In recent years, you may have noticed businesses and organizations have begun using digital signage to a much greater extent than ever before. Digital signage is replacing menus at fast-food restaurants, providing directions to guests at large facilities, and even allowing restaurant customers to place orders without waiting for an employee to stop by their table.
However, because digital signage can promote health and safety by limiting face-to-face interactions, it’s become particularly widespread during the Covid-19 pandemic. While many of the ways in which digital signage has been used during the pandemic have consisted of basic practical usages serving to minimize the spread of germs, some have also used digital signage in more unique and interesting ways. Consider the following examples:
Public Art
In Scottsdale, Arizona, an exhibit initially meant to be part of the annual Canal Convergence festival recently demonstrated how digital signage technology can bring people together during a time when most of us have had to keep our distance from others.
The exhibit, MASARY Studios’ “Massively Distributed,” consists of three digital signs set up throughout Scottsdale. The signs display a compilation of videos and sounds recorded by Scottsdale residents and submitted via an app. The result is a clever public art installation that allows people in the city to appreciate the artistic talents of their neighbors while also socially distancing.
Offering Comfort
Again, digital signage has been growing in popularity in recent years mainly because businesses and organizations can use it in a variety of genuinely practical ways. That said, it’s also become clear during the pandemic that digital signage can play a role in the mental and emotional wellbeing of citizens during times of struggle.
On a small scale, digital signage has, for example, been used to congratulate graduating seniors in small school districts where students were forced to finish their schooling at home. Additionally, many digital signs in communities across the globe are being used to thank healthcare providers and essential workers. On a larger scale, digital signs in large cities like New York have often been repurposed to share words of comfort and inspirational messages.
That’s not to say that big cities have abandoned the practical benefits of digital signage! In fact, in New York and other cities, digital signage has helped people stay safe and find their way around large facilities (such as stadiums and convention centers) that have been functioning as mass vaccination clinics. Digital signs in Covid-19 hotspots have also provided citizens with real-time updates regarding infection rates, CDC recommendations, and similar information.
Sharing Menus and Coupons
As businesses such as restaurants and retail stores began reopening during the pandemic, many made a point of limiting physical contact between customers and employees.
This includes indirect physical contact. For example, instead of allowing employees to hand customers physical menus, many restaurant owners now use digital signage to share QR codes customers can scan to read digital menus on their phones. Grocery stores and similar establishments have also used this method to share digital coupons.
This may not seem to be the “oddest” usage of digital signage on this list, but it’s worth touching on because it highlights the fact that these unique uses of digital signage aren’t likely to go away with the pandemic. Sharing menus, coupons, and similar materials via digital signage may soon become a common business practice.
Expect this trend to continue. Even as the pandemic winds down, we’ll probably see digital signage continue to be used in interesting ways. This is just the beginning.