Touchscreen Directory for Office Buildings: The Complete Guide (2026)

A touchscreen directory replaces the printed strip board in a lobby with a screen a visitor can search. Instead of scanning a list of names in small type, someone walking in types the company they are visiting and gets the floor, the suite and the way there.

For the building, the more immediate change is behind the screen. A tenant name that used to require ordering a new plastic insert becomes an edit that takes a moment.

In some buildings it takes even less than that. Where the property already runs a compatible system and the directory is connected to it, the change can carry across on its own.

This guide covers what to look for when choosing a touchscreen directory for office building lobbies: what it does for visitors and staff, what it costs, what the building needs to supply, and what the process looks like from decision to live screen.

What a lobby directory does on a normal morning

For a visitor. They search a name rather than scan a board, and the screen can show them the route to the suite rather than only the floor number. That helps a first time visitor reach the right floor without stopping to ask, which can reduce the routine questions a lobby handles each day.

For the front desk. Fewer people arrive at the desk to ask where someone is, which frees that position for the things that need a person.

For building staff. Information changes in one place. The same screen can carry building announcements, meeting room availability, real time transit departures for people heading out, and emergency messaging when it is needed.

For the building itself. The lobby is the first thing anyone sees, and a current, well designed directory reads as a building that is actively managed. In a competitive leasing market, that first impression matters during a tour.

The part that matters most after year one: keeping it current

This is the question worth asking any supplier early, because it determines whether a directory is still accurate in year three.

The straightforward answer is that someone updates it through a web based content manager, which with Navigo® is Navigo®Cloud™, accessible from any browser. That already compares well against ordering an insert and waiting for it.

The better answer, where a compatible system is already in place, is that nobody enters the same change twice.

ITS's published approach is to avoid keeping a second tenant list at all. Navigo® can automatically check a system the building already maintains, such as its access control platform, and update the directory from it. ITS describes it this way:

"Your security system already manages the most current tenant and employee data so Navigo® simply auto-polls that source, such as we do with Kastle Systems, to populate the building directory. Make a change to your Kastle System, and that change is instantly reflected in Navigo®."

Worth noticing why the security system is a sensible place to read from. It is usually updated the moment a new tenant's people need their badges to work, which makes it an early and reliable signal that something in the building has changed.

Someone still owns the tenant record and keeps that source accurate. What changes is that the information is entered once rather than maintained in two places.

Navigo® connects to the access platforms most common in commercial buildings, including Kastle Systems, Genetec and C•CURE 9000, and can pull employee names from Active Directory in corporate buildings. The full list of supported systems is published on the ITS site, and the practical question for any building is whether the platform it already runs appears on it.

Training and support come with the system, so the people who maintain the content are not left to work it out.

Touchscreen or strip board: four differences that matter

Strip directories, the slotted boards with plastic inserts, have been the lobby standard for decades and still work well in buildings with a stable tenant roster. Four differences are worth weighing.

Cost per change. A strip insert costs materials, labor and the lead time to order it. A digital change is an edit. The difference on any single change is small. Across a year of leasing activity it is not.

What else the screen can carry. A board shows the tenant list. One screen can also carry wayfinding, meeting room availability, transit times, announcements and emergency messaging, so the same wall space does several jobs.

Accessibility. A static board is a sign, so accessibility is about legibility, height and tactile or braille equivalents. A touchscreen is something people operate, which brings in reach, clearance and interface requirements. More below.

The Friday afternoon tenant move. A lease signs late in the week and the new tenant's people arrive Monday. On a strip board, the fix waits on an order. On a digital directory, it is done before the building closes.

What to consider before you buy

Screen size and orientation

Navigo® supports displays from 10 to 95 inches, plus video wall configurations. The practical decision comes down to three things: how far away people stand, how many tenants are on the list, and how much wall or floor space is available.

Portrait, the taller orientation, is the common choice for a tenant directory. It matches the shape of a name list and reads as a directory rather than as advertising, and it takes up less wall width, which matters in a lobby where the design is meant to be the feature. Landscape suits buildings using the screen for wayfinding maps, which need horizontal room.

For most multi-tenant lobbies, a 32 to 55 inch portrait display is the usual range. Larger formats are generally about the building's presence rather than readability, which is a legitimate reason to choose one.

How it is mounted

On the wall. The lowest profile option and the most common. It needs a wall that can carry it, plus power and a network connection at the mounting point.

Free standing on the floor. A floor mounted unit, used where the wall is glass, stone or historic, or where the directory should sit directly in the path of arrival. It needs power and data brought to the floor location, which is a larger piece of work.

On a desk or counter. A smaller interactive screen at the concierge or security position, often paired with a larger display elsewhere in the lobby.

Many buildings end up with a combination: one interactive screen where people arrive, and additional displays at the elevators showing the same information.

Brightness, if the lobby has a lot of glass

Screen brightness is measured in nits. A commercial display made for interior use is typically in the 350 to 500 nit range, which is comfortable in normal indoor light. A lobby with full height glass and direct afternoon sun needs a brighter panel.

This is worth deciding up front. Every screen has a brightness setting, but no setting takes a panel beyond the maximum brightness it was built for, so a lobby with strong daylight needs the brighter panel specified at the start rather than adjusted later.

How it looks in the lobby

Standard and custom enclosures, the housing around the screen, are both available. A custom enclosure can match the lobby's wood, stone or metal finishes, which matters when the directory is part of a design scheme rather than an appliance sitting in front of one. This is where a project benefits most from a supplier who builds to the building rather than shipping a fixed product.

What it costs

A directory is several components, and separating them makes the budget conversation easier.

ITS publishes its software pricing openly and quotes hardware, enclosures and installation per building, because those genuinely vary by lobby. The component most often missing from a first budget is the content setup: floor plans, the initial tenant list and the design template. It happens once, and it is the reason a project can otherwise reach installation week with a working screen and nothing to show on it.

Planning for accessibility

A touchscreen directory is something people operate rather than only read, so accessibility is partly a design decision and partly a placement decision. The four things a buyer needs to get right:

Reachable. The part of the screen people touch has to sit within reach of someone using a wheelchair. Under the ADA Standards that zone runs from 15 to 48 inches above the floor for an unobstructed approach, and an obstruction in front of the unit can lower the permitted maximum. In practice this limits how high the whole unit can be mounted.

Operable. Controls need to work with one hand, without tight grasping, pinching or twisting of the wrist, and with no more than five pounds of force.

Clear of the walkway. A unit mounted on a wall can only project so far into a circulation route before it becomes an obstruction, which makes the depth of the enclosure an accessibility question as well as a design one.

Usable on screen. Audio output, screen reader compatibility, good contrast and adjustable text size. On federal and many public projects, Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 AA requirements apply alongside the ADA Standards.

This is the kind of thing worth settling with a supplier who has done it before rather than discovering at inspection. ITS has built directories for public and institutional clients where accessibility is written into the procurement, including Fulton County's courthouses and Holyoke Medical Center.

What installation involves

Most of this is handled for you, but these are the items that involve the building, and knowing them early is what keeps a project on schedule. The trade terms are in parentheses for whoever ends up doing the work.

Power. A dedicated circuit ending at the mounting point: behind the display for a wall unit, in the floor or base for a free standing one.

A wired network connection (a network drop) at the same point. Navigo® runs in the cloud on Microsoft Azure, so the screen needs reliable network access rather than a server in the building.

A surface that can carry the display (the mounting substrate). Standard drywall construction is straightforward. Glass, stone, terrazzo and historic woodwork each need their own approach, and those are often the lobbies where a free standing unit is the easier answer.

Agreed cable locations (stub up locations), meaning the exact points where power and network cables come through the wall or floor. Settling the exact mounting height and cable positions before electrical work starts is the single thing that most protects a schedule, because moving a cable run through a finished floor is a much bigger job than placing it correctly the first time.

Building access. Freight elevator time, loading dock access and the building's rules about when the lobby can be a work area. In an occupied building this often shapes the schedule more than the installation itself.

From decision to live screen

1. Site visit and specification. Mounting location, size, orientation, brightness, surface, and cable locations agreed.
2. Quote and order. Hardware, enclosure, software and installation.
3. Hardware preparation. Standard displays and enclosures move faster than custom built ones. A custom enclosure matched to lobby finishes is usually the longest lead item.
4. Building work. Electrical and network connections brought to the agreed locations, scheduled around building hours.
5. Content setup. Floor plans, tenant list, design template, and connecting the directory to an existing system if it will update automatically.
6. Installation, setup and testing. Mount, connect, configure and check.
7. Handover and training. The people who will maintain the content are trained, and the support path is in place.

Durations vary with the building, the display and how much work has to happen outside business hours.

Where Navigo® fits

Navigo® is ITS's building directory and wayfinding software, managed in the cloud through Navigo®Cloud™. ITS has been based in Maryland since 1999 and works across corporate offices, healthcare, government, retail, residential and schools.

What tends to matter most in a lobby project is the combination of three things: a system that can read from what the building already runs, enclosures built to suit the lobby rather than the other way round, and the training and support that keep the content current after the installers leave.

Talk to us about your building

Tell us about the lobby, the wall or floor space you have in mind, and what happens there on a busy morning. We will come back with what the installation would involve and what it would cost for your building specifically. Get in touch with ITS.

FAQs

More questions are answered on the digital building directory FAQ page.

What is a touchscreen building directory? An interactive screen in a building lobby showing the tenant list, floor plans and building information, which a visitor can search by name rather than reading a static board. Most also carry wayfinding, meeting room information, transit times and emergency messaging.

How much does a touchscreen directory cost? Navigo® software starts at $11 per screen per month billed annually. The display, enclosure and installation are quoted per building, because screen size, brightness, mounting type and site conditions vary widely between lobbies.

What size screen does a lobby need? For most multi-tenant lobbies, a 32 to 55 inch portrait display. Displays are available from 10 to 95 inches plus video wall configurations, and the deciding factors are viewing distance, the length of the tenant list and the available wall or floor space.

How is the tenant list kept up to date? Either through a web based content manager, or automatically. Navigo® can check a system the building already maintains, such as its access control platform, and update the directory from it, so a change made once appears in the lobby without a second entry.

Is a touchscreen directory ADA compliant? It can be, and that is decided at specification. The touch area has to fall within the 15 to 48 inch reach range for an unobstructed approach. Controls must work with one hand, without tight grasping, pinching or twisting, and with no more than five pounds of force. The unit must not obstruct the walkway, and the interface needs audio output, good contrast and adjustable text size. On federal and many public projects, Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 AA apply as well.

What does the building need to provide? A dedicated power circuit and a wired network connection, both ending at the agreed mounting point, plus a surface that can carry the display. Agreeing the exact mounting height and cable positions before electrical work begins is what keeps the schedule intact.

Can one system run several buildings? Yes. Content is managed centrally through Navigo®Cloud™, so a campus or a portfolio runs from one place while each screen shows information for its own building.