Conference Badges: The Basics
by DanConference organizers and associated graphic designers: when you are making conference badges, here is what attendees need to see (in order of importance):
- First Name. BIG! I don’t want to have to stare at people’s badges any longer than I need to. A rapid glance should boldly display the wearer’s first name, often to just refresh my memory or as a cue if I’m looking for someone I haven’t met but want to.
- Last name
- Company
- Hometown
Possibly Title should be added to this list, but I’m of two minds. One is: who cares about titles? but the other is, well, I do. I want to know what someone does in order to see what kind of conversations I’m likely to have with them.
Not so important: the name of the conference. Duh, I get it; I’m already here. Also unimportant: the sponsors. Not for the conference itself, of course, but on the front of name badges their logos are just visual clutter.
Back of the badge should have the schedule, with preferably both the title and speaker for each talk. If space prevents that, title is more important than the speaker’s name IMHO. Unless the speaker is famous, titles are easier than names to remember.
One more thing: the strap holding the badge should be adjustable. Too often it is way too long. It should hang at chest level, not at belly/waist level. Low-hanging badges can’t be seen sitting down at a table, and if staring at chests is rude, staring at bellies (or below) is probably worse.
This all seems so common sensical as I put it down, but it is amazing how often it is gotten wrong. Even by people who should know better.
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November 26th, 2007 at 2:12 am
Back of the badge: too often, the badges are printed out at the registration counter, the back of the badge is left blank. What you get is roughly half of the people running round with blank badges, because the printed side faces to their belly. Why not print out double length badges, with the information printed upside down in the lower half. When you fold the badge, the information would be visible from both sides. I wish, they would have done that at the web2expo in Berlin recently.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:37 am
I couldn’t agree more. Conference badges at IDEA 2007 were great, while those at the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin left us all squinting.
Having the program on the back of the badge would be an elegant solution to the “which session is next, again?” problem.
November 26th, 2007 at 6:00 am
love the double sided badge idea.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:03 am
One thing I’ve grown to love: the color of the badge holder shows the relationship of the person to the conference. Are they a speaker? Attendee? Staff? Having this info in the color of the hanging strap or outline of the name badge helps me quickly see who I’m talking to, and is also handy when trying to find someone who’s working for the conference.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:20 am
See Mike Davidson’s post and example better badge from a few months ago.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
As it happens, I’m at a conference right now where our badges don’t show company or hometown.
For some reason, not having that information on the conference badge makes it feel sort of awkward and weird to ask for it in the chitchat that happens during breaks, over meals, etc. It feels like asking someone’s age or weight or something.
There’s this the concern that I won’t recognize the company name or won’t know where that town they just mentioned is located, and it all just gets really sticky. If you can read it all beforehand, you sort of know how to tailor the conversation. “Oh hey, you’re from [x]. I know [y] from that company. Do you know her?” or “So, you’re from [z]? Now where is that located?”
I keep running into one guy who for some reason had to hand-write his own badge, and he had the good sense to add where he works. While the rest of us are wandering around the conference like UX orphans, in my mind this guy has a home. I can place him on a map. He’s more real! In short, I’m a lot more likely to remember him now. And since one of the most important benefits of going to a conference is the networking, that’s really important.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Best badges I’ve ever seen, hands down, were at the IIT Design Strategy Conference a couple of years ago. They had all the right info on the front, done in a visually attractive design that wasn’t just center-justified black type. And on the back a very nicely done list of the talks and speakers.
The fronts of the ICSID badges were OK, but the info inside about the speakers actually only listed the talk titles, not who was giving them. This made it much harder to remember what to go see next, as usually you were more interested in the person than the name of their actual talk (which wasn’t always that self explanatory).
Adjustable length: yes. It seems like particularly for women this would be nice, so they can position the badge at something other than chest level if they want.
December 23rd, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Great stuff - but ‘hometown’? This might be a culture-specific requirement - coming from the UK, I wouldn’t need this info. I’d be much more interested in knowing *why* people are attending. Maybe organisers should add a drop-down to the registration page - perhaps including the options: here to … {sell, buy, learn, burn my budget} ?