Glossary A–ZLetter D
Dwell time
Dwell time is the time a person spends within sight of a screen and is therefore able to notice it at all.
It depends on the location: someone standing at a checkout or in a waiting room stays longer than someone walking past a shop window.
Dwell time is a guiding figure when planning content. In passing, a creative has only a few seconds; it needs a single message and large lettering. In a waiting area there is time for longer items and a loop with more variety. The loop should match the dwell time: if it is much longer than the time people spend in front of the screen, hardly anyone sees its end.
Operators usually know dwell time only as an estimate based on observation, which is often sufficient for design purposes. Measurements with sensors or cameras are possible but raise data protection issues. The term is not always used consistently: some use it to mean how long a single creative stays on screen. In professional usage, however, it refers to the viewers' time; display duration should be based on it.