// Text Generator Version 2.0 Lite // // Author: Matt Frazee // File: Tips.js // Date: 12/06/08 var text_array = new Array("The speed at which kiosk screens load is the most critical success factor of them all. With the increasingly-intolerant population wanting their information immediately, our goal as information providers should be only three seconds. If the user does not see any value within the first few seconds, he will leave and not return. Furthermore, remember that bad news travels fast; if a customer encounters a painfully slow kiosk, he is likely to tell friends and colleagues not to bother using that device because it is \"a big waste of time.\"","The kiosk application must capture the attention of the customer instantly. As PCs have become more powerful and the use of broadband connectivity has increased dramatically, people are able to obtain information much faster than ever before. At the same time, their patience has dwindled to seriously low levels. The site, and the information contained within it, must be of sufficient appeal that the user will explore further. If he has to wade through layer after layer in search of the information he needs, he simply won't do it. If the application and the information it provides is perceived to be b--o--r--i--n--g, the customer gives up. The customer will not give the kiosk the benefit of the doubt. Entice him immediately or he will quickly abandon the effort.","An interactive kiosk can be interesting, but irrelevant. People may use it - once. It all comes down to value. Is the customer deriving any value from using the kiosk? You - the developer, turnkey solution provider, sponsoring organization, or location owner - might think so, but ultimately your opinion does not matter. What matters is what the customer thinks. If a customer is looking for information, availability and ticketing for must-see movie and all you are presenting are previews of upcoming movies, the customer will leave with a negative impression. Similarly, if you are making it too difficult for the customer to obtain the information he is seeking, he will abandon the effort and not return. The information presented was simply not relevant to his needs.","Content freshness and applicability is paramount. Nothing will turn off a user faster than seeing outdated material. This design flaw is seen all too frequently (but not exclusively) in public sector applications where a community events calendar is a popular option. If someone uses the kiosk to find out about the next County Art Show, for instance, and sees that it was held two weeks ago, he will leave very dissatisfied.","The kiosk must be easy for people to use. While few would argue that making a kiosk easy to use is self-evident and that everyone keeps this uppermost in their mind, the truth is that many are very complex and not at all intuitive. Summit Research staff is frequently amazed to discover projects-brand new projects that we would have expected to be designed using the lessons learned from failed predecessors-that are so complex that people have to be hired to \"help\" the customer use and navigate the kiosk. These people are given a multitude of job titles, including Host or Hostess, Kiosk Ambassador, Greeter, Demonstrator or Community Assistant. Sight unseen, any time someone has to hire staff to help users, because the applications are so complex and/or confusing that the customer cannot figure out what to do by himself, the long-term prospects for success of that kiosk project are in serious jeopardy.

We do not mean to imply that Ambassadors cannot be used to introduce a new kiosk to a retail establishment or public space. It certainly makes sense to have people help users when an entirely new concept is being introduced, like ticketing kiosks at airports where passengers now pay their parking fees before they return to their car, or at new self-checkout units at supermarkets.","Providing a pleasant experience can go hand in hand with ease of use. Both do not have to be present for a successful project, but it helps. And if the customer finds using the kiosk is easy, he will certainly enjoy the experience much more than if it is complex and more trouble than it's worth. The rapidly increasing popularity and deployment of self-checkout units is a perfect example. Once people learn how to use them, they seek them out-even if they have to wait in a longer line than on a human-operated aisle. Shoppers say the units are fun and they enjoy using them. They also relish the feeling of I'm in control when they use these devices. While not all of the following suggestions can be used in any single kiosk project, incorporating those that pertain most directly to the desired application(s) will result in far more successful kiosk implementations than those who choose to ignore this advice. Just remember: The hardest thing to do is to make something look easy.","It is important to impart the secret of effective kiosk-and of all self-service-design: Don't Make Me Think! The more you think about this phrase, the more logical it becomes. Self-service devices have to be intuitive, fun and above all, very easy to comprehend. This is where the other important mantra-Know Your Audience-comes into play. If a kiosk, such as a digital photography unit, is intended for computer-literate customers, then the designers can \"get away\" with more sophisticated techniques. But if the kiosk is intended for use by a wide range of people from 8-80 in age, it has to be made more user-friendly. Developers cannot assume the users will instinctively know what to do.","There has been an increase in directly porting Websites onto kiosks. This is a risky proposition. The fastest way to determine if a website can be easily converted into an Interactive kiosk is to look at a website - any website. Imagine that the pointing device is your finger. Since more than 85 percent of all currently-deployed kiosks and nearly the same percentage of planned projects utilize touchscreen technology, this is a reasonable assumption. Pretend to access the desired icons or links on the screen with your finger. Can you do it? Is the information so tightly packed (small fonts, single-spaced text) that you cannot select the desired link? Is the screen so \"busy\" that you cannot make an intelligent choice? In most cases, this simple test will reveal the basic truth about interactive kiosks; you simply cannot take a Website and move it to a touchscreen-enabled monitor and consider the project complete.","The key to successful kiosk implementation is to understand the target audience. Every other development technique will be fruitless if the user is confused, frustrated, or loses confidence in his own ability to interact with the system. Above all, user confidence should not be undermined. Effective design can ensure that when users approach the kiosk expecting that they will be able to do the task, the interface will allow them to do it successfully.

Software developers must understand that they have to meet peoples' needs and ensure that they are able to achieve the desired tasks. Remember that anyone can use an interactive site if given the opportunity and if it is properly designed. If consumers have problems with a site-and many will-the focus should be on how to change the design, not how to change the consumer.","Keep your navigation buttons in the same place. If the same button is in a different position on different pages, you will increase user frustration levels and result in an unsatisfactory experience. It can almost guarantee that the customer will be lost forever. Even moving a navigation button a few pixels can irritate a customer. They expect to find the button in one place screen after screen; don't move it.","Direct Web to Kiosk Ports Don't Work. The most important lesson, painfully learned by many who have created interactive kiosks, is that simply porting a website over to a kiosk almost never works. Anyone who thinks this is all there is to the process-taking a website and installing it on a touchscreen-or even keyboard-enabled kiosk-is in for an unpleasant surprise.

People implementing a kiosk project need to understand some basic truths. The first, and most important, is that a kiosk is not a PC. Most kiosks do not provide seating. Therefore people are not likely to use it for any substantial length of time. Some kiosks are designed for a very rapid turnaround; they expect the user to conduct and complete his business in only two or three minutes. As a result, there is no point in presenting the complete contents of what exists on the website as no one will ever access more than a fraction of it.","Eliminate Browser Title Bars and Menu Bars. Not all kiosk users are familiar with the popular browsers such as Internet Explorer™. Presenting that interface will simply confuse them and could hasten their departure. While most successful interactive kiosks do not display these menu bars, it is nevertheless important for all those planning to deploy these web-based kiosks to be aware that they should be removed before the applications are even pilot-tested.

This does not imply that the user has no means of navigation. Far from it. Kiosk software developers usually replace the sometimes-confusing Internet Explorer commands with a proprietary, custom-designed front-end browser. Often, however this solution is time-consuming, expensive and not always necessary. There are several popular commercially-available products that allow developers to customize their screens-including buttons, icons, colors, and navigation layouts-so that the user does not even know he/she is accessing the Internet.","How much content should be displayed on the kiosk? This is a serious and often-debated question. Countless websites contain thousands (often hundreds of thousands) of pages of information, pictures, statistics, and other valuable pieces of information. And while dedicated users will plow through screen after screen of information on a PC, this will not happen at a kiosk. Users will simply not use any kiosk system in that way. They want their information fast and succinct.","Short and Sweet. One of the most difficult tasks for kiosk developers is to create just enough content to satisfy the majority of their customer base while not being overwhelming. How do you know what is enough? Clearly, a developer (and naturally the sponsoring organization) thinks every bit of information is important and should be presented to the user. Following this line of thought will only lead to failure and disappointment. The kiosk user only wants to see distilled amounts of data and only wants a few choices. Do not overwhelm him.","Test, test and test. Put a few kiosks out with what you consider the least amount of information you feel can be provided while still maintaining a viable kiosk solution. It is almost guaranteed that this will prove to be information overload. When a reasonable amount of testing time has elapsed (three months at a minimum), evaluate the results and cut down the number of offerings.

Don't take the results personally. Here you will need a thick skin. Customer usage statistics often reveal that applications and features that you feel are vitally important may not be very popular with the target audience. Be prepared for surprises, pleasant and otherwise. What the company has long felt were their Killer Applications may not be compelling or popular on a kiosk.

Be prepared to cut and modify. Once enough statistics have been collected, the development team should gather to redo the application mix. In most cases, the number of choices will be reduced. Kiosks have now been deployed long enough for certain truths to be revealed. Developing a Swiss Army Knife approach to the variety of product offerings-providing several unrelated applications on the same kiosk-rarely succeeds. People generally go to a kiosk to perform a certain function; or a set of closely-related functions. When unrelated offerings are added, the customer becomes confused and often highly frustrated.","Video presents a set of challenges. While it has long been true that a picture is worth a thousand words, you still have to ask yourself whether the use of video is really necessary on a kiosk. There are countless examples where the answer will be yes-installation or repair procedures on hardware or electronic megastore kiosks, popular attractions on a tourism kiosk, theatrical events or movie trailers on a ticketing or DVD rental kiosk, or product depictions/demonstrations on retail kiosks.

So where is the downside? It involves the length of the user experience. How long do you want each customer to remain at the kiosk? Kiosks in automobile dealerships are a good venue to employ video because the number of customers using the device is relatively small. Successful implementations are those where the salesman will lead one customer over to the kiosk to obtain information on vehicles of interest and watch some demonstration videos while that sales person continues to work with another customer. He can successfully service both customers simultaneously. On the other hand, busy kiosks-including airline check-in, store self-checkout, Quick-Serve Restaurant ordering-handle hundreds of customers per day. The process should not be slowed down through the use of videos.","Limit Content to One Page. The natural tendency of designers and content developers is to present as much information on a subject as possible. This approach does not work on websites and will not work on kiosks either. People are in a hurry and want instant gratification. Your message must be stated on one page, and at the top of the page at that. All critical content and navigation options must appear on the top third of the page. Cut to the chase! Present the most important information first and make it easily visible. It is naïve to expect your audience to stay with the application until they finally find what they were looking for.

Website analysis firms including have concluded that only 10 percent of Internet users scroll beyond the information that is visible on the screen when the page comes up. Summit Research's usability testing has found the same results on kiosks. Commit that statistic to memory! Do not make the dangerous-and erroneous-assumption that your kiosk and its applications are different and that your audience will behave differently. If you simply must extend the information beyond what will fit on one screenful, put the less-important information down at the bottom, with the knowledge that it is unlikely to be read by more than a handful of kiosk visitors.","Most kiosk users simply do not wish to scroll up or down unless absolutely necessary. If the information is not on the page when it presents itself on the screen, they are not interested in looking further. Web design guru Jakob Nielsen reports that web surfers are slightly more willing to scroll now than they were a few years ago, but he still cautions against it and continues to recommend that it be minimized on all sites. Similarly, we advise against its use on kiosks.

There is a notable exception when scrolling is required-digital photography kiosks. Today's storage media, in sizes ranging from 32MB up to more than 4GB can hold hundreds of pictures. Customers wanting to select the images they wish to print simply have to scroll through those pictures on a touchscreen. Photo kiosks allow viewing of four to as many as 52 pictures at a time, although the latter is not recommended because the images are too small to be practical for viewing and editing.","How much is too much? Just as people who teach effective presentation techniques have long cautioned against using too many words per line and too many lines per page/screen, the same lessons are to be used in kiosk content layout. Presenting the user with an overwhelming number of choices and excessive verbiage is counter-productive. It makes the individual choices difficult to differentiate and isolate for easy selection. Furthermore, it can quickly-and often does-turn off the user's enthusiasm and willingness to continue.","When laying out a kiosk screen page, there are a number of factors to consider: the amount of text; the size, font and readability of that text; the use of color; and the layout. Studies by Perception Research Inc., a web and computer usability firm that tracks actual eye movements, reveal that people spend an average of 15-20 seconds on a screen. Adding more information to that screen will not increase the time spent and may have the unintended consequence of actually reducing that time because of information overload.","More and more retail kiosks are implementing Search functions. Consistency must be practiced-place the search function in the same place on each page-or at the beginning of each application subset. Do not make the customer hunt for it; keep it in the same location throughout all applications. The more consistent the look and placement, the more comfortable the customer will feel, the more enjoyable he will find the experience and the more likely he will be to return to use the kiosk another day.","Branding has been the buzzword of the last few years. Corporations and public sector entities alike have spent a considerable amount of money to develop and promote a company logo, color and font scheme. This \"brand\" should be present and clearly visible on each and every page of the kiosk. It should not be so large as to interfere with the navigation and visual representation of the screen content, but it should be visible; small but unobtrusive. It sends a subtle - but real - message that the user is still where she thinks she is. It also effectively reinforces the branding effort.","Speed of Delivery. The speed at which content is delivered to kiosks is critical to the success of the venture, second only to the reliability/uptime of the kiosk itself. Anything that requires the customer to wait puts the entire project at risk. The delivery of the Home Page sets the user expectations for the remainder of the time he will spend using the kiosk's applications. It is self-evident that the opening page must be presented quickly or the customer will not remain, but it is equally important that each subsequent page be delivered in the same amount of time.","Deliver Immediate Value The various components that make up complete kiosk projects boil down to one element: value. Users have to see that there is \"something in it for them\" by using this kiosk. If you cannot deliver that message instantly, you put the entire likelihood of the kiosk project's success at enormous risk. Never assume that your customer will take the time to wade through your kiosk applications to find something to interest them. We live in an age of instant gratification and if the kiosk does not provide it, your customer will vanish. Presenting that content rapidly will go a long way towards providing that value.","The Three-Second Rule A dozen years ago, developers could count on customers having the patience to wait up to 20 seconds for a kiosk page to load. Those days are gone forever. Seasoned kiosk solution providers report that pages and new screens of information must be delivered in three seconds or less. People have never had a great deal of patience but it has gotten noticeably worse over the past few years. We have the web to \"thank\" for that change. There are now so many websites available that if one site takes too long to deliver the desired content, the customer quickly moves on to the next. These days, people tolerate a \"spinning globe\" or an hourglass for barely a few seconds. Don't push your luck. And don't be so arrogant to assume that your customers are different; that they will have the patience to wait because your applications are worth it. They usually aren't and your customers won't wait.","Animation can help to make a complex subject more understandable, but it can quickly grow stale. There have been several kiosk software providers that used animated animals and birds-complete with sound effects-as an integral part of their user interface. The first time customers encountered these critters, they were mildly amused. The second time, they were tolerant, but not thrilled. By the third encounter (if there even WAS a third encounter), they desperately wanted the animals to vanish so they could get on with their intended activities. The cleverness had clearly vanished, leaving somewhat hostile customers in their wake. Fortunately, enough users conveyed their feelings and the animals have been removed.","Consistency. Certain de facto standards must be incorporated. The best example is the Touchtone™ telephone keypad. The method of displaying this keypad has been universally adopted. This interface is widely used in all types of interactive applications and has become the commonly accepted method for entering numeric information. Frequently however, software developers try to maximize its usefulness by rearranging the keys, especially the zero!

Their argument has been: \"we don't need the # or * keys in our application, so let's remove it, slide the zero over and add another button, like Enter or Submit in the double-wide space now available.\" Don't do it! People, whether they are aware of it or not, know exactly where those numbers are supposed to be. They could tap out a phone number or enter numeric information in their sleep or even blindfolded. If they now find that they cannot enter numbers because they are not in their traditional location, they will give up in disgust.","Gray out-or Remove-Unused Buttons. When kiosks have navigation buttons located on the screen, only show those that are working; those that are \"active.\" Never assume that a user will realize that he/she is at the bottom of the page when pushing the Page Down button does not result in any downward movement. This is naive and incorrect. Instead, the user is thinking: \"I've messed up this kiosk. I must have broken it. I keep hitting the Down button and nothing happens. It is MY fault. I better leave before someone sees me and blames me for breaking this thing.\" Do not laugh at this reaction; it is quite common. Several users have said those very words to Summit Research personnel while we were conducting usability testing. The same reaction occurs whether the customer is using a touchscreen or a pointing device to access the navigation buttons. If there is no need for navigation buttons on a page, remove them or gray them out so thoroughly that there is no mistaking the fact that they are inactive.

If the user is at the Home page, inactive navigation buttons must not be present.","Avoid confusing the customer by naming the buttons appropriately. Page Up and Page Down are very familiar to PC users; but make no sense to those who are not. People turn pages Forward and Backward; rarely up and down. Simply renaming those buttons Next Page or Previous Page goes along way towards removing confusion and doubt.","Make Large, Easy-to-Hit Buttons. A common mistake is making buttons too small. Make them large and \"finger-friendly\". You must design for large, fat fingers, not small and dainty ones. Another common mistake is to assume that the user will push the button right in the middle. People will push all over the button-to the top, the bottom, and over to one side-but rarely right in the middle. It is therefore important to create a large sweet spot; an activation region that significantly extends the area/size of the active button.

A large button will only go so far; it should be accompanied by visual (and often audio) feedback to instantly inform the customer that his selection has been recognized and accepted by the kiosk's computer.","Finger-Friendliness. Every effort must be made to make choice selection as easy and foolproof as possible. This sometimes means making the active zone much larger than designers feel is necessary. Often the space between icons or buttons is not great, which makes it more challenging for the user to select precisely what he desires. While it is counter-productive to present screens with too much white space, as much space as can be spared should be devoted to ensuring the user will hit the desired button and achieve the desired result. In this way, the user can make the desired choice even if he is not actually touching the button or icon."); function generateText() { var n = Math.floor(Math.random() * text_array.length); document.write(""); } function writeText() { document.write(text_array[this.parent.name]); }