Digital Signage at the Library

Sian Meikle@UTLBilal Bilal Khalid

Graham Stewart

Digital signage design Robarts digital signage three ways Robarts signage: how we built itRobarts signage: how they use itRobarts signage: what we learned

Overview

Good signs can make a difference...

Gary Larson, The Far Side, 1985

Simple: ○ Reduce: punctuation, pictures, words○ Headline: 22 characters○ Body: 10-18 words○ Short URLs

Brief:○ 5 seconds per slide○ 8-10 seconds total

Clear:○ Call to action: Chat with a librarian○ Photographs can be powerful○ Coherent design

Writing the message

Chunking○ 4 1 6 9 7 8 8 4 5 0

○ 416 978 845

Coding○ Group similar things together

○ Add headings

Serial position○ prime spots on a list: first and last

Presenting the message

Putting it into action

Eric Kobel, "Digital Signage Design Suggestions", UC Santa Barbara Housing & Residential Services

http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/digiknow/images/design_suggestions.pdf

Putting it in action

Virginia Commonwealth University http://m.ts.vcu.edu/kb/images/GreenWorks3.jpg

What make digital signage different?

Easy to update

Can differentiate content by

○ time of day

○ audience

○ viewing time

What users say

1. Help me make better decisions Chat with a librarian, workshops2. Save me time Maps: library, stacks, workstations

Directories: by floor, service, name, library3. Show me something relevant to me

News, community content4. Tell me something new and interesting

Exhibits, events, news5. Give me ideas

Collection highlightsexcerpted from Chris Heap, "Seven Principles of Success for Digital Signage"http://www.digitalscreenmedia.org/the-perspective/view/17239/dse--seven-principles-of-success-for-digital-signage

Robarts digital signage:Overhead information signs

Robarts digital signage:Building directories

Robarts digital signage:Interactive touch screens

Robarts digital signage:Interactive touch screens

Touchscreen Kiosks

● PHP - CodeIgniter

● jQuery

● MySQL

● Closed Environment

● Javascript Keyboard

Touchscreen Kiosk Interaction

Most frequent pageviews● Libraries & Hours● Robarts Directory● Workstations

User Feedback● Let me find a book!● Let me access this info from my phone!

Touchscreen Kiosks - What's Next

● Catalogue Search○ Entire catalogue available

● StackMap

○ Map of physical item location, with directions

● Responsive Design

○ Designed to be used on any device (e.g. Desktop,

Tablet, Smartphone...)

Overhead Signage

● 4 vertical screens○ PHP + AJAX

● Media Commons○ Javascript video player

● Fisher Rare Book○ Screensaver

Overhead Signage - Features

● Auto Refresh○ Detection of new content

● Remote Control

○ Ability to have different

slideshows

○ Control to switch between

slideshows

Overhead Signage - What's Next

● Scala

○ Content Regions

○ RSS Feeds from Drupal

○ Scheduling

Building Directories

● One PHP + Javascript

page per vertical pylon

(two vertical screens)

● Alternating Event Feed

Display (from Drupal,

via AJAX)

Digital signage development and the Devops movement

Devops: agile methodology applied to system administration

Agile

Set of software development methods, formulated 2001

Rapid

Iterative

Quick release cycles

Fast adaptation to requirement changes

Continuous development, after code releases

"Testing in Production"

Agile Teams

Self organizing

Cross functional

Quick daily meetings

Open environments, face to face meetings, frequent interrupts

Encourage input from many sources and different ranges of expertise and experience

Trust

Impact of Agile on system administration?

Site creation, rollout, update, maintenance timeframes all shrink

Web presence critical for most organizations

Software is developed much faster and changes are more frequent: sysadmins can't move slowly if developers are moving fast

Massive growth in automation tools

Growth in open source software: sharing and collaboration

Cloud

Devops goals

1. Eliminate stereotypes:-"developers are careless and arrogant"; "sysadmins

are grumpy and always say no"-"developers go home at 4:30"; "sysadmins are martyrs

and work all night"

2. Increase communication between developers, operations, and management

3. Continuous systems improvement

4. Break down barriers and silos

5. Develop methods to encourage all team members to see the organization's goals as the desired target, rather than individual goals

Source: http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale9x/special-events/devops-day-los-angeles

Source: http://mdzlog.alcor.net/tag/devops/

Advantages of working in Devops mode

All staff can use all their skills => diversity => use knowledge outside defined roles => roles expand => cross pollination => creativity=> "many minds"

Enhanced mutual respect and communication => greater trust => shared responsibility=> everyone feels a sense of ownership over the end

product => greater commitment to the product => everyone focused on the organization’s end goal

Happier, more productive staff, because work is FUN !

Devops methodology: digital signage examples

Operations and development involved jointly from the start

Weekly full meetings and as necessary (often daily) quick interrupts / one-on-ones for specific issues

Fast code releases: several times/week.

"Many Minds" => two screen display: one browser? 2 PCs? 1 video

card or 2? flipped portrait mode or vertical landscape mode?

=> disabling right click=> URL shortening options

Devops: more digital signage examples

Planning and execution:=> browser choice => OS choice=> development options=> design decisions

How do we keep browser sessions from finding the Internet? Proxies? Whitelists? No links?

How do we do an onscreen keyboard? OS version? Javascript? HTML?

New and experimental project: innovative methods required

Thank you !