Digital Signage

DIGITAL

SIGNAGE LAYOUT DESIGN AND INTEGRATION OF SOCIAL NETWORK

Hijjaz Hamidi Bin Abdul Aziz • Ruslan A Rahim • Azhar Abd Jamil

DIGITAL

SIGNAGE LAYOUT DESIGN AND INTEGRATION OF SOCIAL NETWORK

Hijjaz Hamidi Bin Abdul Aziz • Ruslan A Rahim • Azhar Abd Jamil

For The articales and photographs reproduced in this book, the Publisher would like to thank the following : National Design Center, Malaysia Post Graduate Studies Faculty of Art & Design, Universiti Teknologi MARA TWITTER

Mc Donalds Malaysia Golden Arches Restaurants Sdn Bhd, Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall Pavillion Shopping Mall Sunway Lagoon

Sunway College Berjaya College KTM Mid Valley & KL Sentral EON Banks

Parkson KLCC Published by: UPENA, UiTM Press, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. http://penerbit.uitm.edu.my/ Design and Visual Development: Azhar Abd Jamil, Fuad Misbah Text Fonts: Helvetica 10pt

DIGITAL

SIGNAGE LAYOUT DESIGN AND INTEGRATION OF SOCIAL NETWORK

Copyright © 2012 National Design Center, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form of by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the prublisher.

Library of Congress cataloging-in-Publication Data Digital signage - Layout Design and Integration of social Network Twitter / Hijjaz Hamidi Bin Abdul Aziz / Ruslan A Rahim / Azhar Abd Jamil

ISBN 000-000-00000-0-0 1. Digital signage. 2. Layout Design. 3. Twitter. 4. Social Network.

5. Coursework Project. 6. Integration with twitter.

Printed by :

Printing Technology Department Faculty of Art & Design Universiti Teknologi MARA Tel: +603 5544 4001 Fax: +603 5544 4002

Hijjaz Hamidi Bin Abdul Aziz • Ruslan A Rahim • Azhar Abd Jamil

PREFACE

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TABLE OF CONTENT Abstract Introduction Literature Review Analysis & Development Testing & Evaluation Discussion of Findings Conclusion & Recommendation References

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his book illustrated the development of application of interactive advertising using twitter. The processes of this research were structured in a form of research by course work. This research by coursework were put to another level where it is important to publish and share the idea and process on how research by coursework can also contributed to knowledge and how designers “THINK” when collecting data and analysed them before proceed to design and visual development. This research by coursework illustrates the research content through visual and presented in a form of “infographic” or poster presentation for conferences and seminar. This book will also help students in master level to have the idea on how to design and understand the process and planning to pursue their studies in master by coursework or mix mood.

Hijjaz Hamidi Bin Abdul Aziz Associate Professor Ruslan A. Rahim (Ph.D) Azhar Abd Jamil (Ph.D)

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DIGITAL SIGNAGE INTRODUCTION

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igital Signage is a term to describe an electronic sign comprises of Liquid Chrystal Display (LCD) or Plasma TV, a setup box (STB) or computer processing unit (CPU) that is being assembled together and used as information or advertising display which being placed strategically in various public venue such as in the shopping malls, retail stores, banks, airport or at universities, targeting to deliver information to specific audience at specific place (refer Figure 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3).

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his design research tries to delve further to understand and solve problems surrounding the digital signage out-of-home advertising, specifically into design and content creation area. It is important to look into these issues of design because in digital signage advertising, the content that being showed on digital signage screen is the most important essence to capture the customer’s attention.

The aim of this research is to suggest better ways to design the digital signage screen and also to create content that is attractive and engaging from the customer’s point of view.

It is also a goal for this research to provide an easy-touse platform for digital signage advertisers to utilize their digital signage whether in stand-alone setup or networked setup. This research suggests the use of full screen timeline based layout for the layout design instead of the commonly used multi-sectioned layout. For the content creation, this research tries to integrate the internet social network onto the screen to make it easier for advertisers to interact with their customers, and vice-versa.

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Figure 1.1: Al Barq Digital Mall Advertising Network in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Figure 1.2: Digital Signage in Supermarket Figure 1.3: Virgin MegaTV in New York

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Compared to conventional signboard, digital signage has advantage of producing dynamic multimedia content that could capture viewer’s attention with video, picture, animation, sound and text. As an advertising medium, it is also very flexible where the user can easily change the content on the screen with just few mouse clicks. In terms of scalability and deployment, digital signage can be configured into stand-alone display or multiple displays assembled on different venue connected through networked internet.

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Figure 1.4: Diagram of Digital Signage System Figure 1.5: Advertising Signage in Sunway Pyramid

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Design Due To Common Practice Being relative new in the field of out-of-home advertising, digital signage is far from perfect.

There are problems such as screen placement, LCD burn, overheat CPU, loss of internet connection, lack of safety practice, security issue, vandalism and many other. But as for this research, the focus on design, functionality and usability issue that is centred on the content creation.

Admittedly, there are a many types of layout customization in digital signage depending on client’s preference. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that all digital signage practiced the same layout design. The approach of designing the layout is very much similar to website design where it can be designed in full screen or by splitting one page into multiple sections. Until now, there is still lack of truly focused research regarding the impact of these two types of layout approach in advertising. In this research, present some of the issues and argument on this matter in hope to suggest on the type of layout should digital signage developer adopt in order to give more impact to viewer.

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Figure 1.6: Multi-sectioned Digital Signage in Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall Figure 1.7: Full Screen Digital Signage in Pavillion Shopping Mall

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Firstly, there are developers out there that adopt multi-sectioned layout approach (refer Figure 1.6). This kind of layout can be considered as favorite choice for developer and advertiser because it gives better ROI (Return-of-Investment) compared to full screen approach. It is because splitting the screen into multi-section can create more advertising slot. Similar application can be observed in publishing industry (newspaper, magazine and directory book) where each page is divided into several columns with different sizes. The advertising fee for each column is determined by its size. Splitting one page into several pages will maximize profit gathered from multiple problems occur when it is known that customers in shopping malls are not the static type. They are always in moving and that leaves only less than few seconds for digital signage to grab their attention. Moreover, human generally can only focus one subject at a time.

public places. The unwanted distraction on the screen will make it more worst and it will be a great loss in terms of viewership and profit for digital signage when customer starts losing focus to the adverts on screen.

Therefore, in regards to digital signage in shopping malls, there is a need to do research on the most efficient type of layout should be used for advertising in shopping mall. The significance of pursuing this research is for digital signage developer to know of what works best for them and for their customer in terms of layout design.

The findings of the new layout approach could offer better viewing impact to the customer and help to aid their buying decision. This research project will help to differentiate between the type of layout that should be used in shopping malls and other places.

The logical approach is to reduce complexity on the screen, be it for layout design or the content. Complexity on the screen can create competition for attention. There are already a lot of distractions at

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Content Design That Engaging To the Viewer Observations carried out at 4 shopping malls with digital signage shows that customers are only watching the digital signage not more than 5 seconds with 2.5 seconds is average attention time. This indicates attention span that is given to the screens is relatively poor. It is considered poor because advertisement on the screen has duration of 30 seconds to 1 minute each. 5 seconds is not enough for customer to digest the message in the advertisement. In normal situation, people will just glance at the screens and go which left the information on screen were left unnoticed.

Advertisements on the screen could be interesting if it’s related to their buying interest.

Those advertisements could definitely assist customers to know more about certain product and promotion available. But when it is not related to their interest, the advertisement became totally irrelevant. Hence, they will ignore it. Looking at the psychological factor, there aren’t many people that want to look at a screen that is full with advertisement.

For that reason, an effort should be made to overcome this problem because if there is no other option than what it is now, digital signage which is supposed to be a dynamic and creative medium will suffer great credibility loss as advertising media.

We believes that the poor attention span given to the digital signage display is because of content factor. Currently, what has been practiced is putting videos and slideshow of pictures on screen hoping to get customers’ attention to stop walking and spend time to look at the 30 seconds to 1 minute advertisement.

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To find a way to understand on the best layout design for digital signage advertising especially for the crowd in shopping mall. The objective of creating new layout is to reduce complexity, create unity of design and eliminate competition for attention on the screen.

To solve the poor attention span issue and at the same time, trying to introduce a solution to gather more customers to be more interested to see the digital signage screen. To transform digital signage in shopping mall to be more than just ‘advertising TV’ with the implementation of new media approach to capture customers’ attention to the screen.

To create a digital signage system that can raise advertiser’s brand name to be more engaging to their customers (brand loyalty).

The Objective is to design a good layout for digital signage

Redesigning the screen layout from multisectioned to full screen layout will make digital signage more appealing to the customer in shopping mall. The new full screen layout design also will help to distinguish between layout designs in shopping mall than in other areas (restaurant, airport, university, banks, etc).

Integration of social media in digital signage will raise the quality of the content to be more engaging to the customer.

Addition of social media as the content in digital signage will raise the standard of usability.

Hence, digital signage will no longer be just a screen full of advertisement. Instead, social media will make it easier for digital signage developer and advertiser to connect to their customers.

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MEDIA PLANNING Support from organization – shopping malls has strict policy of not allowing anyone to do testing or demo on their digital signage screens. Therefore, this research had to test the sample group in a closed lab/studio area where the sample group are invited to the test in a room and perform their evaluation.

Media requirement – Research and design was done in a specific digital signage system that uses current standard of hardware and software that has been determined by digital signage community.

Exploration on hardware and software systems could not be enhance because experimenting on those two may create confusion of characteristic between digital signage and other electronic display.

Digital signage variation – Digital signage vary greatly between each other depending on its purpose and location. Since year of 2008 until now, there have been many types of digital signage in the market.

During the study was conducted, the most popular type of digital signage was digital signage for advertising. Therefore, it is logical to research on something that is common and easily found rather than something that is unique but hard to find.

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Size and specify in test group – Human has variety of perception and it is impossible to gauge everyone’s perception when the test group is too big. Therefore, in order to give more clean result the test was done to a smaller sample group that was created to represent customers in shopping malls.

Creation of the design – In digital signage advertising, the advertising content is solely depends on advertiser side. Hijjaz will responsible as the developer only acts as a designer for the advertiser; providing design direction and solution based on predetermined design concept had by the advertiser or brand name. In this case, the design will be based on McDonald’s brand and concept.

Application that will be developed will be based on 32” digital signage that is very common in Malaysian shopping malls.

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The Effect of Layout Design On Viewer The importance of layout in digital signage was mentioned by Guy Avital, the co- founder of Chatsworth, Calif.-based UCView Media Inc.

“The design of a digital signage screen layout may not seem as important as the content itself, but it shouldn’t be an afterthought either. In fact, content and layout must work in concert to capture and hold viewer attention.” (Avital G, 2009, para. 1) According to him, layout of digital signage shouldn’t be taken lightly and must work hand in hand with content in order for the message to delivered well to the viewer.

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“The digital signage industry is so new and thus lacks the research on how screen layouts affect consumer decision making.” (“Digital Signage Screen Layout, n.d.)

Based on citation above from an unknown author, it can be assumed that there is a deficient in knowledge regarding effect of layout design in digital signage to the viewer.

Guy Avital furthermore explained that there are certain ‘standard guidelines’ for digital signage layout depending on its usage.

“The implications of chopping a screen into multiple zones are that you turn one big screen into multiple, less readable screens and your multiple zones compete for attention reducing impact and effectiveness of all of them.” (Adrian J.C., 2009) In that regard, the obvious layout design to effectively capturing viewer’s attention is full screen and not multi-sectioned screen. This opinion is also supported by Bill Gerba, digital signage developer and researcher, also the founder and chief-writer of WireSpring (blog that features tips and analysis from a team of digital signage industry experts) with his statement

However, it is observable that Guy Avital’s attempt to standardizing digital signage layout is kind of ill-informed.

It is because what commonly practiced is not necessarily correct. Adrian J Cotterill, editorin-chief of Daily Out-Of-Home seem to agree with author’s criticism by saying

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In addition to that, Bill Gerba also list out 6 steps to better composition:Articulate your core idea as a series of messages that are only a few words long (no more than a sentence).

“Treat the clip as a series of scenes and shots. Just as a movie director composes a film from numerous small pieces, effective digital signage content can be constructed from segments designed to catch attention and relay some information quickly -- sometimes in a mere second or two. To maximize the chance of getting your message across to an increasingly distracted audience, try to remember that digital signs work more like posters than TV.”.

(Gerba B., 2009)

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Think of a single image or visual element that goes along with each of these core ideas. (One image per, for now. Don’t worry, you can add more later!)

Now, take each messagevisual combination and mock up a quick poster.

For example, think about what a movie poster might look like for the message “Tide gets your whites whiter!” Each mini-poster should stand alone -i.e. poster #2 shouldn’t depend on content from poster #1.

Figure 2.12: Natura Cleaner’s digital signage advertisement sources:

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If you’re using a voiceover or other dialog, try to segment it into sound bites that go along with each poster instead of using a single, contiguous speech.

Assemble related “posters” together into scenes with transitions and segues that link them together, but don’t make them depend on each other.

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Finally, assemble the scenes into your finished spot.

What can be learned from Bill Gerba’s “6 Steps To Better Composition” and Natura Cleaner’s digital signage campaign is that they treat advertisement as pages of posters assembled in a sequencing timeline that has successfully created an illusion as if the advertisement is ‘talking’ to the audience using simple direct words and minimal animation.

Author of this research believed that this method is the most effective way to design a digital signage layout in shopping malls.

Most Common Layout In Digital Signage:

Figure 2.0: Layout with 4:3 screen ratio and main media occupying 85% of screen.

Figure 2.1: Layout with 4:3 screen ratio and main media occupying 90% of screen.

Figure 2.2: Layout with 16:9 screen ratio and main media occupying 85% of screen.

Figure 2.3: Layout with 16:9 screen ratio and main media occupying 90% of screen.

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Branded digital signage layout:

Figure 2.6: Layout with 16:9 screen ratio and main media occupying 85% of screen.

Figure 2.5: Layout with 4:3 screen ratio and main media occupying 90% of screen.

Figure 2.6: Layout with 16:9 screen ratio and main media occupying 85% of screen.

Figure 2.7: Layout with 16:9 screen ratio and main media occupying 90% of screen.

Figure 2.8: Three-section menu board layout.

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Figure 2.9: Two-section menu board layout.

Figure 2.11: Layout with dominant main media section and bottom banner.

Figure 2.10 This example of a three-section menu board layout shows the flexibility inherent in displaying food items or other graphics within the boundaries imposed by the design. Menu items also could be displayed across the top or bottom of the screen, down either side or the middle. While the variations are practically endless, the key is to keep the screen clutterfree and easy to read at a glance.

Figure 2.12: Layout with dominant main media section and top banner.

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Poor Attention Span and Ways to Eliminate Them Chris Heap, commercial manager with StoreCastMedia, which operates digital signage networks in Britain’s retail, leisure, hospitality and public sectors, mentioned signage developer can optimize duration of time on screen depending on location and potential viewer, “The average glance for these types of systems is 2.5 seconds, but we also know from our research that some viewers will happy watch a digital signage system for up to 15 minutes in captive situation (in waiting room of a clinic) such as a doctor’s surgery,” he says. “At the other end of the scale, such as in Tesco, you’re looking at a 10 second attention span. Someone is in the coffee aisle and wheeling their trolley past. You’ve got ten seconds to grab their attention, otherwise they’re gone.”. (Heap C., 2006)

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What can be concluded from Christ Heap statement is that, there are distinct differences between certain types of digital signage in shopping malls where attention spans are measured in seconds, and airport, where attention spans maybe 10 minutes or more.

Therefore, there is a need for digital signage developer to make content design more engaging to the audience.

We believe that the key to effective and engaging digital signage content is to introduce interactivity on screen with the integration of social media, and Steve Arel, writer and analyst in Digital Signage Today confirms the fact with his statement,

“In just the last year, social communication has become part of the digital signage landscape.

The definition of dynamic signage has changed significantly in recent years. Though digital signage remains in its infancy, it hasn’t taken long for those in the field to realize audience engagement is the key to growth in the industry.

The push, now more than ever, is to engage people by getting them to interact with a screen.”.

(Arel S., 2010)

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“Social media and networking has become so pervasive in people’s lives, software developers see its integration into the signage medium as a logical step forward.”

(Arel S., 2010)

Figure 2.13: Three Modes of Out-Of-Home Digital Signage Engagement

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The benefits of using social media in digital signage is described

by Stephen Randall, CEO of LocaModa with his statement,

“The big picture is that the industry is very nascent and fragmented, and most companies claiming to use UGC or social media are not really doing so in any meaningful sense. There’s more evidence of social media on signage at conferences and events like pop concerts. LocaModa is pretty much pioneering the space using Text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Foursquare on thousands of screens in venues from Times Square to screens on jukeboxes. Opportunities are best explored from the perspective of end user, networks and venues - benefit via engagement, marketing, ad revenue (in some cases), loyalty and reduced wait time.” (Randall S., 2010) 37

There are a lot of social media out there from Facebook, Youtube, Flickr and Twitter. The challenge now is to find one that suit digital signage in shopping mall. Author opinion is that, the integration should be simple, cost saving and something that could deliver message in real time which in this case, Twitter seem to be the most logical choice. As mentioned by Jacob Elder who is a Systems Architect at LocaModa, a technology company extending interactive media to audiences beyond the web.,

“The universal and ubiquitous adoption of Twitter almost overnight has mobilized the whole world into a scrambling gold rush to embrace it as the central tool in every brand’s “must have” social media strategy. The Digital Out-ofHome (DOOH) industry stands to benefit enormously from Twitter’s explosive growth.” (Jacob E., 2010).

Based on literature that has been discussed above, there are few conclusions could be made. These aforementioned conclusions are in fact, new knowledges that can be utilized by author of this research for his new digital signage project. Among the new knowledges gathered from the literature are;

Screen layout in digital signage should be designed in full screen to eliminate unwanted distraction on screen. Full screen layout also will get rid of competition for attention as suffered from multisectioned layout.

Advertisement on screen should be spitted in ‘time’ and not ‘space’.

Splitting screen in sequencing timeline will create an illusion as if the advertisement ‘talking’ to the viewer.

Usage of social media in digital signage will overcome poor attention span as it (social media) will help developer to create content that is engaging and interactive.

Twitter was chosen because of its marketing prowess. Usage of Twitter will benefited advertiser as it will allow messages such as announcement, promotion and interaction, sent to the customer almost instantly. Twitter also can be used to connect with many potential customers at the location and also connect with on-line users globally through internet.

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This research employed an empirical typed of research in which the study is based on information gained by experience, observation and usability testing experiment. This method refers to the use of working that can be tested during observation and usability testing experiment.

Objective for using this method is to capture contextual data regarding the problems had by the current digital signage. Moreover, this method would allow researcher to identify and learn to understand the problems from collective experience and opinions from others in digital signage field.

The reason for using empirical research method is because it allows the researcher to prove mistakes on the traditional guidelines or common practices in designing the digital signage layout and content design. Empirical research also will allow the researcher to build a new digital signage that based on knowledge that has already known in which the researcher can test his suggested variables based on the standard of today’s digital signage.

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The description of research based on empirical method that was conducted by the researcher:

OBSERVATION: involves collecting and organizing empirical facts.

Facts about problems in digital signage advertising in shopping mall was gathered and documented through on-site data collection which involves site visit to several digital signage locations (Sunway Pyramid, Sunway Lagoon, Sunway Carnival, Lowyat Plaza, Sogo Mall, Berjaya College, Sunway College, EON Banks & Parksons KLCC) 41

Study also undertakes various case study research through reading articles and journals.

Experts’ opinion also was taken into account to strengthen the view by author.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT OF PROPOSED PROJECT

The data obtained from on-site research and literature reviews were used to produce general principles of the problem until it become relevant to the specific case. Then, the general principle from the act above was used to produce hypotheses.

PROTOTYPE DESIGN Solution Research Layout Study (site visit & Case Study) Sketches of Layout Designing Layout Compositing in Adobe Flash Animation Programming Twitter Integration Testing Variables Application Optimization

TESTING: the process to apply hypotheses into design. A prototype of digital signage application was designed based on hypotheses that were formed earlier.

EVALUATION: the process to evaluate the outcome of the testing.

Prototype was demoed and tested to a sample group to test the usability of the application. Data gathered from the usability testing was used to create final version of the application.

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USABILITY TESTING 1

FINAL APPLICATION DESIGN STAGE 1 Usability testing analysis Solution research Sketches of new layout Programming new instructions Testing varibles STAGE 2 Finalization of new layout Integration with new Twitter API Usability upgrade Internet Security Crossdomain Flash compositing & authoring Animating STAGE 3 Testing server request limit Testing Network Application optimization

USABILITY TESTING 2 FINAL EVALUATION AND FINDINGS

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Figure 4.0: Site visit & case study - Sunway Pyramid (Advertising)

Figure 4.1: Site visit & case study - Sunway Lagoon (Information & Advertising)

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Figure 4.2: Site visit & case study - Parkson KLCC (Advertising)

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Figure 4.3: Site visit & case study - Sunway College (Information & Advertising)

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Figure 4.4: Site visit & case study - Berjaya College (Information & Advertising)

Figure 4.6: Site visit & case study - EON Banks (Information & Advertising)

Figure 4.5: Site visit & case study - KTM Mid Valley & KL Sentral (Advertising)

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SKETCHES OF VERTICAL ORIENTED LAYOUT

INTERFACE STUDY

Figure 4.9 Vertical layout varation Figure 4.7: Layout study - Study of current digital signage layout design and it’s comparison to other medium such as website and magazine.

Figure 4.8: Interface study - By taking mobile phone interface design as example, author tries to compare HTC interface design with iPhone design. This study gave insight on how interface could be improved in digital signage.

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SKETCHES OF HORIZONTAL ORIENTED LAYOUT Figure 4.9 Horizontal layout varation

Figure 4.9 Horizontal layout varation

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Detail illustration of the Twitter stream and how Twitter works on the screen.

Process of developing the prototype With help from on-site study and literature reviews, the layout study arrived at a point where the author managed to discover three most common/used layout designs in Malaysia – 60/40 split, 70/30 split and 80/20 split.

Figure 4.11: Three most common layout designs in Malaysia.

Figure 4.12: Designing Twitter Stream on 60/40 layout.

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Figure 4.13: Designing Twitter Stream on 70/30 layout.

Figure 4.14: Designing Twitter Stream on 80/20 layout.

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Experiment on reward based screen plus mobile interaction where viewer (customer) can snap picture of coupon when the countdown timer reach zero.

(This feature was later discarded) Figure 4.15: Twitter Stream illustration.

Figure 4.17: Experimenting on reward based mobile interaction on screen.

Figure 4.18: Measurement of the digital signage kiosk compared with average Malaysian men. Design of digital signage kiosk.

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Variation of sketches of the prototype application.

Author decided to use vertical 80/20 layout because in order to test the problem in current digital signage layout, prototype design should be based on current popular standard. The design is based on McDonald’s design concept.

FINAL LAYOUT OF THE PROTOTYPE

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Figure 4.21: Sketches of the prototype.

Figure 4.22: Placement of advert and Twitter status.

Figure 4.20: Sketches of the prototype.

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Figure 4.23: Prototype main page.

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Timer starts count down. Side advert changes to new advert.

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Application will send request from Twitter server to pull new status every 5 seconds. Twitter status will show the latest 5 tweets from the admin.

Timer is finish. Coupon appears on screen.

Viewer need to capture coupon using mobile phone. Free item can be redeemed at counter.

Prototype application will then be presented to sample group for usability testing. Evaluation will be done using the feedbacks gathered. Then, the result will be analyzed. Data from result will be used to design a final version of the application.

Author named the application as “McTweet Msia: Tweet-ToSignage�.

The usage of vertical layout in 50/50 layout distribution seemed logical as in usability testing, result tells that majority of opinions wanted multiline Twitter status rather than single-line Twitter status. To incorporate multi-line Twitter status,

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researcher decided that a large vertical space on the screen is needed and the font should be big for good readability. Below is the comparison of text readability between vertical layout and horizontal layout when incorporating multi-line Twitter status.

There are two designs for the final application because content (advertisement) has been split in ‘timeline’ not ‘space’. The blue (McDonald’s Breakfast) design is for 9a.m. – 11a.m. timeslot and the red (1Malaysian McDonald’s) design is for 11a.m. – 3p.m. timeslot.

Figure 4.26: Comparison of text distribution on horizontal and vertical screen.

Figure 4.27: Final version of “McTweet Msia TweetTo-Signage” application

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Most digital signage has the capability to manage timeline and advertisement schedule using its content management and scheduling software. The software is normally pre-installed in the setup-box (STB) or Central Processing Unit (CPU).

This is how the advertisement is split into different time.

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Developing the Final Application TESTING AND EVALUATION Two type of testing was done in this project which is:-

Pre-Test was for prototype application Figure 4.28: Another design of final version of “McTweet Msia Tweet-ToSignage” application.

Figure 4.29: Advertisement is split in time not space.

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P o s t - Te s t was for final application

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How the testing was conducted: Due to restriction to test the prototype in shopping mall area (refer Chapter 1: Limitation), a sample group was created to represent majority of customer in shopping mall and an evaluation called ‘Usability Testing’ was done in a closed test room.

Application was shown to the sample group and project briefing was given for them to understand about the process of the testing.

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A sample group comprises of 10 people was chosen from male and female, computer literate and noncomputer literate, owner and nonowner of Twitter account and other different background.

One people from the sample group was chosen to be ‘Content Admin’ and were tasked to hold a smart phone (with internet connection) and update Twitter status (acting as marketing person that promotes McDonald’s product)

The rest of the participant, act as random people imitating customer in shopping mall.

Question asked in Pre-Test Prototype Usability Testing was about demographic, advertising, digital signage, social media & Twitter, design & layout, added feature and overall comment of the application.

Each of them was given an evaluation survey paper consisted of multi-choice questions and fill in the blank questions.

Question asked in PostTest Final Application Usability Testing was about demographics and real life usage of the application in McDonald’s marketing & promotion and its impact to the consumers.

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Before answering survey questionnaire, each sample group was asked to perform a walk imitating a shopper in shopping mall and they had to glance at the screen and the stand at specific length from the screen to understand the advertisement message.

After three minutes looking at the screen, the sample group was asked to fill in the questionnaire survey paper.

The survey paper was then collected. During the test from start researcher wrote any unprompted feedback from the sample group.

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DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS: USABILITY TESTING Usability testing survey paper was sent to a sample group consisted of 10 people. 50% among the respondent aged between 28-32 years old while 40% aged 23-27 and 10% aged 18-22. 90% of them own a computer.

60% of them own a smart phone and it was all connected with internet.

When asked to rank advertising medium from Best to Worst, billboard received the most votes with 80% of respondent agreed it has the most impact in advertising and deserved to be in first place. Second best advertising medium falls on SMS/MMS notification with 60% votes to be in second place. Third place is newspaper with 50% followed by radio 40%, TV 50% vote for fourth place and internet social media at fifth place with 70% respondent agreed it has the lowest impact on them.

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Participants then were asked to evaluate the application design and layout.

80% of participant thought the size of display is good. On attractiveness, 90% agreed the application looks attractive. On clarity of the font, 80% of respondent thought the font is clear to read. On layout, 80% thought the layout is good.

When evaluating the information on the screen, 50% of respondent thought the screen doesn’t have enough info while 20% thought it was informative and 30% thought it was very informative.

70% of participants know about Twitter. But 90% of them are not a Twitter user.

And they did not tweet (the act of posting Twitter status) often.

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Mixed opinions were received when participant was asked the logic of adding Twitter feed in the application.

60% of respondent agreed Twitter feed is quick and easy to get information.

40% of respondent thought it was not a necessary feature because the information is not enough.

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On added feature, 70% of respondent thought the addition of Free Coupon feature is a good move in attracting their attention to the screen However, mixed opinions were received on the Timer where 40% thought it was good, 20% thought it was very good and 40% thought it was not good.

40% participant said they find it difficult to take picture of the coupon and 60% said they didn’t find it difficult. Half of participant agreed that 30 seconds is the most appropriate duration of time given for the appearance of the coupon.

On answering open ended question, participant considered that the overall application looks good, attractive enough, font displayed on screen is fairly clear and layout used is good.

However, information on the screen doesn’t seem informative enough, although the arrangement of the information itself is good.

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In addition to that, participant generally thought that the medium and media format used on screen is considered good.

Improvement needed on the Twitter Feed in which most participants said it should offer more information.

On the added feature, the coupon feature is basically good but should have improvement made to prevent mass sharing and fraud. However, this feature was discarded in latest development as author believed it is not needed or not a necessary design issue that need to be undertaken in this research.

Timer needs improvement in terms of design and placement. Method of getting the coupon could be better designed.

Duration (30 seconds) to get the coupon is good.

Free coupon and twitter timeline design are among things that need to be re-designed.

Other than that, connectivity also needs workable solution as sometimes Twitter feed received connection problem.

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Based on this usability testing, author found out that participant generally doesn’t express any negative concern to the layout design when answering the survey paper. However, from author’s direct observation, they obviously needed an explanation before understanding information on the screen. It seemed hard for them to focus on one particular thing on the screen when there are too many media such as picture slideshow, video, timer and Twitter feed. This mean, author’s hypothesis on multi-section versus full-screen layout design proved to be correct.

(Refer Chapter 1: Hypothesis (i)) On the usability and interactivity of the content, participant that acted as ‘Content Admin’ agreed that integration of Twitter has made it easier for him to update any information such as promotion to the screen and display it to his customers. This indicates that author has shown his hypothesis on the

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usability of Twitter is correct. (Refer Chapter 1: Hypothesis (iii)).

However, participants that acted as shopping mall customers felt that it is kind of bias for people who doesn’t have smart phone when the interactivity on the screen is only available to the Twitter and smart phone user (although they generally liked the idea of receiving promotional information quicker than before with the use of Twitter by the ‘Content Admin’). Author then, managed to explain to the participants that although people who doesn’t have smart phone also could participate and receive promotion update on-line using PC.

POST-TEST: FINAL APPLICATION USABILITY TESTING Usability testing paper survey was distributed to 10 respondents which was a sample group is created to represent majority of shopping mall shoppers. 50% respondents aged between 23-27 and another 50% is 28-32. All of them own a computer and 80% own a smart phone that can connect to internet.

When asked whether they have heard about Twitter before, only 30% said they haven’t heard about it while 70%have heard about Twitter. Only 1 out of 10 respondents have Twitter account.

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Asked whether if participant would subscribe to McDonald’s Twitter account for McDonald’s latest announcement of promotions, 100% said they would subscribe to the Twitter account.For those who doesn’t have smart phone, McDonald’s Twitter also can be subscribed by using PC and notebook.

100% agreed that it is flexible and a good idea. Respondents then were asked about the execution of putting McDonald’s advertisement in Digital Signage. 80% agreed it is a good idea, while 20% thought opposite.

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All respondent agreed that the application successfully provide clear message to the audience.

Layout wise, 80% respondent agreed that the layout of combining picture and text in one unified design (putting picture above and supporting text below) is effective in delivering message to audience.

Colour of the application designed to be related to advertisement concept.

Breakfast menu in Blue/Yellow and Lunch Menu in Red/Yellow. 100% respondent agreed that colour chosen is relevant to advertisement.

All respondent agreed that the text is clear for reading on 32inch Plasma screen (5metre distance).

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An open ended question was asked to the participants to suggest things that can be improved on the application.

Responses:

What do you think that can be improved for this application?

All respondent agreed that if this application were to be put in every McDonald’s branch, it would give them more information about McDonald’s latest promotion. Mix respond was received about the responsiveness of the advertisement message to get to the audience compared to conventional media such as TV, radio and website.

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Complete list of all responses given to this question: Put video advert No comment More animation Include sound Include time stamp in every entry Install more screen in every McD branch No Comment

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Problem that you spotted is ...

Complete list of all responses given to this question No Comment Text can be more animated. Not static No Comment

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Based on available data, several findings have been recorded in which the data can be used to support hypothesis made earlier.

Data shows that in terms of layout study, the combination of picture and text in one unified design has been proven effective in improving audience focus to the screen. The simplicity of the layout that shows each advertisement separated in ‘time’ instead of ‘space’ has made it easy for audience to understand the message on screen.

What can be seen from observation, audience spent more time to look on screen in Post-Test application rather than Pre-Test application. The addition of up to 4 Twitter feed to the screen also contributed to time spent looking at the screen where the audience seemed interested to spend time reading the Twitter text in order to know about latest promotions.

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Majority of participant showed interest in subscribing McDonald’s Twitter to know about promotions.

This indicates that in term of marketing and advertising, Twitter with its social network capability and digital signage that is flexible on location is ready to be the new medium of advertising for clients and advertisers.

Data also showed that even though some people don’t have Twitter account and smart phone, they also interested to subscribe to McDonald’s Twitter using PC and notebook.

All of participant including one participant that acts as McDonald’s marketing manager interested and thought that it is a good idea to put this digital signage application in each McDonald’s branch because they thought that it would give them more information about new promotion.

Several suggestions have been received such as for developer of this application to put sound or song into the application. Another suggestion is to include a ‘time stamp’ in every Twitter post. Animation also seemed to be the a popular suggestion for this application.

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CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION This research has provided many new discoveries. Among the significant discovery is the integration of Twitter in digital signage has helped clients and advertisers to gather ‘followers’ or loyal customer in which, it has become one powerful tool for advertising and marketing. Twitter also has benefited advertiser to update any message or promotion on the screen much more easily than before. The new method of using Twitter has allowed advertiser to update information in mere seconds in which the updates can be distributed world-wide using Twitter.com server all over the world. This design discovery has proven to be cost and time effective.

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Another significant discovery is on how the layout should be designed on digital signage (advertising).

Data from testing and analysis has supported claims made by industry experts and researcher’s hypothesis that the best way to distribute layout in digital signage is to split it into ‘time’ and not ‘space’. Separating one screen into different column for different advertising (from different advertiser) is ineffective because it will only create competition for attention on the screen as seen in PreTest Prototype application. It’s proven with the new design made in Post-Test final application that combination of picture and supporting text in one unified design is much better to present simplicity and to capture longer attention span from audience.

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For further research, future researcher can experiment on the placement of the text and picture as well as the screen orientation specifically on (horizontal) landscape. Author would suggest that future researcher use 70/30 layout orientation. Regarding the Twitter text on screen, author also want to recommend future researcher to research on text movement and animation. It is hoped from that research, digital signage developers would understand more on the best text orientation should be used in digital signage advertising.

Another thing that can be explored is on Twitter request limit in Twitter new API (Application Programming Interface) as it seemed difficult for current researcher to overcome the request limit to server issue because lack of networking and programming background.

It is believed that this research would be much better developed, understood and accepted by the community in another few years because Twitter is quite a new term for current (year 2011) Malaysian people. Perhaps with more understanding later, usability testing would give much more accurate and critical data.

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Reference & Bibliography WEBSITE Adrian J. C., (2009). Tips and Techniques for Digital Signage Layout. Daily-Out-Of-Home. para 8. Retrieved from http://www.dailydooh.com/ archives/8440 Avital G, (2009). Tips and Techniques for Digital Signage Layout. para. 1. Retrieved from http:// www.digitalsignageexpo.net/DNNArticleMaster/ DNNArticleView/tabid/78/smid/1041/ ArticleID/721/reftab/67/t/Tips-and-Techniques-forDigital-Signage-Layout/Default.aspx Digital Signage Screen Layout, n.d. Retrived from http://www.digitalsignageresource.com/digitalsignage-content/digital-signage-screen-layout.asp

JOURNAL Arel S., (2010). The Emergence of Social Media in Digital Signage: The convergence of two technologies is increasing customer engagement and enabling more targeted messaging. White Paper: DigitalSignageToday.com. para 4.

Jacob E., (2010). Twitter on Place Based Screen: Why It’s Not So Simple. Technical Challenges of Real Time Social Media Content Distribution.

Para 1.

Randall S., (2010). Social Media Opportunities and Challenges In Digital Signage Insight Brief.

Advertising Research Foundation. p. 3.

Gerba B., (2008). Making a Great Digital Signage Content: Composing Shots and Scene. The Digital Signage Insider. para 2. Retrieved from http://www. wirespring.com/dynamic_digital_signage_and_ interactive_kiosks_journal/articles/Making_great_ digital_signage_content__Composing_shots_and_ scenes-447.html Heap C., (2006). Ad Based Network Face a Hard Sell. para 14. Retrieved from http://www. screenmediamag.com

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