STEP 1: Use simple navigation
  • Eliminate all the double-click, right-click, CTRL keys and keyboard shortcuts you offered Web visitors. Limit your navigation to buttons sized for fingertip control.
  • Use "Next" or "Continue" functions in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Use "Back" or "Cancel" functions in the lower left-hand corner. These functions let users do something that comes naturally to them, regardless if they’re computer savvy, as if they were flipping through pages of a book or catalog.
STEP 2: Create a compelling self-contained opening screen
  • Eliminate Web site scroll bars. Web-style scroll bars don’t work well on kiosks. The physical size of a Web page is usually inappropriate for a kiosk, as are pages that scroll to reveal more information. When you give a user access to content “below the fold” (see photo at left), you’re opening up the possibility that the kiosk will be left in a less-than-optimal state by the previous visitor.
  • Invite initial interaction by displaying a simple "Touch the screen to begin" button prominently on the opening screen.
  • Make sure fonts are large enough to be seen easily from a reasonable distance.
  • Can you read it in any type of lighting? Be sure the color and contrast of the screen design elements enhance readability under different lighting conditions.
  • Make the most important information pop. Is it the easiest to spot on the screen? Does the eye move easily to the controls?
  • Make it finger friendly. A fingertip doesn’t provide the fine-grained control to select drop-down boxes from a menu or an option in a dialog box from a Web page. If your kiosk design is based on a touchscreen, adapt the touch points accordingly. Make sure to scale every navigation element from the Web to fingertip size.
STEP 3: Use buttons and controls that respond instantly
  • Reward users for their page or button selections with a visual or auditory signal. For example, while a credit card is being processed, show a progress bar or some other icon.
  • Use audible instructions or alternative language options for users who may not be fluent in English.
  • For children, consider using fun and entertaining audio and animated cues.
  • Conduct usability tests during development to make sure of all of the above.
STEP 4: Be open to design inspiration, wherever you go
When you see other kiosks in airports, libraries, banks, music stores, post offices or elsewhere, try them out and pay attention to the information and design elements, noting those that work and those that don’t. Don’t limit yourself. Borrow design ideas from everyday objects like car dashboards, audio component controls, toaster ovens, traffic signals, photocopy machines. Industrial designers have populated our lives with some wonderful combinations of form and function-keep your eyes open!
YOUR GUIDE
Jennifer Davis
Retail Director
Planar Systems, Inc.
Jennifer Davis is the director of the retail business at Planar Systems, focusing on digital signage and kiosk solutions.
Jennifer Says Keep In Mind…
At a basic level, a kiosk can simply sell a person a plane ticket. At a higher level, it can organize and coordinate a month-long journey through Scandinavia. Exceptional kiosk design encourages repeat business, builds customer confidence in the brand and spreads the word about your client’s product. Unfortunately, poor interface design can produce a frustrating customer experience with a negative impact that endures beyond a single failed transaction. The brand suffers and prospective customers can be lost in the few seconds that it takes for an ineffective interface to confuse or irritate the user. Effective design, on the other hand, anticipates customer needs and shapes the interaction-whether simple or complex-to be elegant, intuitive and satisfying.
In the haste to capitalize on the growth of digital merchandizing and self-service kiosks, companies sometimes simply port their entire Web site to a station on the retail floor. This is a huge mistake; it rarely works well and often produces strikingly bad customer experiences. Unlike the Web, a kiosk structured for open-ended browsing is unlikely to serve a customer’s immediate needs, such as investigating mortgage options in a bank, queuing up digital pictures for printing or evaluating a new brand of sunglasses or cell phone. But all of your other assets that already exist online, from product images, Apple QuickTime clips, Macromedia Flash files, 360-degree product tours, dynamic HTML code and copy, are perfect for a kiosk. Instead of starting from scratch, you can draw on existing assets and easily adapt the information and transaction mechanisms on your Web site to a kiosk.
Planar Systems, Inc.
www.planar.com
1195 NW Compton Drive
Beaverton, Oregon 97006
ph. 866.752.6271