How Not to Label a Screen

Here's a quick win. There are many ways NOT to label a screen in an exhibition:

NOT on the wall nearby.
NOT above or below the screen.
NOT running up the side of it.

Why?

If that big title is visible even when the screen is dark, the visitor will always see it. When it breaks — it will — the visitor will see the title, but not the content. It will look even more broken. 

Label the screen in the screen.

Put that text in the screen, within the video or software. When that screen goes dark, there is no text to draw attention to the failure.

This applies to any display:

- Touchscreens
- Projection-mapped creepy mannequins
- Touch-tables, miraculously still popular
- The latest foldable curved transparent anti-gravity OLEDs

Here’s the thing:
Don't title a screen so visitors see that text even when the screen is dark. That makes broken tech even more obvious. Reduce two mistakes down to one with this rule:

Label the screen in the screen.

Warmly,
Jonathan