Walk into an airport, mall or office building and you will notice something that did not exist twenty years ago. Screens. Everywhere. On walls, in corners, from ceilings. Even integrated into surfaces in ways one wouldn’t expect. This isn’t just technology infiltrating once-stationary spaces, this is a substantial change to how people engage with and navigate within public spaces in a way that few understand on a conscious level.
The gradual transition occurs so seamlessly that people do not realize it’s happened. One moment people are reading a paper poster, the next they are surrounded by moving images, shifting messages and updated content that occurs in real time. Yet it was this shift that transformed the relationship between space and its occupants more than ever before.
When Everything Became Dynamic
Gone are the days of waiting rooms with dog-eared magazines and old posters. Virtually everywhere has transformed these stagnant spaces into dynamic points of digital delivery. The doctor’s office shows health reminders at various times of the day; the bank lobby’s displays cycle through tips for saving money and current interest rates. Even elevators – the boxes we barely acknowledge, now host news tickers and weather updates on the thirty-second ascent to another floor.
And it’s no longer just about transforming what’s printed. Static signage can boast one message, one image, one call to action and sit stagnant unless someone comes to replace it. Digital displays opened the floodgates where the same space can promote coffee specials in the morning, lunch specials at noon and dinner specials in the evening. The physical space may be the same, but its purpose becomes fluid.
The Arms Race for Content
What happens next is a shift in expectations that take place faster than anticipated. Five years ago, when a modernized menu board was installed at a restaurant, it looked cutting edge. Now, if that same board does not boast high-definition renderings of food options that change every few moments, it looks outdated. Corporate lobbies battle for the biggest video wall; retail stores create entire visual presentations based on seasonal or time-of-day needs.
It’s created an interesting competitive edge where spaces try to one-up each other with communicative power. Shopping centers recognize that stores that boast dynamic window displays attract more foot traffic, and as such, install similar displays in their common areas. They go a step further: individual stores up the ante with independently dynamic displays. The competition fosters enhanced technology faster than most people realize.
What drives this more than simple competition is results. Spaces that modernize communicative options find a marked difference in how people engage within those spaces. They have information communicated faster. They find wayfinding easier when it involves motion and color. They receive emergency alerts throughout an entire space in mere seconds instead of relying upon what’s posted.
Where Aesthetic Meets Function
What’s most impressive is not that screens are capable of existing within public spaces; it’s how they’re integrated into those very environments. Good digital signage does not obnoxiously beg for attention; it finds purpose in a way that complements its environment without being a distraction for distraction’s sake. A screen in a corporate office can boast company metrics, upcoming events and employee acknowledgements without being intrusive. A coffee shop can use smaller displays for order status updates and menu options without interfering with an aesthetic.
For businesses looking to modernize their communicative offerings, the best digital display solutions offer flexible options that physical signage cannot match. They include presentation possibilities from anywhere, scheduled programming and situational responsiveness – whether that’s boasting an unexpected surplus of goods or providing instant announcements.
Aesthetic considerations became more important than anticipated. Early digital signage looked forced – big rectangles that clashed with architectural integrity, but as technology matured, displays became sleeker, smaller, more versatile in dimensions and color palettes and better incorporated into their environments where some are almost invisible when turned off; others double as works of art when functional content is not being displayed.
The Social Impacts
Few realize how much digital displays impact how we wait. In waiting rooms where people usually read magazines or looked at walls, this simple action transformed how people waited. They now glance at screens that display relevant news, weather or information relative to why they’re waiting there in the first place. Perceived wait time actually decreases in front of visual stimulation – even if time remains unchanged, because waiting no longer means boredom but instead outside engagement.
Public spaces also differentiate between residents and visitors throughout the day; data can show that different messages should be directed to commuters in the morning versus afternoon visitors; conference centers can adjust based on what events are taking place throughout the day; universities can compile messages based on dozens of digital displays peppered across a campus; this is campus communication.
In emergencies, this can act as a unified emergency broadcast system like never before, information for weather alerts, evacuations, security incidents can blanket an entire building at once instead of relying on what’s posted or who shouts it down the hall.
The Technology Beneath Us
People typically look at screens but don’t consider what’s beneath them making them work. Digital signage software exists to manage content scheduling and availability, user access and permissions, connectivity with existing systems such as patient management systems in hospitals for wait times; transportation systems connecting arrival-departure databases and corporate offices connecting event calendars with established platforms.
Reliability requirements exist to promote quality assurance; when a space relies upon digital signage for wayfinding messages, menu updates or operational news, they need to function without error; this fosters technology that becomes more robust with remote accessibility for monitoring, automated health checks and back-up solutions if something fails.
Considerations around power consumption taken into account; countless buildings boasting countless screens operating at all times uses energy, so improvements to efficiency align with visual quality improvements, modern screens work on a fraction of the consumption previous versions required while simultaneously promoting brighter images.
What It Means for The Future
Digital spaces will continue to become interconnected; signs will essentially never be removed from public spaces ever again, they’re too integrated, which means increased responsiveness for all involved from screens that boast touch capabilities to gesture control, potentially even facial recognition for customized content although that raises privacy questions not yet resolved.
The revolution already happened even though most people did not recognize it incrementally occurring screen by screen, building by building until suddenly every environment around them became dynamic instead of static – and there’s no going back to walls covered with printed pieces of paper when alternatives can change, adapt and respond instantaneously in real time.
