If you’ve ever designed a campaign, you know how time-consuming it can be to perfect its appearance. Digital signage apps offer a simple way to upgrade your content, designing information in an appealing way without you having to do the designing yourself. Below, we have compiled five main app categories that are certain to meet the expectations of your target audience.
They may be served alongside your main content or even be at the forefront. Before diving in, we must lay down the groundwork to deploy these apps properly and ensure they truly get to shine! Of course, in case you’re already familiar with the basics, freely skip to the app list below.
Scheduling and organizing content
Purposeful scheduling of when and where your digital signage apps are displayed is a key ingredient to success. This means your apps need to appear precisely at times when the viewer will appreciate them. For example, entertainment apps that help pass the time should appear during high waiting times. Location-wise, waiting areas are ideal for this use. Ads, on the other hand, should make an appearance during high foot traffic. In some instances, you may benefit from the combination of both working together.
Organizing your content based on time and location is important. Still, organization behind the scenes is equally valuable, allowing you to find, adjust, and update content easily. Use tags, folders, and permissions to organize the workflow of your content structure, so that it’s as effective as possible. Simply knowing how easily you can update your content will open up time, inspiration, and greater potential.
An invaluable aid to digital signage managers is OnSign TV’s Health Check feature, which supervises everything that happens on the platform. It tracks media usage and player versions, giving you a heads up when you deleted a video from the platform which is still in use by a campaign or making you aware of a newer player version. Health Check is on a constant lookout for any potential issues, including app-related ones, and alerts you how to fix them! As you start managing hundreds of design elements and digital signage apps, it becomes all the more important.
Dynamic Compositions
The Dynamic Composition feature serves as your primary workspace where you will construct the appearance of your canvas from scratch. Simply put, as you build digital signage apps, you may drag them into a new dynamic composition, then—alongside any videos, images, or even other apps—organize them in the way you wish them to appear on a display. Once you’re content with the overall look and division, hit save, and the dynamic composition is ready to use. For more information, take a look at this blog post, which also includes a video tutorial!
With the most important bits covered, let’s finally discuss some of the most important digital signage apps to include in your content rotations!
#1 Menu boards
Coming in a variety of shapes and styles, there are tons of menu boards to choose from. Given the countless things you may need a menu board for, it’s obvious that one size cannot fit all purposes, so it’s good to have a variety of choices. For instance, you may list products, services, descriptions, as well as upcoming activities. You’ll quickly see that certain menu boards suit your needs best.
All of which are, of course, customizable to match your color palette. Choose from simple menu board apps which show a clean list of items and prices or opt for a more dynamic style such as the Casual Menu Board app.
Another powerful option is the Cafeteria App which may be used for a variety of purposes besides being a dynamic menu board. It’s perfect for displaying menu items but also upcoming activities which repeat throughout the day or week.
#2 News & RSS Feeds
The beauty of RSS feeds is that they can automatically provide updated news and infos, and can easily be tailored to match a target audience. With digital signage apps designed to load up RSS feeds in sleek and pleasant ways, they’re a must-have in areas where your consumers lounge or may spend long periods of time.
Meanwhile, News apps utilize data feeds based on information you provide or imported from news sources elsewhere. All in all, these apps provide a really simple way to package and deliver relevant information in seconds. The best part is they’re highly flexible and may cover the entire screen or just a simple ribbon at the bottom.
#3 Entertainment
The perfect way to bridge the gaps between your main content—or fill in any unused corners of the display—are entertainment apps! For a start, these include ready-to-use material such as fun facts on a variety of topics, famous quotes, as well as upcoming movies. Alongside digital signage apps designed for entertainment, you may import your own sources. Stream fun content of your choosing through VLC, YouTube, or streaming apps. Furthermore, consider more specific apps, such as Quiz and Trivia or Sports. Explore these apps, alongside others, on the OnSign TV platform.
#4 Social networks
If you have an active online presence, it’s easy to spread it to your digital signage. Build Instagram grids of images, Facebook feeds, or highly-customizable social media walls. You can isolate content based on a variety of filters. For instance, highlight posts containing specific words or tags, or post content only directed at your business’s social media audience.
#5 Secondary digital signage apps
There are so many apps available on OnSign TV which makes it somewhat of a challenge to categorize them easily. The apps above are all highly impactful and useful to include alongside your main content. In fact, it’s very possible they may even become the platform for it. Meanwhile, there are some additional digital signage apps that aren’t at the forefront, but still do benefit your screens in their own way.
Clock apps, for instance, are a great way to add a bit of decoration to the display while also providing something everyone checks up on from time to time. A well-designed clock app can make the display look professional and put-together.
Weather apps are another example. They are excellent additions to displays designed to greet visitors or act as information terminals. They’re even more useful as a heads up for upcoming bad weather or sudden changes in temperature.
Other available apps depend on your business needs. Exchange rate scrollers, Birthday Apps, Meeting Room Calendars, and Text Scrollers are only a few!
Keep in mind that the digital signage apps mentioned above are only a few of over a hundred available apps on the OnSign TV platform. You can customize each of them to suit your style and needs. And you can try them all for free!
Cover image by geralt.