Interactive displays can be known as the modern chalkboard, with plenty of additional features that make them much more user-friendly than a traditional chalkboard. They have already been used in schools and educational institutions to great effect, and an increasing number of businesses are starting to jump on board the bandwagon, too. In this article, we share with you the top uses and benefits of interactive displays for businesses.
Understanding Interactive Displays
As a mounted device that enables users to make stunning visual presentations and interact directly with onscreen data, these displays have been around for some time but saw a huge jump in popularity during the ongoing pandemic. As early as the 1990s, interactive projectors were introduced, allowing presenters and lecturers to share their screens with a roomful of people.
When the pandemic broke out worldwide, schools and workplaces had to quickly adapt to remote learning and working. In light of this situation, interactive displays proved to be a highly effective tool for conducting lectures, working on group projects, and much more. Capitalizing on the use of smartphones and tablets to control these displays, they are user-friendly and do not require extensive training to use, which has contributed to their ongoing popularity. Promoting collaboration and allowing users to directly interact with onscreen information, the use of interactive displays is expected to grow in the years to come.
Applications of Interactive Displays
There are a wide range of applications for interactive displays today. Used predominantly in offices, retail stores and educational institutions, below are some of the applications interactive displays can be used for:
- Presenting a lecture to students or presentation to co-workers – this can go beyond the traditional classroom lecture style to incorporate visual field trips and many more immersion learning opportunities.
- Functioning as a giant tablet screen where users can make direct modifications and demonstrate certain concepts through illustrations, such as how to solve a math problem.
- Showcasing products or services in a visually appealing way to attract customers and boost sales.
- Improving the viewing experience in a business meeting, allowing employees to be engaged in a more hands-on manner.
- … and more!
Of course, there are many other ways interactive displays can be used to improve business productivity and operations. Whether you own a retail store, manage an office, or are a teacher, you can make use of interactive displays to facilitate the communication of information. Although they are highly useful for remote learning and working, interactive displays are also an excellent way of encouraging customer interaction in retail stores as well as collaboration opportunities in an office.
Interactive displays come with a range of benefits for businesses across various industries. Below, we examine the benefits of interactive displays for schools, offices, and retail stores.
Benefits of Interactive Displays for Schools and Educational Institutions
Schools and educational institutions can benefit from interactive displays in the following ways:
- Facilitate active learning through allowing students to engage directly with content.
- Enable collaboration through manipulating onscreen content, such as writing out a solution to a problem.
- Encourage hands-on learning through demonstration, allowing students to annotate on top of slides and come up with other creative ways to present information.
- Discover novel ways of learning and communication – an interactive display can be anything students want it to be, from a board to write out and solve equations to conducting labs and experiments onscreen.
- Boost engagement and encourage active participation, especially amongst younger students with short attention spans.
- Accommodate a full spectrum of learning styles from audio and visual to kinaesthetic.
Benefits of Interactive Displays for Offices and Workplaces
Offices and workplaces can make use of interactive displays to boost productivity:
- For businesses that are looking to make the switch to Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD), interactive displays can allow multiple devices to share information on one central device for effective presentation and collaboration.
- Provide new ways of collaboration, improving the effectiveness of teamwork, meetings, trainings, and daily departmental briefings.
- Make use of electronic dashboards to keep employees informed about what’s going on in other departments and/or branch offices.
- Encourage more active participation amongst employees – with interactive displays, anyone can directly modify onscreen data and share their input in an illustrative way.
- Boost productivity through the automation of certain content and processes such as induction briefings for new workers, freeing up time for other employees to focus on more important tasks.
Benefits of Interactive Displays for Retail Stores and Organizations
Retail stores and organizations such as museums can make use of interactive displays to facilitate the following processes:
- Make use of digital signage to provide information, advertise and provide a personalized experience to users and visitors – for instance, using an electronic dashboard in a museum to provider visitors with information about each display.
- Facilitate the navigation of a store or building through digital way finders, where users can easily locate their current position and where they are in relation to other points of interest, departments or sections.
- Encourage customer interaction – for example, retail stores can allow customers to design their own T-shirt or tote bag on an interactive display with the option to get them printed.
- Showcase the newest arrivals in store as well as educate customers on how to use certain products.
- Leverage on self-checkout kiosks where customers can order food directly or search for the products they need.
The Rising Popularity of Interactive Displays
Did you know that the interactive display market is expected to grow to approximately USD13 billion by 2025? As an increasing number of businesses nationwide and worldwide leverage on the uses of interactive displays, your business cannot afford to lag behind. With a wide range of applications that include improving customer experience, encouraging collaboration and catering to a diverse range of learning styles, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the benefits of using interactive displays, and nothing will ever be the same again.
It has been said that the “new normal” is here to stay, and this is true in more ways than one. Many businesses have jumped onboard with remote working arrangements, either permanently or with flexible alternation between onsite working. As such, it is pretty much assured that remote working and learning technologies are here to stay, and it is time for your business to start leveraging on them, too.
In terms of the retail sector, interactive displays have been used to improve the customer experience for years now. Whether it is directing visitors around a tourist attraction or facilitating the process of browsing and selecting products, the way things are done in the retail sector has been changed forever. Businesses that do not make use of interactive displays may find that their manpower and resource needs are stretched further, and that they are missing out on a brilliant marketing opportunity.
Invest in Interactive Displays for Your Business
Slowly becoming a part of everyday operations in institutions, organizations and businesses throughout the world, it’s time for you to start leveraging on the use of interactive displays. User-friendly and not requiring extensive training to use, there’s no better time to get started than now!