The hardware is the part everyone can see
A new menu board makes an immediate impression. It is bright, it moves and somebody has almost certainly photographed it for the project update. Whether it helps the customer decide what to order requires a different kind of attention.
Jason Adams of Creative Realities joins Michael Beck and Chad Horn on ChatGTM to discuss that difference. His work spans digital signage, content and the systems used to manage what appears in physical spaces. The screen is part of the solution, but the customer decision is the reason for putting it there.
For restaurant operators, the conversation changes the starting question. Before choosing an animation or a display, identify the behavior the business wants to improve. That could be helping guests understand a combo, introducing an overlooked beverage or making an order easier to confirm. Each calls for a particular message in a particular place.
Design for the way people actually look
Adams describes using eye-tracking work to understand how customers view a set of menu boards. His example follows attention across several displays and considers where a promoted item or an order confirmation might belong. It is an illustration of studying the journey, not a claim that every customer reads every menu in the same sequence.
That distinction is useful. Internal teams know the menu intimately and may organize it around departments, product categories or the space available in a design file. A customer is trying to make a decision, often under time pressure and without that familiarity.
Observe where people hesitate and what they ask the team to explain. Review legibility from the actual ordering position. Check whether motion draws attention toward useful information or away from it. A display can be visually impressive while making the decision harder.
Adams also describes using food and beverage imagery to help communicate appeal. The creative choice should support the product and the moment. Showing how a drink looks may answer a question that a list of ingredients leaves open.
Build a test the register can help answer
Adams connects signage evaluation with point-of-sale information and other sources of behavioral evidence. He wants the discussion to move beyond an opinion about whether the creative looks better. The operator should be able to examine what changed in the business.
The interview includes a striking customer example, and Adams later explicitly calls its rapid payback unusual. That qualification matters. An exceptional result is a reason to investigate the conditions behind it, not a reasonable budget assumption for every installation.
A practical test can begin with a specific menu change and a defined outcome. Record the period, the locations and other changes happening at the same time. Look at item mix as well as revenue, and ask whether the result came from a useful additional purchase or a substitution.
Digital content is easier to revise than a printed board. That flexibility becomes valuable when someone owns the learning cycle. Make a change, examine the result and decide what to retain. Otherwise, the business has purchased an editable surface and left the editing strategy unresolved.
A retail media screen has two customers
The conversation extends into convenience stores and retail media. Adams describes the opportunity to sell advertising space to brands, alongside using screens to influence purchases in the store. Those are related but different sources of value.
An advertiser wants evidence that the agreed content played. A retailer also needs the environment to remain useful for shoppers and effective for its own business. Filling every available moment with paid messages can create a conflict with navigation, product information and the store's identity.
That makes content governance part of the commercial model. Decide what belongs on each screen, which messages take priority and how playback will be documented. Keep advertising revenue distinct from any claimed sales effect so both can be evaluated honestly.
Plan for the second version
Adams encourages brands to think about the infrastructure behind their longer-term ambitions. He also describes Creative Realities working with existing hardware when the immediate need is elsewhere. The answer does not always require replacing every component at once.
For an operator, that suggests documenting how menus, pricing and content will be maintained after launch. Identify the people responsible for changes, the systems they rely on and the support available when a display stops behaving as expected.
The installation photograph will look much the same whether those questions have answers or not. The guest's experience will not. A useful digital menu keeps doing its job after the opening announcement, as products change, customers behave differently and the team learns what actually helps them choose.
