Display and presentation boards that go unnoticed or are deliberately ignored are about as useful as having no display boards in place at all. The trouble is, in literally every instance where display boards are used, the tendency seems to be one of just throwing them at any random wall, packing them with random filler and expecting them to serve a purpose. Suffice to say however, this rarely results in any kind of high-impact effect as in order to make sure boards and notices are not ignored, it’s important to be slightly more proactive.
Now, it might all sound a little OTT considering the subject is just a simple notice board, but if there’s something deemed important enough to go on a board in the first place, sure it deserves a little thought, right?
So, with this in mind, what follows is a brief outline of just a few of the most important tips of all for making sure your own display boards and notices don’t go ignored:
1 – Location is Everything
First of all, it’s important to be aware of the fact that the most obvious place of all to place your boards doesn’t necessarily represent the best place to put them. After all, there’s a difference between catching the eye of your target audience and actually pulling them in for a closer, deeper look at what’s there. Think about where people congregate, where they’re likely to fix their gaze for more than a split second and also where they’ll be able to stand and read the boards without getting in anyone else’s way.
2 – Keep it Relevant
One of the best ways of ensuring that nobody will bother with your display boards is to fill them with any kind of content that isn’t 100% relevant to the appropriate topic at hand. For example, if your board is supposed to be used for business purposes and yet somehow turns into a dumping ground for junk mail, fast-food menus, taxi business cards and the like, chances are it won’t be long before folk completely lose interest in it.
3 – Keep it Brief
Another important point is to make sure the content of your boards is kept as brief as possible. The reason being that you generally only have a few seconds or so to get the message across to those reading the content before they’ll either lose interest or run out of time. When a notice board is crammed with ream upon ream of text, it doesn’t tend to get nearly as much attention as another board where content is kept to an absolute minimum.
4 – Regular Updates
If you have boards that only tend to get used to display new information or messages once every few weeks or so, you can’t expect your target audience to watch it intently day in and day out. Instead, they’ll just assume that as the information on the board generally tends to be rather old and outdated, there’s no real point in bothering with it. Display boards that give the reader a reason to keep checking back tend to be the most effective examples of all, so be sure to make the effort to keep yours updated and fresh.
5 – Interaction
Another fantastic way of making sure your boards are both acknowledged and taken seriously is to introduce and element of interactivity. This could be anything from an area that’s reserved for staff use and message through to a suggestions box or really anything else across the board – anything that allows them to get involved is guaranteed to benefit the board’s impact. You could also consider using the board to carry out something like a poll or survey, which will again improve its appeal to your target audience members.
6 – Mixed Media
Last but not least, while it might be true to say that the majority of content your board features must by its nature be text, it’s important to mix up the media a little bit to break things up. As mentioned above, the very best way of making sure a display board gets ignored more often than not is to fill it top to bottom with nothing but solid text – chances are few will have the time or the inclination to read it. By contrast, a board that’s more evenly populated with images, photographs, graphics and text represents a much more appealing prospect to devote a few minutes of your time to.