Custom Attract Screens: Create and Manage

By Mark Albis
3 min

Custom attract screens allow Digital Signage administrators to promote custom messaging on the touchscreens they manage. In addition, the YSM Communications Office will promote important campus-wide messages that appear on all YSM digital signage screens. These custom attract screens appear between the regular cycle of content that appears on any given signage website, with one custom attract screen appearing approximately every 5 minutes.

Managing Custom Attract Screens in Beatrix

If your department owns a touchscreen and you do not already have access to the “Digital Signage” module in Beatrix, please contact ysm.editor@yale.edu and we’ll configure it for you.

 

The Digital Signage module in Beatrix

Once you have access, you can visit the Custom Attract Screens page to manage the messages that appear on your screen. This page will list all currently published or in progress attract screens.

Step-by-step: Creating a new custom attract screen

  1. Click the + Add New button to create a new custom attract screen

  2. Select the Site(s) you want the custom message to appear on. Each site corresponds to one physical touchscreen installation. A single custom attract screen can be configured to appear on one or more sites you manage.

  3. You must select an Expiry Date. To keep the content fresh, we recommend having a custom attract screen active for a month or less (from date of publish to expiry date).

    1. Attract screens will stop appearing on a signage website at the end of the day (11:59pm) on the selected expiry date.

  4. Select the Screen Type, which can feature a Beatrix news article, a Beatrix event, or “Text” for a custom message about anything that isn’t already a Beatrix news article or event.

    1. If you select Article, you must select a Beatrix news article to feature

    2. If you select Event, you must select a Beatrix event to feature

    3. If you select Text, you must enter the title for your message

  5. Click Continue

  6. Depending on the Screen Type you selected, you may need to select a Layout. The options vary by the type of screen, but usually you have the option to include an image with a particular aspect ratio, or to not use an image.

  7. The additional fields you must add also depend on Screen Type, but essentially each type of screen contains:

    1. Image (unless you choose a Layout without an image)

    2. Description: For a Text screen, this will be body of your message, but for events or news, this is your opportunity to override the event description or news article summary with something custom for the attract screen only.

    3. Link for QR code is a field option for every kind of attract screen, but for Event and Article type screens, a QR code to the event or news article on medicine.yale.edu will be used, and cannot be edited. For a Text screen, you can link to whatever resource you’d like, or not have a link at all if the message on its own is enough.

  8. Once you are ready for the custom attract screen to go live, Publish it and it will appear in the content rotation for relevant signage sites within a few minutes.

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