Digital menu boards: what should you plan before you switch?

Decide who owns the menu content

A printed menu stays fixed until it is reprinted. A digital one can change whenever an item sells out or a new one arrives. Agree who edits the menu, who checks it and who publishes it, outlet by outlet.

In Nexus Signage, the menu board widget holds a heading with your name, tagline and logo, and categories of items. Each item has a name, a short description, a price, an optional photo and calories, all entered by your team. Items can be marked Featured, hidden or Sold out, and moved up or down the list. Nexus Signage has predefined and custom roles, so people who create content need not be the people who publish it.

If your till or point-of-sale system holds the master menu, ask any supplier how the two stay in step, and plan who updates the boards after each change.

Plan which menu shows when

Menus often change across the day. Breakfast, lunch and evening menus, weekday and weekend offers, and seasonal items all need a rule for when they appear.

In Nexus Signage, schedules run by date range, weekday and daily play time, and playlists have per-item timing and preview.

Design for reading distance

A menu that looks clear on a laptop can be hard to read from the back of a queue. A short list in large type is easier to read at a distance than a long one in small type. Test every layout on the real screen, from where customers stand, before it goes live.

Nexus Signage menu boards come in three display types: items with images, a text-only list, or a grid of large photo tiles. Columns can be automatic or set from one to three, in landscape or portrait. Long menus can be split into pages that rotate on screen, with a time set for each page.

An item can have a single price or a list of sizes or options. When many options would make each one show too briefly, the editor warns you and points to the page time setting.

Keep the brand and keep it legible

Menu boards sit beside packaging, signage and uniforms, so their colours and type should match. Legibility comes first, though, especially for small text.

Nexus Signage offers six starting menu themes with editable accent, text and background colours, and a changed theme can be saved under a name. The background can be a colour, a gradient, an image or a looping video, with a readability scrim on media. When colours change, the theme panel shows contrast ratios for text and prices, and warns when prices may be hard to read.

Plan for Arabic and right-to-left menus

Outlets that serve Arabic- and English-speaking customers need a decision on language before any design work starts. Decide whether each board carries one language or both, and who writes and checks the Arabic item names.

Nexus Signage menu boards display Arabic text, right to left. A direction setting switches a menu board between left-to-right and right-to-left, and the header mirrors. In right-to-left mode, the font list shows Arabic-ready fonts, and a currency setting chooses the currency shown on the board. Have a native speaker review every Arabic item on the real screen before it goes live.

Know your screens, and plan for offline

Screens above a counter, at a drive-through or in a hotel lobby face different conditions. List each location, its screen orientation and its network before you choose players.

Nexus Signage runs on Android, Windows, Samsung Tizen and LG webOS players, and in a web browser. Specific models are confirmed for each estate. Editors publish content to single screens or whole groups, and organise screens by group, tag and map. The console shows every screen's live or offline state and current content.

If a Nexus Signage screen loses its internet connection, it keeps playing the content it last received. Plan who in each outlet checks the boards when the connection returns.

Before you switch: a short checklist

• Name the person who edits, checks and publishes menu content at each outlet.
• Map your day-parts and seasonal menus, and decide when each one should show.
• Test each layout on the real screen, from where customers order.
• Check the contrast of every line of text against the background.
• Decide the language of each board, and arrange native review of Arabic text.
• List every screen, its orientation, its network and its player.