Dynamic Menu Updates

Programmers to the rescue!

Zem Media’s managed service was responsible for updating 47 signs across two locations in Nevada.  The challenge was that the Items on the menu were often changing in price, item, and availability.  The size of the inventory would grow as well.   The original concept called for 10 portrait menus, all to be updated using our Zem Custom designed online Template.

At the time of install, Additional Screens were added causing some last minuet challenges.  Screens were hung in Landscape mode as well Portrait which did not fit with the customer approved artwork layout.

To further an already complex menu system, as the inventory grew, the customer began to request design changes.  Zem Media’s managed service was spending more and more time to complete the menu change requests.  Changes had to be made across multiple areas, across multiple screens,  across multiple locations.

This opened the door for human errors and inconsistency.  It was taking hours and hours to completely rework the menu.

Zem Media’s Programmers found the perfect solution

The programmers changed the code to build the menu from a spreadsheet.  No longer would edits be made live and online.  What used to take hours and hours could now be done in minutes.  But that wasn’t all the benefits…
New sections could be added or removed to the menu at any time.  And still the programmers did more… Items that overpopulated an area within the menu would “Scroll”.  As inventory grew the display option could grow as well.

This menuing system also opened the door to automated menuing logic where the menu updates can be interfaced to an outside source for updates.  Zem Media has several of these type of projects in the works and will discuss in later posts.

Contact Zem Media for more information on Spread sheet dynamic menuing systems.