Egregious Digital Signage

Just had to write about this.

I was in a branch of Tesco Homeplus this afternoon, and saw what I can only say is one of the worst examples of digital signage I've seen for a long time.

It's a pity, because it was there for the best of reasons: explaining how to deal with the store's rather complicated system for buying things. Seems you can't just take stuff to the tills, but have to look at the label to see whether you have to order it, just take it to the checkout or have it delivered to your home.

Whatever.

The screens didn't look too bad to the "untrained" eye, but there was just about everything wrong with them. And it was carelessness more than anything.

There was a "video" insert in the middle of the screen that was playing some sort of animation - which was of a pretty high quality; but it was the wrong aspect ratio for the space set aside for it. So there was a black border above and below. Not the best sight.

And then, puzzlingly, and completely pointlessly, there was a slowly scrolling ticker at the bottom with the words "Welcome to Tesco".

In the top right was a clock, and top left was a logo.

What they should have done was just make the animation full screen. It would have been easier and the end result would have been better.

Less, you can never stress enough, is more.