Posting Notices on Building Screens: Best Practices That Get Them Read

A screen only helps if what's on it gets read. Residents give a building screen a few seconds while they wait for an elevator or walk past the lobby. Here's how to use those seconds well.

Write for five seconds

• Lead with what and when. "Water shut-off · Tuesday 9 AM–1 PM." Details second.
• One message per slide. If a notice has three parts, make it three slides or keep it to the essentials.
• Aim for fewer than 25 words on the main line and a short supporting sentence.
• Use plain language. "Move your car by 8 AM" beats "Residents are kindly requested to relocate vehicles."

Use a consistent layout

Pick a small set of templates and stick with them:

• Notice (maintenance, shut-offs, inspections)
• Rule reminder
• Event
• Urgent (reserved for genuine emergencies)

Consistent colours and labels teach residents what kind of message they're looking at before they read a word. Don't use the "urgent" style for anything that isn't.

Schedule start and end times

Every notice should have an end time. Expired notices make every other notice less believable.

Start times matter too. A garage-cleaning notice works best starting about a week before the cleaning, not a month.

Put it where it's relevant

If your system supports targeting by screen:

• Building-wide items (shut-offs, fire alarm tests): every screen
• Floor-specific work: corridor screens on those floors, plus elevator landings
• Amenity rules: screens at the amenity
• Parking items: garage and entrance screens

Keep the rotation short

If a rotation has twenty items, any one of them only appears briefly every few minutes. Most residents won't see it. Keep the active rotation to a manageable number, prioritise time-sensitive notices, and move evergreen content (rules, amenity hours) into a slower background rotation.

Accessibility

• High contrast: dark text on light or light text on dark, never mid-grey on mid-grey
• Large type: if you can't read it from across the elevator landing, it's too small
• Don't rely on colour alone to convey meaning
• Leave each slide up long enough to read comfortably

What to avoid

• Scanned PDFs or photos of printed notices: unreadable on a screen
• Paragraphs of text
• Personal information about residents or units
• Anything that would embarrass the board if a prospective buyer saw it

Formal notices still need formal delivery

Screens are excellent for reminders, but notices that the Condominium Act or your declaration require to be delivered in a particular way still need to be delivered that way.

For seasonal planning ideas, see a digital signage content calendar.