Digital signage for queues controlled by dead-simple touch UI

July 26, 2010 by Dave Haynes

The queue management systems business seems really well suited to bolting digital signage on to the offers, since you have people in lines or crowded waiting rooms starting at at a little screen as the numbers count up and down to the time when they can get served.

That little screen gets a lot of viewing time, and something else running beside the wait number would get a lot of attention.

I’ve not seen many companies bundle in signage so far, but Philadelphia-based Q Systems has a nice, evidently dead simple application that blends wait time and marketing messaging in a simple solution.

It works by displaying attention-grabbing, motion graphic messages on digital screens, controlled by a touch-screen interface, which direct or queue customers into the appropriate lines for service, says the press release. Although the Q System was initially designed for casinos, it’s become very evident that it can be applied in many other public places.

Several casinos are already using the platform.

This video does a better job than the narrative explaining how the system works. There is a staff-facing touchscreen with a user interafce that represents each of the screens facing casino patrons in the wait area. To change what’s on the screen, a casino worker just has to select the screen and use up and down arrows to find the right message (the various messages are previewed as thumbnails) and then touch on Go.

Training takes maybe five minutes. This strikes me as the kind of interface that would also make sense in fast food where local decisions of pricing and features are allowed.

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