Is there a right or wrong way of using an office notice board, strictly speaking? It all depends on how important the board itself is, but if you’d like the content of your office display board to be noticed, read and therefore prove in any way effective, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’.
It’s hardly uncommon for anyone in business to post all manner of notices and helpful bits and pieces, only to find that about 99% of those around the office never even realised they’d been posted. A case of not caring? Not at all, it just comes down to the way in which notice boards and the like have to be eye-catching, appealing and digestible enough to be in any way effective with the average individual.
Here’s a quick overview of the most effective tips of all for making sure your office display boards get noticed:
1 – Carry Out a Cull
First and foremost, you need to take a good look at what’s already on the board and be ready to go about a hard-headed cull. The fact that you’re reading this confirms that your current approach isn’t working, so the best advice is to take things back to the drawing board. Take every last thing off the board and be ready to go through it all with a fine-tooth comb. And in doing so, take out anything that’s not 100% relevant and put it to one side…chances are it’ll be going in the bin.
2 – Consider Its Location
Prior to going crazy with the reworking of the board, it’s important to consider where exactly it is in the office in accordance with both foot traffic and lines of site. For example, it’s one thing to have a board where 500 walk by every hour, but it’s of no use at all if it’s situated in a position where it doesn’t catch the eye-line of a single person. Spend some time checking out a few different areas of the office and take into account exactly where the best location for the board might be – chances are it won’t be the most obvious place.
3 – Add Dividers
If the notice board is big and will inherently contain a lot of information, it’s a good idea to consider splitting it up into a few separate sections. The reason being that this will make it easier for readers to find the information they need and that relates to them and their own interests or working areas, rather than having to go through the whole of the board to find anything.
4 – Remember Natural Reading
Assuming you’re looking to make the most of a business notice board in the West, it’s important to remember the way in which every single person is trained pretty much from birth to read from left to right and from top to bottom. Because of this, the most attention will always be focused on the upper-left regions of the boards and of course the centre, while lower areas and those to left seldom carry as much weight.
5 – Regular Refreshes
When a notice board in an office become congested with too much information from days, weeks and months past, it also becomes hard to take seriously. Even when regularly updated with new information, chances are it will go unnoticed as the older content will dominate the board as a whole. As such, it’s important to continually refresh the board’s content on a comprehensive level to ensure it remains eye-catching.
6 – Make Messages Stand out
It’s common to assume that if you make everything looking brilliantly bright and bold, everything will garner much-needed attention. This isn’t the case however, as the more information there is competing for top priority, the more diluted the overall effect becomes. This is why it’s crucial to prioritise the most important messages and informational content in general with brighter, bolder designs than less important side issues.
7 – Gather Feedback
And finally, you can put the board to the test and any time by using it to display new information – pretty much anything you can think of – and asking those around whether or not they’ve seen or read it. This will help you find out how fast the message is seen, whether it is seen at all and how many actually stopped to read it rather than just give it a passing glance. What’s more, it’s also a good way of reminding employees just how important the notice board and its content really are!