The current consumer market is driven by technology and digital products, all designed to make our life easier and quicker in this fast paced society.

Over the past few years, consumers have seen the growing trend of self service kiosks and touch screen technologies dominate every supermarket, cinema, shopping department and hospital; in fact they have practically become a part of our everyday lives.

Where would we be without the handy cash point in town or the efficient ticket dispenser at the train station, designed to speed up purely functional transactions.

Then you have the self service kiosks in museums, art galleries, shopping centres, providing consumers with information about products, services or how to get from A to B.

There are, however many companies out there throwing a kiosk into a busy environment trying to engage consumers to test out new dynamic brands or take part in tedious surveys in a trendy modern fashion.

Whatever they are being used for, businesses are investing heavily into self service technology to keep up with consumers and their daily lives and to be frank, the situation is getting into a big mess.

Many companies are struggling to understand exactly how to use the self service kiosks successfully in specific environments for people to receive maximum use out of them.

Through his work on self service systems in busy areas, Alexander Grunsteidl creator of Digital Well Being Labs studied the self service kiosks used in St Pancreas station, London and the self service stations at Westfield Shopping Mall, in White City, West London.

Both self service kiosks fulfil similar functions; find a store or service around you, locate the toilets, highlight any events and push some advertisements etc. Both are located in very dense, high footfall environments.

After spending time researching both kiosks, Alex found that the kiosks in St Pancreas attracted the occasional passerby, yet the kiosks in Westfield were in constant use.

• Placement of kiosks

At St Pancreas the kiosks are nowhere near any main entrances and always just out of the way of high footfall areas like escalators. 

Alex said that he almost had to search for them even when they were highly visible standing throughout the environment.

On the other hand, Alex argues that there is little incentive to use them as most of the few shops and services are located along a linear path from the various entrances to the platforms and you will eventually bump into what you may or may not be looking for.

While at Westfield Shopping Centre, the situation was different.

Alex found that the self service kiosks at Westfield are exactly where you expect them, at dominant locations in the centre of entrance areas and on major cross-ways.

Alex found that the main reason people preferred the kiosks was because the design specifications of the rest of the environment did not allow customers to easily find shops whilst scanning the alleys.

There are no signs protruding into the corridors, so customers need to stand almost in front of the stores before being able to identify them.

The study found that self service kiosks need to be conveniently placed in locations that are accessible to consumers.

On top of this, businesses need to make sure that the kiosks stand in prime positions and aren’t shoved away in corners away from the consumer eye.

The environment should also be inviting for customers, as well as designed to fit around you and your business using the space you have.

Protouch have a wide range of self service kiosks to suit all your needs and requirements. From the wall mounted Xen X4 to the award-winning and free standing Xen X5, the touch screen distributor and manufacturer have carefully considered a range of different styles to enhance and fit around your business whatever space you have.

For more information visit Protouch today.