Content Tips for Outdoor Digital Signage – Motion and Size

Creating content for outdoor digital signage can be a real challenge. There are big differences between indoor content and outdoor content, and a common mistake made by many outdoor digital signage users is to simply transfer indoor content outside.

Different fonts, colors, motions and transitions look and are viewed completely differently outside as they do indoors and just because something has been successful inside does not necessarily mean it will translate outdoors.

Motion

One of the great advantages of digital signage is adding motion to a display. A moving image will attract the eye far better than static posters or signs; however, even with indoor signage, motion can often be over-done or interfere with readability. For outdoors, this problem is compounded by amount of time people will view the image; in an indoor environment you will have perhaps three seconds of attention to get your message across and if in that time images are just moving about without clear text, or a clear message – the purpose of the advertisement will become lost.

Outdoor digital signage has far less viewing time, especially if it is raining or it is cold; people tend to walk quicker outside than they do indoors so you perhaps, get less than a second and a half to get your message a across – wasted if images are moving about and there is no clear text.

Moving text is also a problem because people can’t really read it until it stops. Even in indoor locations the so called ticker (moving text across the bottom of the screen) has been identified as being ineffective – so outdoors it is even less worthwhile using it.

Image and Text Size

Another big difference to outdoor digital signage in comparison to indoor screens is the view distance. Commonly, outdoor signs are designed to be viewed, not just by passersby walking in the vicinity of the sign, but also by people on buses and cars driving past. For this reason outdoor signage tends to be bigger with some outdoor digital screens surpassing 70” and more.

Text size and images, therefore, need to be larger than for indoor screens; the fonts and colors need also to be bold and vibrant so they can clearly be seen at a distance and at a glance.