Whether in retail stores, airports, or corporate offices, digital signage grabs attention and is an effective and efficient communication medium.

However, it’s easy to miss the mark in readability and engagement when you neglect or underutilise certain design principles. These principles apply when creating designs for regular or interactive digital signage or dynamic displays. 

There’s no point creating digital displays that users cannot read or connect with. It’s even more critical, considering you only have a few seconds to connect with the audience. 

Below, we’ll explore ways you can leverage graphic design tools to enhance the effectiveness of digital signage designs. 

1. Choose the right font

Font choice has one of the most significant impacts on readability out of all visual elements. While font choice can elevate your designs and make them more modern and sleek, they also offer additional functional purposes. 

Many digital signage content creation tools feature an abundant catalogue of fonts that you can choose from depending on your unique needs. That said, sans-serif fonts offer the best output for digital signage displays. 

Sans-serif fonts have no strokes, which makes for quicker and easier reading over serif fonts. Examples of sans-serif fonts include Helvetica Now, Work Sans, Roboto, Calibri, Noto Sans, and many more. 

For example, Helvetica, Arial, and Verdana are popular as typefaces for headlines. 

Additionally, limit the fonts on each design to two or three max, if you must. Typically, the second font type is essential for creating call-to-action buttons. 

Rather than littering the design with multiple fonts, you can utilise formatting options like bold and font weight to create a clear text hierarchy. This reduces clutter and makes for a smoother reading experience. 

2. Choose the right background for enhanced visibility

The right background can enhance readability and equally make your digital signage stand out even more. There are two primary factors to remember when choosing a background for your designs: striking contrast and colour combination.  

You want a reasonable contrast between your text and background so the former and other interactive elements pop off the surface. We’ll examine using contrast in more detail later. 

Colour combination, on the other hand, refers to how well the background colour and different colours in the design mesh and dovetail together. For example, your text may read well on a particular background, but the call to action button may not. 

It’s, therefore, essential to choose background colours that work well with every element in design. 

3. Optimise font size and layout spacing

Many people who see your digital signage content will likely do so from a distance, at least 7-10 feet away and at an angle. 

As such, you cannot afford to use small texts that are difficult to read from a distance, even for people without visual impairment. Again, you must consider the screen size and test multiple designs to see how well they fare in practice. 

You also have to counterbalance font size with spacing. The content should not cover the entire layout of the design. Leave a safe area around the design to ensure critical information is not cut off during display. 

For texts, follow the 3 x 5 rule of digital signage layouts. There are two ways to implement this rule: 

• Five rows of text with three words per row, or

• Three rows of text with five words per row

The former works better for landscape designs and the latter for portrait designs. Also, ensure there’s adequate line height between each row of text to maintain legibility. 

4. Maximise the use of contrast and colour

One of the most significant considerations when making digital signs is where you’d like your target audience to focus their gaze. This is especially important since you only have a split second to gain the viewers’ attention. Colour and contrast can help facilitate this.

Beyond visual appeal, use colour strategically. There are ample ways to use colour as a functional tool, especially in directing your audience to the most crucial bit of the design. 

Colour can also evoke emotions. For instance, bright and saturated colours elicit excitement, and muted colours may create a sense of calm. 

Regarding colour use, lean into your brand identity, but do not be shoehorned by it.  

Using contrast

Contrast, on the other hand, helps separate the essential bits from the rest of the design, using visual context most humans naturally watch out for. 

The easiest way to incorporate contrast is by using different colours. However, you can achieve contrast with the following too:

• Size: Variations in the size of all design elements.

• Style: The use of different typeface

• Shape and form: The use of shapes and lines that stand out

• Negative space: The empty space surrounding and between elements within the design.

• Movement: Components moving around stand-still objects can create contrast.

• Proportion and scale: The size of each element relative to the overall design and relative to one another.

5. Remember resolution and aspect ratio

Resolution and aspect ratio are essential in avoiding blurry or pixelated images and cropped-out or stretched visuals. Aspect ratio refers to the proportion between the width and height of your display. 

So, if you have a width of 1,000 pixels and a height of 500 pixels, then the aspect ratio is 2:1. Why is this important?

Most digital signage screens come in the 16:9 aspect ratio for landscape screens and 9:16 for portrait screens, irrespective of their sizes. Creating designs that do not match the display's aspect ratio can have consequences. 

For example, creating a design wider than the screen's width will lead to parts of the design being cropped out. Conversely, a design with less width than the screen requires "stretching" the image to fit the screen, making it unattractive. 

With many graphic design tools and digital signage software, you can specify the aspect ratio of your design by choosing the correct width and length for your project. 

What about resolution?

Consider these three designs: 960 x 540 pixels, 1280 x 720 pixels, and 1980 x 1080 pixels. All three designs have the same aspect ratio of 16:9. All three designs will fit a landscape digital screen well. 

However, the sharpness and clarity of the design on the digital display may differ depending on the screen’s resolution and the design’s dimension. 

Standard high-definition (HD) digital screens require designs with at least 1280 x 720 pixels, and full HD screens require designs with at least 1920 x 1080 pixels. 

When using a tool like Canva, you can specify the resolution of your design and amend the same while working, if necessary. 

The best practice is to always use 1920 x 1080 pixels or 1080 x 1920 pixels specifications for landscape and portrait screens, respectively. 

For other device types like iPads and other tablets, the requirements differ. So, you’ll need to research to ensure you’re using the appropriate resolution and aspect ratio for that device.  

6. Spice it up with images and graphics

Images and graphics can enhance your message and increase engagement. For that to happen, the images or graphics should be relevant to the design's message and of a very high quality.

Images and graphics include icons, lines, charts, photos, animations, illustrations, etc.  

Although you can communicate a price discount on all burgers with only text, adding a tasty and visually appealing burger image can generate more interest.

This is an excellent place to stress that you should compress your files to ensure your digital signage designs have small file sizes. Doing this prevents buffering issues, especially when the WiFi network has problems.  

That said, file compression typically reduces content quality. So, there needs to be a balance between sacrificing design quality and optimising for speed. Or better still, funnel more resources into ensuring the WiFi network performs optimally most of the time. 

7. Add strong and persuasive call-to-action 

The call to action should nudge your audience towards a specific action, whether it’s to sign up for an upcoming program or to enjoy ongoing sales discounts.

Here are a few tips to craft solid and persuasive call-to-actions:

• Prioritise verbs and trigger words like “now” and “save,” especially as the first word.

• Make the call to action remarkably visible and outstanding.

• Elicit immediate action and an immediate sense of urgency with limited-time offers. You only have that moment for them to take action. Once they tune out, their mind travels in multiple directions. 

• Context matters. Some CTAs are more appropriate for specific contexts than others. For example, a call to action on coffee discounts is an easier sell in the morning than one asking customers to fill out a survey. 

• Include a reward, especially when the subsequent actions, like filling out a survey, are not directly and immediately beneficial to the customer.

• Keep it short and direct. Five words or less should suffice. 

8. Create a brand identity kit

Canva defines a brand kit as “a collection of design choices and assets that make up your company’s personality and its look and feel.”

Examples of brand kit elements include a logo (and its variants), fonts, colours, and images. 

Brand kits help ensure consistency and uniformity in the designs so that the audience can match the designs to your brand; that is, they boost brand recognition. 

Brand kits also simplify and accelerate the design process by removing layers of bureaucracy, such as seeking approval for specific images. Instead, there’s already a large pool of preapproved elements designers can incorporate into each design. 

Graphic design tools like Canva and Adobe have features that help you create a brand kit for your business or team. 

You may also like: The Best Graphic Design Tools for Digital Signage (2023).

9. Play with templates

Templates are sample designs that you can repurpose at any time. Depending on your needs, they already have a design structure you can retain or tweak. You can change colours and fonts and add extra images. 

Templates are particularly beneficial for small businesses with limited resources. Many digital signage solutions come with professionally designed templates with engaging visuals that you can utilise for multiple purposes.

You can use digital signage templates to get started swiftly and continually churn out content without the help of graphic designers, thus reducing costs. 

Luna Screens, a premium and easy-to-use digital signage software, comes with multiple templates that you can edit to match your brand and needs. 

10. Declutter and clear the junk

Before publishing your design, it’s time to prune it to make it better. One of the principles you can follow is “keep it simple, stupid” (K.I.S.S). The principle says that designs should be as minimal as possible. 

What does that mean for designing digital signage? It means:

• Removing unnecessary words

• Using simple and familiar words

• Using familiar colours our brains naturally look for, like red for danger and decline

• Minimising animations and motions

• Avoiding acronyms 

• Sticking to one end goal or purpose per design

One thing you must remember while creating digital signage designs is that you’re catering to a diverse audience with different educational backgrounds, reading skills, and cultural leanings. Hence, there is a need to make communication as simple as possible. 

Your design needs to be self-sufficient. Remember, you won’t be there to explain every design choice or word to anyone who sees the digital display.

11. Ask for feedback, test, and redesign if necessary

Having a second or more eyes can provide insights that will help you refine your design. For example, you can ask for feedback from colleagues, employees, and customers while designing to know which background works better for your design. 

With tools like Canva, you can quickly share your work with others. You can share the design via email or links from inside the editor.

That said, irrespective of the feedback you received while designing the signage, it’s while the signage runs that you can capture actual data on performance. 

That’s where A/B testing comes in. 

A/B testing

A/B testing is a process where you show users two design variants and track which performs better. The difference between the two designs may be the colour or copy of the call to action. 

One vital part of A/B testing is ensuring fairness; otherwise, your data may be skewed. For example, showing only one variant during peak foot traffic hours will show that variant performing better than the other iteration. 

The best practice is to ensure a uniform sample size for both design variants. So, if you show one variant on a Monday, it’s also essential to show the other on a Monday. 

Additionally, remove outliers like public holidays and other events that may temporarily influence results from the data you analyse.  

While A/B testing is quite sophisticated, requiring critical technical skills, you may rely on the eye test to track how customers interact with a design. 

Takeaway: Deliver digital signage message with clarity and impact by prioritising readability and engagement

Graphic design tools offer powerful features that you can leverage to improve the readability and engagement of any digital signage design. 

With tools like Canva, Adobe Photoshop, and in-built design features of some digital signage software, you can choose the right fonts and colours, maximise the use of colours and contrast, and alter the resolution and aspect ratio to fit the digital screen. 

These tools also allow you to add relevant images and graphics, create your brand kit for consistency, take advantage of templates, and edit your designs if they’re not working. 

So, as you work on your next digital signs, remember to harness the full potential of graphic design tools for improved readability and engagement. 

Manage your digital signage with ease using Luna Screens. Some of its unique features include numerous templates, robust scheduling, screen previews, the ability to manage the entire system remotely, and many more. Get started with Luna Screens today!