Industry research by Kiosk Marketplace has produced a key White Paper on how businesses can get the most out of their kiosks, looking at touch screen technology from the customer’s perspective.

Here in part one, we’ll look at five of their key ideas that have emanated directly from consumer feedback.

1) Location, location, location

To succeed, kiosks must be placed in a prime location so they can easily be discovered by customers. Unfortunately most kiosks have a significant footprint, and floorspace is hard to find in prime locations.

Consider a kiosk that is small enough to be mounted directly to a shelf or end cap without significantly displacing merchandise.

2) First impressions

- Are complex with many choices, leading the customer to think “I don’t have time to learn.”
- Play a full-screen video, causing a customer to feel “It’s just trying to sell me something.”
- Display the message ‘Touch to Begin,’ which leads to the question “Begin what? I don’t have the time to find out.”

The initial screen must be simple yet dynamic, but not so dynamic as to be annoying. Avoid full-screen videos and take

a cue from digital signage applications, which continuously rotate through a small number of simple screens. Provide a small
number of buttons that have an obvious result, e.g., a “see more” button underneath the image of the sale item.

3) Work or play

A typical kiosk looks like a computer, which people associate with work and can imply a frustrating, complex and time-consuming experience — the last associations needed to get a customer engaged. Unless there is a pressing need that the kiosk fills (such as an ATM machine), a computer-like terminal results in the customer walking in the opposite direction.

Careful design can give a kiosk toy-like qualities, such as the use of bright colours and non-standard shapes, making the kiosk more engaging and encouraging its use.

4) Your number is up
No one likes to wait while someone else uses the kiosk. Conversely, no one wants to have someone waiting behind them. It’s also frustrating to have to walk some distance to use the kiosk. Unfortunately, due to cost, many installations only have a single kiosk.

The solution is to have multiple, lower-cost kiosks distributed throughout the store.

5) Patience. What patience?

Waiting for a page to refresh can be frustrating. Often it is not the length of the wait that matters; it is the unpredictability that people find frustrating. Many in-store kiosk implementations are remotely connected to the company’s website. While this is a necessity for services such as loyalty and remote fulfillment, it leads to unnecessary delays while browsing products.

Eventually, after being asked to endure this painful experience, the customer leaves and never comes back. All browsing delays should be limited to less than 0.5 second; this is best achieved by having all the content reside locally in the store.