Menu board design tips
Six plain rules for a board people can read fast.
Guide
Animated menu boards: when motion helps.
Moving pictures can pull the eye to one item. Used on everything, they get in the way. Here is how we use motion at our shop.
Motion vs still pictures
A still menu is a picture that stays put. An animated menu board has some parts that move: a sundae that turns, a scoop that drops, a headline that slides in. The prices and names stay still while the picture moves.
Motion is not always better. A still board is calm, easy to read, and easy to make. Motion adds life and pulls the eye, which is useful for one thing and tiring for ten. We do not claim that motion sells more. What we can say is how we use it: one moving picture to catch the eye, and prices that hold still so they are easy to read.
What to animate: one thing, not everything
Move the food, not the numbers
Pick one item you want customers to notice and let that one move. Keep prices, names and the layout still. A reader needs a steady spot to find a price. When the numbers also slide around, people have to wait for them to settle.
On a treats board, the sundae photo can be the one thing that moves while the price blocks beside it stay put. Customers get the motion and the answer in the same glance.
Keep each loop short and smooth
A short loop of five to ten seconds is enough for one item. Slow, smooth movement looks calm and professional. Fast cuts and flashing text are hard to read and make a room feel busy. If you are unsure, slow it down.
A simple weekly routine helps: one moving item on the board, changed each week with the flavor of the week. Everything else stays still. That keeps the board fresh without redoing the whole thing.
File size and smooth play
Video that looks great on your laptop can stutter on a TV. Large files, odd formats and slow players make the picture jump. A jumpy board looks worse than a still one. The fix is to build for the player, not for the laptop.
Playing full-HD (1920 × 1080) video smoothly is LIVE on Wow Menu Boards, including on TVs with Fire TV built in. Three of our five TVs are that kind. The app also saves your video on the TV, so the board keeps playing if the internet drops. Ask any company you try to show a moving board on the exact kind of TV you own, for a full hour.
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Real example: Sweet Aloha boards
Here is a frame from our holiday board, one of the boards that plays in our shop. The two photos and the headline are the parts a board can move or swap. The price line and the QR code stay in one place.
For holidays we swap the photos and the headline and keep the layout, so regulars know where to look. Read more about that in ice cream shop menu board ideas. You can see the motion feature, marked Live, on our features page.
Three motion mistakes to avoid
- Moving everything at once. When four pictures and three headlines all move, the eye has nowhere to rest. Pick one item to move and hold the rest still.
- Text that slides or flashes. A price that fades in late forces customers to wait. Show prices from the first second and keep them there.
- Long loops with no rest. A 60-second video with new things every few seconds tires people out. Short loops that repeat calmly are easier to look at while you wait in line.
If you only fix one, fix the first. A board with a single moving picture and steady prices already reads better than most busy ones.
When to skip motion
Skip motion, or keep it small, on a board that is mostly prices, like a coffee list with 30 lines. Skip it when the room is small and the screen is close, because moving pictures can get distracting at arm’s length. Skip it when you have no time to make good video. A clean still board beats a bad moving one. For layout advice that works either way, read our menu board design tips.
Keep reading
Ice cream shop menu board: 7 ideas
Seven ideas from a shop that runs them, with our real boards.
How to turn a TV into a menu board
Five steps, with examples from our shop.
Fire TV menu board
How the TV you own becomes a board.
Run your shop's menu like we run ours.
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