Sold out
An item greys out or disappears from the board the moment it is marked unavailable, rather than being crossed out with tape.
Solutions
Digital Menu Boards
The saving on digital menu boards is almost never the printing. It is the twelve seconds it takes to change a price everywhere instead of the fortnight it takes to reprint, deliver and swap panels across every site — and the items you stop selling at a loss because the board still said the old price.
Sell
One price list, or you have not solved anything
A digital menu board that somebody edits by hand is a printed menu with a power bill. The value appears the moment the board is driven from one source: a price changes in one place and every screen in every site is correct within seconds, including the drive-through and the third board nobody remembers exists.
That is a data problem before it is a screen problem, and it is the part we spend the most time on. Where you have a point-of-sale or menu system, we drive the boards from it. Where you do not, we set up a single price list that the boards read, so there is still exactly one version of the truth.
What a menu system has to handle
Every one of these is something a real kitchen hit us with, and every one has to work without a staff member editing a screen mid-service.
Designing a board people can actually read
- Sized for the back of the queue, not for the designer’s monitor
- Price and item on the same line, so nobody has to track across a gap
- Enough contrast to survive the glare from the door on a bright afternoon
- A layout that still works when an item is sold out and the row disappears
- Movement used sparingly — a board that animates constantly is harder to read, not more appetising
- Portrait or landscape chosen from the physical space above the counter, not from what was in stock
Questions people actually ask
Can the boards connect to our point-of-sale system?
Usually yes, and it is worth the effort. Where the system has an interface for menu and pricing data we drive the boards directly from it, so the board and the till can never disagree. Where it does not, we set up a single price list that the boards read and that your team updates in one place. We confirm which is possible before quoting, not after.
How many screens do we need above the counter?
Fewer than most people assume. The common mistake is filling the wall and then having to fill the screens, which produces a board nobody can scan. We size from the menu itself: the number of items, the longest name, and the distance from the back of the queue. Three well-laid-out boards usually beat five crowded ones.
What happens during a power cut or an internet outage?
The players hold the current menu locally, so when power returns the boards come back on their own with the correct menu, without anyone logging in. During an internet outage the boards keep showing the last published menu; you simply cannot publish a change until it is back.
Next
Related
Start a project
Tell us about the space. We will tell you what belongs in it.
A first conversation costs you nothing and usually takes twenty minutes. Bring a photo of the wall and a rough idea of what you want it to do.
- A written specification you can price against anyone
- The platform we would run, named before you sign
- Hardware and content costed separately, so you can see both
- No obligation, and no pressure to buy screens you do not need