Digital Building Directories: A Solution to Modernize Office Lobbies, Malls & Real Estate Premises

How many times have you stood confused in the lobby of an office building trying to figure out a meeting room or a cabin? What helped you finally? A building directory, right?

Now imagine that directory being more appealing, compact, and smart with the help of a digital display. These are called digital building directories.

Sleek, modern, and way more convenient than the traditional static directory signs, these electronic directories help visitors navigate large office spaces, amusement parks, hotels, and hospital buildings without any stress.

What are digital building directories?

Simply put, digital directories are screens that show building layouts, office lists, and locations of meeting rooms or the likes of it in a visually appealing way. All these contents are delivered to the screens via digital signage software.

These electronic directory signs can be of different types, ranging from a simple TV display showing the addresses in a housing estate to more advanced interactive and fun technology in urban shopping malls & college campuses.

Interactive digital building directories

Direct interaction with the available information on a digital building directory screen allows better way-finding solutions to the visitors. Interactive digital building directories are implemented in two ways:

• Touchscreen digital signage

• Touchless technologies

Touchscreen hardware like interactive kiosks or digital standees allows visitors to interact physically with the electronic building signs.

Alternatively, touchless technologies are even simpler to deploy. For example, a visitor can quickly scan a QR Code from a digital screen with their mobile and then access the building directory on the move.

These interactive digital building directories are intuitive and can be custom-made to meet particular customer service goals of an organization. For example, they can be customized to allow visitors more search flexibility through maps, phone extensions, and voice search.

Many interactive digital building directories have emergency messaging options. This feature adds more value to the organization through building-wide and campus-wide emergency alerts.

Overall, interactive digital building directories offer a unique and convenient visitor experience.

Main components of digital building directories

Digital or electronic directories for office buildings or other places basically fall under the multifaceted umbrella of electronic signage. The components of an office lobby directory consist of the following:

Display

The choice of display partially rests on the positioning of your digital directory board. Corporate offices & tech parks generally employ large commercial-grade displays with HDMI ports. These are mostly wall-mount or wall-embedded digital signs. For interactive kiosks, you’ll need to use touch screen technology.

Media Player

Even if your Wi-Fi or Ethernet connectivity is lost, your digital directory will never go blank because of the media player.

Also known as a digital signage player, this one keeps downloading cached content from the signage software via internet connection and stores the same on internal storage. A diverse range of media players are available, starting from simple plug-and-play devices like Amazon Fire TV Stick to modular players like Raspberry Pi.

Digital Signage Software

This is the most crucial component that allows content creation, editing and content deployment to multiple displays. Nowadays, most digital signage software are cloud based and they allow the users to remotely manage the content on screen.

Why choose digital building directories over traditional directories?

Digital building directories offer numerous benefits that traditional directory signs could never provide.

• Quick & easy information update

• Cost-effective in the long run and more efficient

• Enhances aesthetic appeal of the property and adds to the brand value

• Customizable according to building-specific visitors’ requirements

• More targeted and relevant content display using content scheduling features

• Interactive digital directories improve the visitor experience by making it more impressive

• The versatility of the digital signage software allows playback of secondary content like live weather, digital clock, local news, and more.

3 things to plan strategically while implementing digital building directories

Your primary aim behind implementing a digital building directory is to make it easy for your visitors to find the particular area of the building or information about the organization they need to access. Isn’t it?

Therefore, getting digital directory software isn’t enough. Proper, strategic implementation is necessary to make it a custom building directory and enhance the lobby experience.

Location

Choose the location wisely because it is important to keep the directory in a high-traffic area of your building so that visitors can access the required information with ease; for example, areas near the elevator or staircase, or perhaps, at the very entry of the premise.

Content

Make sure the content you show is accurate, concise and comprehensible. The font color, size, and arrangement of the content must not overwhelm the onlookers.

Use high-definition images and videos (when necessary) and update your content regularly. Remember, your office lobby directory will be used by people from all demographies: it should not be too bright or colorful to irritate the old & sensitive people.

Digital directory software

Opt for cloud-based digital directory software or digital signage that provides the flexibility of using different applications offers easy management of the displays and allows a flawless information sharing experience.

Common places where you will find digital building directories

Digital lobby directories are mostly found in commercial and residential properties. The sectors that are commonly known to use this technology are:

• Retail Eg: shopping malls, stores fronts

• Corporate Eg: Office buildings (at receptions, near elevators)

• Real Estate Eg: Property management organizations (at entry gates, by-lanes)

• Hospitality Eg: Hotel lobbies, restaurants

• Health Eg: Hospitals, dental clinics (at each floor)

• Education Eg: School and college campuses

How to implement a digital building directory with Pickcel?

Pickcel’s digital signage software can help you easily convert any screen into an electronic building directory.

1. Create a free account with Pickcel at https://console.pickcel.com/#/register

2. Pair your screen(s) with the Pickcel dashboard. Learn How

3. If you already have a directory design ready, simply add it to the Pickcel media module. Learn How

4. Don’t have a design? No problem. You can create your own professional lobby directory design with our integrated Canva app.

5. Once your content is ready, just hit publish, and your screens will immediately turn into an attractive digital directory board.

Final Words

Who your visitors are and how they interact with your directory will primarily decide the design of your digital building directories. If you implement it rightly, creating a better brand becomes effortless. Choose a digital directory and reduce your visitors’ stress effectively.