Psychological Impact of Corporate DS

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Ruth Rushworth quizzes Dr James Intriligator, co-director of Bangor University’s Centre for Experimental Consumer Psychology, Gareth Harvey, a PhD student, and Nikk Smith, technical director of Pixel Inspiration.
 
DS EUROPE: Firstly, Nikk, can you give me a general overview of Pixel Inspiration’s development and approach to the digital signage industry, and tell me why you support this kind of psychological research?

NIKK SMITH: A group of us set up the company several years ago based on our realisation that the content of most digital signage installations being made was simply re-purposed television, which obviously wasn’t effective for the environments that those screens were in. We originally only offered the content, because we believe that you should always start with the content and then work backwards, but now we offer the whole solution. We still have a very content-led ethos: the content always takes the most time to create and is the hardest thing to get right. We set up the template for the client and then let them manage it and remotely alter it themselves. One of the best things about digital signage is this flexibility that it gives clients.The psychological research that we do helps us to win the confidence of our clients, as it shows we really are thinking about the psychological impact of content. This new ESRC studentship is an excellent testing ground for our gut feelings about which content does and doesn’t work. We will put in live installations with our clients and then measure the efficacy of the content as we make various improvements to it.
 
DSE: Why have you chosen to look at the corporate environment rather than a retail environment, where DS is more prevalent?
 
NIKK SMITH: I suppose that’s exactly why we choose to look at the corporate environment. We want to increase knowledge in this area, which we can then use to create new business strategies. We want to be ahead of the game, and looking ahead, with costs decreasing and manageability increasing, we can see that the corporate environment could be the next big development for digital signage.
GARETH HARVEY: A lot of what we know about digital signage in a consumer environment still applies to its role in a corporate environment, such as the ability to convey information, capture attention or create a mood, it’s just that the applications, audience and some of the specific goals are different.
 

JAMES INTRILIGATOR: We’ll be looking into the attentional and visual aspects of digital signage content. This funding represents a real breakthrough. The ESRC is the science establishment in the UK, so for it to decide to fund studies into digital signage, really shows that the field is coming of age.
 
DSE: How do you think digital signs function primarily in the workplace?
 
NIKK SMITH: Digital signage is very simply a communication tool. It is a more effective means of delivering information than emails or office bulletins – anyone who works in an office environment will have experienced the constant stream of information that comes in through the inbox alone. But when an email comes through, the employee has to make the decision and take the time to read it. There is always this competition for airspace and airtime. Digital signage can convey information quickly and effectively, even in downtime. Of course, digital signage is limited as to the amount of detail it can go into, but it can be used to make employees aware of information that is relevant to them and then direct them to obtain further information elsewhere, perhaps by increasing the uptake in the use of information channels like email and the internet.
 
We have installed digital signs in a HP call centre in Glasgow, where they are particularly suited, as in a call centre, people aren’t glued to their PC screens. We’ve also put digital signs in in a bank’s internal IT offices, in places like waiting areas for lifts so that the company could convey information while employees were away from their desks. Often, large companies with disparate departments aren’t always aware of what each other is doing, so digital signs in those situations can be used to facilitate the cross-population of information throughout the business.
 
DSE: James, you’ve done a lot of work into consumer psychology and branding. Do you think digital signage can be used to brand a company so as to give it a sense of integration and identity?

JAMES INTRILIGATOR: In a consumer context, I look at branding and how information can be used to change people’s attitudes and emotions. Digital signage can definitely be used for internal marketing purposes, such as to make their employees aware of their company’s history and what its brand stands for and represents, so that they know what the brand attributes of that company are.
 
DSE: It’s too soon to say, but in what ways do you expect that digital signage could improve morale?
 
NIKK SMITH: We think morale can be increased by helping to promote inter-employee and business-to-employee communication. For instance, if you publish information about an employee’s or a team’s achievement, the people concerned feel happier because they are getting feedback and recognition from the business and their colleagues. Recognition is very beneficial to morale.
 
JAMES INTRILIGATOR: There is evidence that you can make employees feel happier by keeping them better informed, so that they feel more empowered and motivated. A greater level of motivation equates to a higher morale.
 
GARETH HARVEY: Employees often feel like they’re not valued in the workplace. Simply by giving them more information they will feel more valued and appreciate this attention. The last thing people want to feel is that they’re just another cog in the wheel.
DSE: What measures can you use to record the results of this study?
 
JAMES INTRILIGATOR: Other than interviewing employees, conducting surveys and watching the interaction between employees and the screen, we can look at more quantifiable things like number of sick days taken. If one sees a reduction of sick days taken, then one can hypothesise that the morale has been increased; either that, or everyone’s just had their flu vaccine!
 
GARETH HARVEY: We can partly measure job satisfaction by employee turnover. And people don’t often realise this, but decreased employee turnover actually means massive savings for a business. It has been claimed that for MacDonald’s to hire a new employee costs them £500 (€700), so there are obvious benefits to targeting employee turnover using content on digital signs.
 
DSE: What wider impact do you think this study will have?
 
NIKK SMITH: Obviously, it will promote the awareness of the use (and good use) of digital signage in the workplace.
 
JAMES INTRILIGATOR: Ultimately, we would hope to see people start to wake up to the potential of this technology. The ESRC like to fund research which has an applied nature. But the fact that they have commissioned this study also says something about the British government’s concerns about workplace morale. There seem to be more and more reports every year about how unhappy British workers are at work – that is concerning.
 
DSE: Where do you expect digital signage to become more prevalent in the future?
 
NIKK SMITH: I think what we’ll see, and what we’re already starting to see, is digital signage being used in conjunction with kiosks to encourage interactivity and participation. Digital signs can be less intimidating than a kiosk as they don’t require interaction, but can be experienced passively.
 
JAMES INTRILIGATOR: Personally, I think there’s a lot of room for the social potential of digital signage to be explored. In a community environment, digital signs could be used to convey messages which would try and reduce community problems like litter or passive smoking. There is a big opportunity for someone to think about how these signs could be used to make the world a better place. If we are able to demonstrate how digital signage can affect attitudes in a corporate context, ideally people will start to think about how these effects could work in the real world. In a social context, digital signage could one day be used to improve societal cohesion and wellbeing.