How to set up a digital menu board in a café

Start with where people stand

A digital menu board has one job: help someone decide what to order before they reach the counter. So before choosing a screen, stand where your customers stand. Where does the queue form? Where do eyes land when someone walks in? That spot, not the empty wall, is where the screen belongs.

In most cafés the best place is above or just behind the counter, slightly to the side of the till so staff don't block it. If the queue runs along a wall, a screen at the start of the queue gives people the most time to read. A screen in the window does a different job: it tells passers-by what you serve, so it needs fewer words and a bigger picture.

• Mount the screen so its centre sits a little above head height for a standing customer. Too high and people tilt their heads back; too low and the queue hides it.
• Avoid facing a window or a strong light. Glare on a glossy screen makes it unreadable for part of the day.
• Check that there is a power socket and a decent internet connection close by before drilling.
• If you have more than one screen, decide in what order people will see them and split the menu the same way.

Portrait or landscape?

Landscape is the default for a TV and the natural choice for a wide board above a counter: two or three columns of items side by side, or a menu next to a large photo. If you're replacing a wide printed board, landscape keeps the same shape.

Portrait suits a narrow wall, a pillar or a spot beside the till. It reads like a printed menu: a heading, a list and a photo underneath. It's also the better shape for a single featured product, like a seasonal drink, where one tall photo does the work.

You can mix the two. A common setup is one or two landscape screens with the full menu, and a portrait screen near the door for the offer of the day. Whatever you choose, design the content for that shape. A landscape menu squeezed onto a portrait screen leaves you with tiny text and wasted space.

Text size and viewing distance

Most menu screens that don't work fail on text size. A useful rule of thumb is about 2.5 cm of letter height for every 3 metres between the reader and the screen. If the back of your queue is 4–5 metres away, item names need to be around 3–4 cm tall on the actual screen, and prices at least as big.

To check, put your menu on the screen and walk to the furthest point a customer would read from. Item names and prices should be easy to read without squinting. Descriptions can be smaller, but if nobody can read them from the queue, drop them and keep them for the printed menu at the table.

• Use a plain, heavy typeface for item names and prices. Thin and decorative fonts disappear at a distance.
• Keep strong contrast: dark text on a light background, or the other way round. Avoid text over busy photos.
• Line up prices in one column so the eye can run down them.
• Leave space between rows. A crowded board is slower to read than a short one.

How many items per screen

Fewer than you think. A person reading a board from a queue scans; they don't read every line. On one screen, four to eight items with prices is comfortable. Past ten or twelve, text has to shrink and people stop reading.

If your menu is longer, split it. Group by what people decide on together: hot drinks, cold drinks, food. Put each group on its own screen, or let one screen take turns between groups. If it takes turns, keep each page up long enough to read: ten to fifteen seconds is a reasonable start for a list of items. Someone halfway through reading the prices shouldn't watch them disappear.

Photos and prices

One good photo does more than many small ones. Use your own photos where you can, taken in good light, and show the product the way it's actually served. A photo that promises more than the cup delivers costs you trust at the counter.

Prices should be clear and complete. Write prices the same way everywhere, give sizes a consistent order (small, medium, large), and make sure the price on the screen is always the price at the till. This is where printed boards usually fall behind: when something changes, a sticker goes over the old price.

Keeping it current

A menu board is only as good as its last update. Decide who in the team changes it, and make it as easy as editing a price on a phone. If changing the screen means a visit, a USB stick or a call to someone else, it won't happen on a busy Monday.

• Check the screens every morning when you open: are they on, and is the right menu showing?
• Change prices on the screen the same day they change at the till.
• Take sold-out items off, or mark them, until they're back.
• Retire seasonal items on the date they end, not when someone notices.

Software that shows each screen's status and lets you plan content by time of day takes most of this off your list. Whatever you use, the goal is the same: the screen should never be the one place in the café that's out of date.