Why Kiosk Design Should be Left to the Experts

I love the technology behind Intel’s latest foray into retail self-service. Their grocery checkout terminal concept allows shoppers to send grocery lists to their mobile phone and retrieve and scan electronic coupons. The touchscreen interface also provides customers with useful information, like a recipe look-ups. The kiosk provides effective cross-selling opportunities for the grocer and reduces transaction time by giving the consumer the choice of self-checkout.

So far so good. But the kiosk they have designed is far from ideal in my opinion. It breaks lots of rules of ergonomics and would be very difficult for some customers to use - particularly those in wheelchairs.

As a company specialising in self-service systems, NeoProducts has years of experience designing easy to use and very accessible kiosks. Its Affinity model set a new standard for this back in 2001. Its side-mounted screen, with plenty of leg-room underneath, is perfectly pitched for both standing and seated users, and can be reached comfortably without stretching. Thousands of these kiosks have been in heavy daily use since then without any usability issues emerging.

But the lessons of this seem not to have been learned by newcomers to the world of kiosks. Intel!...we should talk.