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Visual Analytics personalize kiosk and digital signage experiences and humanize big data

Before, during and after people physically engage with kiosks and digital signage, there are visual interactions that can hold the key to personalizing the experience while maximizing the effectiveness and ROI for companies and organizations.

August 24, 2015 by Chris Gilder — Founder/CEO, Meridian

In our most recent post, we shared views on how companies can use analytics to achieve key outcomes by improving customer experience.

There are multiple dimensions of analytics, and to many the mere mention of the words "analytics" and "big data" conjures up images of large spreadsheets and databases filled with information from people touching the devices and generating data. But before, during and after people physically engage with kiosks and digital signage, there are visual interactionsthat can hold the key to personalizing the experience while maximizing the effectiveness and ROI for companies and organizations. And these days, users will also want their privacy protected.

The visual interactions can be broken down into different aspects of the user journey:

how close a person or group is to the kiosk or signage;
the approach and the attraction;
the visual engagement; and
relevant messaging and adaptive advertising

When people are near the kiosk, and in addition to potential and actual visitor counts, face recognition software can anonymously detect the presence of potential users and collect demographic group data in order to facilitate more relevant engagement and targeted delivery of brand messaging. A camera in the digital signage can achieve the anonymous detection, and it is vital to protect the privacy of individuals by only using these real-time stats at an aggregate level for advertising and targeting on location – an individual's data is not saved. This first step of improving the relevance of the content sets up the next stage: the approach.

The more targeted messaging and advertising generated by visual analytics results in higher likelihood of people approaching the digital signage and higher usage and conversion versus a "one size fits all" mass message. As people approach the digital signage, video and audio cues can combine to incentivize people to touch the screen and engage. An attract screen, with the more personalized experience based on the visual analytics and tools such as engaging animation, draws the user in more effectively and ideally has a clear call to action.

During the engagement, the power and value of visual analytics increase. The user and the user's eyes are tracked to learn what content was on the screen when eye contact occurred and if eye contact was made with specific ads. Companies also learn which content and ads were not viewed or not on the screen by using the eye tracking. Capturing data on the length of time spent viewing specific types of content (dwell and attention time) yields learning on the true engagement with the kiosk.

A camera analytics engine can provide visual analytics for kiosks and interactive digital signage across a range of industries. The interactive power of visual analytics is available today and helps companies create truly engaging customer experiences – this is not your father's passive digital signage.

The visual analytics lead to dynamic learning and an adaptive advertising process in which companies learn which messages and ads work and what needs to be changed. The advertising player in the digital signage updates content targeted to demographic groups. The ongoing measurement of ads and targeting of groups and individuals results in superior customer experiences, higher conversion rates and higher ROI.

Armed with the powerful tool of visual analytics, company leaders can achieve even greater results if they obey perhaps the greatest rule of real estate in placing their kiosks and digital signage … location, location and location. We'll talk about how analytics can help optimize location in an upcoming post.

About Chris Gilder

Chris Gilder, CEO and founder of Meridian Kiosks, brings more than 20 years of entrepreneurial successes to the senior management team. Meridian has been recognized as a leader in the self-service kiosk industry and an innovator with the development of the Self Service Technology Center in partnership with Intel, HP, Microsoft, Zebra Technologies and Storm.

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