Your lobby is more than just people’s first impression of your organization, it’s your “voice” – where you tell visitors who and what you are. It’s a funnel that begins shaping the visitor experience from the moment they walk in the door. Everyone goes there – employees, prospective recruits, contractors, partners, the public. Use your lobby digital signage to send the message you want, and get people thinking about your company in the right way immediately.
The easiest way to start thinking about digital signage in your lobby is to walk through it yourself. Enter from the outside doors and see where your eye is naturally drawn. Then think about what different types of messaging people might want or need as they enter the space. Or you can poll people – a short questionnaire, either on paper or online, can help you determine what people are looking for. You have many options available with a good corporate digital signage system, so take the time to figure out what will work best where.
One of the first considerations is – interactive or not? If you’re going to use interactive screens in your lobby, they have to be placed at key spots where people won’t clump up and get in the way of traffic flow. You also have to make sure that you have enough displays to prevent undue wait times – no one wants to wait in a long line to get what they need.
Should you have many smaller screens, each with different information? Or would a single large display or video wall be of most help to your visitors to communicate your company’s ideals and direction? This is not just a design issue – it’s about who visits your company and all the different things those audiences might need. If you have a diverse group of people with a wide variety of needs coming to your facility, then providing a larger quantity of smaller displays might work best.
You can actually replace your help or info desk, or receptionist, with interactive signage. Have employee directories on a large interactive screen next to a telephone, so visitors can find who they need to talk to and contact them themselves. Integrating digital wayfinding can further reduce the burden on your staff. This could be a simple map that shows on the display, or a more sophisticated deployment that includes interactive maps, a wayfinding app for mobile devices, turn-by-turn directions, and a geofence.
For displays that are not interactive, where would be the best place to put them? What size should you use? One thing is certain – glare on or behind a screen makes it hard to see the messages, so look at your lobby at different times of the day and make sure that you place them in areas that don’t have much glare.
Using sound in a lobby is probably not a great idea. The space can get chaotic when many people are in it, and each person may have a different focus. Instead, draw attention using color and motion in your messages.
You want your digital signage to feel natural and integrated, so place displays where the eye naturally falls as you walk into the lobby. If your lobby is small, probably a single display in the center of the back wall would suffice. If you have a much larger space, with multiple displays and options, hang a large screen that briefly explains what’s available in a place where people will see it the moment they walk in.
Design for the space – make sure that the look and placement of your screens are harmonious with the décor of your lobby. If you’re a high-tech company, then you’ll want clean lines with modern graphics and designs. If you have a lot of wood in your lobby, you’ll want warmer colors that complement the natural materials in your space.
The lobby is your ambassador – make sure that it’s well equipped to help as many people as possible, and that it always looks good and professional. You’ll never get a second chance to make a first impression, so make sure that it’s a good one.