Today, retailers are serving a new breed of customers who are tecnology savvy, time contrained and less willing to wait in line than ever before.

Consumers now demand that busy environments are well equipped with quick, easy transaction in-store kiosks that offer full control over the buying process, such as self checkouts, or on-demand information about products or services available.

A recent study by Radiant Systems found that 76 per cent of consumers preferred using kiosks to being served by a store associate.

But what is the main attraction towards technology devices that don’t offer a welcoming smile or general chit-chat at the checkout? Why are so many people attracted to heartless machines?

It’s simple. They have been designed to be easy to use, consumer friendly, efficient, effective and save the customer time and hassle dealing with another person when simply trying to purchase an item or find out some information.

However, this is what a ‘top quality’ self service kiosk should provide, but what Alex Grunsteidl, creater of Digital Well Being found, many companies don’t consider the fundamental points to creating a self service kiosk, such as its physical design.

• Physical Design

At St Pancras the self service kiosks reflect an early nineties design sensibility. Large vertical units trying to fullfil multiple way-finding and information tasks. There are two screens mounted above each other. On top, a general information streaming display, with time, weather and departure info, arranged in portrait format.

Below, a touch screen in landscape format, suggesting some kind of relationship between the two screens where there is none.

Alex said, “On multiple visits I noticed that some of the displays were out of order. In case you are not aware where you are, the designers ensured to splash the St Pancras name/logo in a prominent position on the totem, instead of using this space for meaningful labels to identify, for example, different meeting location throughout the station.”

However, the design and layout of the self service kiosks in Westfield Shopping Mall, West London told a different story.

“This is seriously clever design,” Alex said.  

The design looks light and modern fitting perfectly into the new digital age.

The design is welcoming to customers accommodating for two people either side of the kiosk to avoid queues, as well as holding a table-like setting to allow users to maintain awareness of their environment without having their views blocked.

The design is the first point of call when purchasing a self service kiosk as consumers need to instantly know that what they are seeing is a kiosk for them to use at their leisure.

On top of this, the design need to fit well into your environment to create a uniform feel throughout.

The self service kiosk also needs to be inviting and accommodating for all customers entering your business whatever the circumstance.

Protouch have a range of self service kiosks for your to choose from to fit into your business.

Thier classic designs can be developed and designed with your logo to feature to create a uniform feel throughout.

For more information about their products and services visit Protouch today.