The information might not be relevant to everyone but they have no option but to consume it.
This signage does not care for the environment because trees have to be cut to make papers or petroleum products used to make banners. Accessing them is hard and they cannot be scaled if the need to add new information or change it arises.
Photo Credit: Freepik
Benefits presented by digital signage wayfinding
There is nothing that you cannot display on a digital signage wayfinding display. You can display educational content, wayfinding, informative text, entertainment videos, and more. This makes them highly interactive allowing audience-specific customization and graphic enhancement.
You can declare it done once you purchase and set up the digital signage wayfinding software and the related hardware. You need to allocate a particular budget because the hardware components could be costly. You require computers, a multimedia center, digital display screens, remote control hardware, and a cloud environment.
One digital screen is not enough for this setup but you require several such as vertical, single, and multiple display screens. This could raise initial costs to a bit higher level but companies can cover that up in a few years. Airports and hospitals receive visitors speaking different languages but they all require communication.
Digital signage wayfinding displays allow posting content in different languages. This content is highly dynamic allowing quick updating to make an announcement, show direction, send alerts, etc. This technology is finding its way into many businesses, especially hospitality, health, and financial sectors. It works perfectly in McDonald’s marketing strategy attracting higher satisfaction and customer base.
How airports and hospitals use digital signage
Several unique places in airports and hospitals attract more traffic than other places. At airports, the check-in/out, luggage, lounge, food, shopping areas, and gates are ever busy. At hospitals, the emergency department, wards, and consultation areas are very busy.
Airports use digital signage to provide flight data, emergency information, and wayfinding. The signage provides detailed direction information to help people understand where to get support. In hospitals, the signage provides health-based information like disease identification and prevention.
They alert people about identified pandemics and what to do to protect themselves. The displays provide direction to various health units and the services they can request. In both places, digital signage is used to entertain travelers and patients as they wait to be served.
How digital signage improves efficiency and visitor experience
Digital signage is dynamic but always accurate since it is controlled from one place and managed by several people. The multimedia room houses editors, creators, and content management teams. They agree on ideas, brainstorm on designs, and approve quality as a team. This ensures the information displayed is relevant to the target group, accurate, and timely.
This signage is safer because it is displayed on screens instead of boards that might fall on people. Visitors in different departments view information tailored for that section. This eliminates possibilities of confusion especially when requiring direction, education, or important alerts. This leads to smoother human flow while navigating the facility and helps boost visitor or traveler satisfaction.
Conclusion
The digital signage sector is fast-growing due to adoption by many industries including hospitals and airports. They perform better than static traditional signage that cannot be changed, moved, or scaled for enhanced experience. These solutions have huge untapped potential such as integration with nano, VR, quantum, and AI technologies.
Bio: Digital signage marketing expert at Kitcast. 10+ years of experience. Delighted with engaging and results-driven content strategies. Achieving measurable results across different industries through innovative marketing approaches and hardware solutions.
