[Review] Introduction to Directional Signs Content Slots

In this article, we will give you a quick introduction into understanding and configuring directional signs.
Directional Signs are used to display ‘directions to locations’ and ‘messages’ on a digital sign. The purpose of having these signs is to help pedestrians and drivers navigate through external spaces.

Directional signs walkthrough

1. In the PAM navigation menu, go to 360 Planner > Digital Signs

2. Select DIGITAL SIGN MAP tab

3. You have a few options in finding your sign. You can either,
- Use the search bar to type in the sign name
- Apply the sign filters to show all directional signs
- Locate and select your directional digital sign on the map

The right-hand side section will pop up when a sign is selected

4. The layout says ‘Directional Sign’ which means we are on the correct sign

5. The sign type is V3.2, meaning this specific sign is targeted towards vehicular environments

6. Activating pixel design will make the Directional sign content become a pixilated font

Content slots section

Content slots allow you to place both Destination and Messaging Dictionary items into each slot to display Directional sign content.

7. Destination dictionary items will always have a light blue glow around it

8. Messaging dictionary items will always have a yellow glow around it

9. The reason why the Destination dictionary items in Content slot 1 (i.e. Experience Parking A,B,N,O) are greyed out is because these locations have been disabled in Map Editor. This means the dictionary items (Experience Parking) linked to these locations are hidden and aren’t currently in use

10. You can configure each slot by clicking the settings icon

11. This lets you adjust the text size

12. This lets you adjust and indent the text

13. This lets you place a line above the slot (i.e. Maintain Social Distance has a line on top of it to separate it from Lake Park)

14. This lets you put the 2nd dictionary item the next space to avoid overlap

15. Change text colour if options have been given

16. Change background colour if options have been given

17. You can see a preview of all the changes you do instantly

18. Save changes

Tidying up content slots

In this example, we will show you how to organise your content slot dictionary items to look tidy and clean on your directional sign

1. Notice how Listen for announcements looks a bit off inside the DSM preview. This means that visitors to your site will see it exactly like that which isn’t a good look and could be confusing

2. Inside Content slot 4, Listen for announcements is seen as 1 long dictionary item name which we want to look like that instead of the one currently in preview

3. To fix this, go and click on the settings icon

4. Click on the left arrow line. This will take Listen for announcements to the next line below while ensuring it is still part of the Lake Park section

5. We can see in the preview that it now looks a lot neater and more organised. Minor adjustments such as these will help enhance the feel and look of your directional signs

6. Save changes

Adding colour to content slots

You can also add colour to your content slots. They may look like the example below. Applying colours helps certain information stand out to visitors while they are at your location and can help provide easier visual accessibility

To add colours, follow these steps.

1. Click on the settings icon of the content slot you want to do this in

2. You can see the text and background colours appear. Please note that default text colour is white and default background colour is black

3. We have selected the white default text colour

4. We have selected a green background. When green is selected, it automatically becomes disabled as a text colour option. This is to avoid choosing the same colour for both text and background

5. As we have shown in the photo above, we now have a section of the directional sign with a green background and white text

6. Notice how only the dictionary items in slot 4 inherits this change. The colours come from the dictionary item themselves when you configure them in the dictionary tab. In this example, the colours of green and blue came from the Lake Park dictionary item but since Listen for Announcements is also in the same slot, they will also inherit these colours even if they don’t have any colours

7. Save changes

Having more colour options

You might be wondering what if Listen for Announcements also had colours inside their dictionary item.
If that were the case then it would simply be added to the list. Look at the photo below.

Listen for Announcements now have the colour of yellow and brown so they have been added to the list of colour options and since they are also inside slot 4, Lake Park would also be available to have these colours applied to them.