From the retail industry to classrooms, interactive displays have revolutionized the way we learn and communicate. In retail, interactive displays have been used for several years to great effect, with some of the most common uses being:
- to grab the attention of passers-by
- to promote the newest in-store arrivals
- to educate people regarding product applications
- to enhance the customer service experience
They are also used as self-service kiosks, where a customer performs a self-guided checkout, much like they would complete an online purchase.
It is also becoming more common for interactive displays to create a more personal and immersive retail experience, allowing store visitors to explore the possibilities the product offers before making a purchasing decision. This could, for example, take the form of interactive mirror touchscreens that can autogenerate suggestions based on what items the customer is trying on.
Interactive displays in classrooms
Interactive displays also play an important role in the modern classroom. Gone are the days of the ‘one size fits all’ approach to education. Instead, many schools are adapting their curriculum and including different forms of classroom media to better engage students and help them learn and retain information more effectively. Hence, interactive displays and whiteboards are playing an increasingly vital role in making education more flexible, immersive, and accessible.
Interactive displays in businesses
The benefits of interactive displays in retail and education have clearly been noticed by the corporate sector. With the right approach and a little bit of creativity, interactive displays can also revolutionize the way businesses operate.
Digital signage improves communication
Digital signage provides businesses with an engaging method of delivering meaningful content to a specific audience. Its digital form makes the content interactive, dynamic and easy to update with the latest information. Here are two examples:
Dashboards
An interactive display could be used to build a dashboard, which would then be displayed in a prominent location. A dashboard is an electronic interface that collects and visualizes data from multiple sources, such as databases or a web platform. Having a dashboard allows a company to monitor your business by tracking KPI metrics, showing historical trends and other relevant key data.
There are several benefits of installing a digital dashboard. Having a stream of live, real-time data from every department collected in one visible and accessible place creates a lot of transparency in the company. This transparency about what’s going on in different departments could also help to boost cooperation internally.
Collaboration tools
Aside from improving communication, interactive whiteboards can also be used to encourage collaboration. Many businesses are adopting an interdisciplinary approach to strategizing and planning—matching contributors with different skills and competencies to generate new and innovative ideas.
In such a setting, technology can be an extremely helpful tool to aid collaboration. An interactive whiteboard, also known as a smartboard, is a display that looks just like a whiteboard and reacts to user input either directly or through other devices. These smartboards have several capabilities, such as text and character recognition, data visualization tools such as charts, graphs and polls, and other virtual tools such as rulers and compasses. They can also broadcast audio and video.
Concluding thoughts
Research shows that the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90 percent of the information transmitted to the brain is visual. Employees are also more likely to feel engaged and motivated and have a sense of responsibility and accountability when they’re actively involved in the creation process.
Which makes interactive displays and interactive whiteboards effective solutions for improving communication.