Touchscreen basics
I've worked on tons of touchscreen experiences for healthcare conventions — if you haven't worked on these, this is basically what they are: picture a bunch of doctors walking around a convention center, visiting booths for different brands, talking to the brands' sales reps, and interacting with digital screens that are designed to educate them about our brand and persuade them that it's the right medication for their patients. So this article is about that kind of thing!
Some vocabulary real quick: in my industry I hear people call these things touchscreens, touchscreen panels, convention panels, conference panels, congress panels, digital panels, digital displays, interactive screens, etc etc. They're all the same thing.
The most typical touchscreen projects that I've encountered in advertising are designed in art and then programmed in html, and then in the convention booth they're simply displayed in Chrome at full screen, so the Chrome interface is hidden. The user isn't aware they're viewing a webpage in a web browser. So these pieces are similar to microsites, with a couple important differences — most notably that they're designed for a specific screen size, rather than responsive, and that the content is usually non-scrolling. So really, in that way they're more like an IVA, or even a print brochure: static pages, all the same size, with the content laid out however we want.
Basic specs
Before creative work begins on a touchscreen panel, it's important to get some specs from the hardware vendor who will be providing the computer(s) and screen(s) that will display the piece. Chances are the client has already engaged with a hardware vendor before they talked to our agency about the project, so things like the number of screens, and sizes of screens, have probably already been determined. Here are the basic things we need to know on the agency side in order to being designing the experience:
- Pixel dimensions of the screen(s) — usually 1920 x 1080 pixels (or possibly retina/double resolution).
- Screen size in real-life inches — this is important to consider for font size, interactive elements, etc.
- Will the screen(s) be displayed as portrait or landscape? — the client and/or agency team can usually specify our desired screen orientation; the hardware vendor can usually accommodate either one, but it's important to have that conversation to be sure.
- Where exactly will the touchscreen be displayed, and how will people interact with it?
- on a wall? — if so, how high up?
- on a tablet that's affixed to a stand?
- on a tablet that the user can pick up?
- or maybe flat, on a table surface?
Content and design considerations
If the screen is to be displayed on a wall, at what height will it be positioned? This is a big UX consideration — we should avoid designing tappable areas that are too high up! Navigation should be at the bottom, and/or at the side(s), relatively close to the bottom. Remember, some users may be significantly less tall than average. And remember, some users may be wheelchair users. (I once had an art director say, "These are doctors. They're not in wheelchairs." My response was, "Do doctors ski?" When considering people with disabilities, we also have to consider people with temporary disabilities. I've had clients straight-up confirm they've met doctors at conventions who are wheelchair users.)
Best practice is to design non-scrolling screens, similar to an IVA. However, scrolling is possible if desired for a specific reason; I'd like to hear what that is!
As for content, keep it as light and breezy (and fun!) as possible, and don't assume the user will give us a lot of their time; we're competing with dozens of other booths. Let's intrigue the user and give them an easy way to follow up — this could be something as simple as a QR code, or a printed handout from the sales rep.
For any ideas involving special functionality, e.g. animation, data capture, embedded video, etc — always discuss what's possible with your dev team, and it might be necessary to loop in the hardware vendor as well to confirm that certain things are doable.
That being said, we can usually design just about any kind of interactions that we want. Tapping an interactive element can navigate to another screen, or it can open a pop-up or accordion; it can trigger an animation to play (e.g. a chart that builds), it can start a video, etc etc etc.
We should always assume there is no reliable internet connection at conventions — if we want the piece to collect data, e.g. names or email addresses, the developer can program a form that writes any entered info to a local file right there on the computer that's displaying our content. This file can be retrieved by a moderator at the end of each day of the convention, or whenever needed.
Video and audio
Keep embedded video short to avoid huge file sizes — no internet connection = no streaming.
It's recommended we don't include any audio in touchscreens — the convention floor may be very noisy. Videos should always have subtitles. (That's just regular ol' accessibility best practice.)
Thinking about distance
It's important to consider that there are two completely different ways people will view the touchscreen:
Some people will see it from far away, i.e. from outside the booth.
Others will see it close up, and they may or may not interact with it.
How can we make this experience valuable and enticing for viewers at both of these distances?
When designing the pages/screens that will display all of our content, consider keeping the font size as large as possible, so other people in the booth can read it even if they're a few feet away.
For people who are farther away, i.e. outside the booth, it's important we include a screensaver, so if no one's interacting with the screen, they'll see something bold and eye-catching that might lure them over to the booth. I cover that in this article: Touchscreen: screensavers and time-out.
Time-out feature
This is an oft-overlooked but extremely important feature! This one is also in my other article: Touchscreens: screensaver and time-out.
Tracking?
Does the piece require tracking of taps, page visits, etc? If so, this will have to be programmed (probably in javascript) by a developer.
Because we work with the assumption that there is no reliable internet connection at a convention, tracking usually must be programmed to write to a local file on the machine that's displaying the touchscreen, rather than writing to a database on a web server. This file can be retrieved by a moderator at the end of each day of the convention, or whenever needed.
Tracking in a touchscreen is different from tracking on a website. On a website we can track unique visits, or sessions — this is not possible in a convention, where one user may start a session, walk away, and then another user continues that session. We simply can't know how many people have interacted with the screen.
Things we can track:
- Number of times the touchscreen was started from the screensaver.
- Number of views of each page/screen.
- Number of taps on specific interactive elements, e.g. opening a pop-up or accordion, launching an interactive chart, or tapping Play on a video.
Unlike with a website, we can't track how long a user spent on a particular a screen, because they might simply walk away while it's sitting there! And for the same reason, unlike with a website, we can't track how long a user spent watching a video play.
Accessibility and touchscreens
The WCAG guidelines state that ADA compliance is a requirement for all digital materials. Is our client likely to get sued because their touchscreen at a healthcare conference isn't compliant? No. However, making any digital piece ADA-compliant (focusing on maximum accessibility) improves engagement, even for users who do not have visual impairments.
Are HCPs at a conference likely to be blind? No. However, they absolutely may have other visual impairments, such as color blindness. They may have forgotten their glasses in their hotel room. The more we focus on accessibility, the easier our work is to engage with for everyone.
I'll say this every chance I get: accessibility is our legal and ethical responsibility, and it makes our work measurably better.
– Manning
Questions/comments? Feel free to contact me at manning@manningkrull.com. I update these articles pretty frequently — best practices evolve over time as the world of digital quickly changes, and I always welcome insights from others.