Kiosks changing self-service

What is a Kiosk? Depends on who you ask...

2008-06-05T15:48:00.003-04:00

What is a kiosk?

Sounds like a simple question, but different people have perspectives that are relative to their world. The other day our designer answered the phone after hours and spoke to a person who was looking for a kiosk. After much discussion, he determined she was looking for a kiosk booth like you see at the mall to sell jewelry in. He politely told her we work with computer kiosks... which took her by surprise and she wasn't sure what that was! Believe me this is common.

There is also the type of kiosk that is for outdoor public spaces to post hand bills and flyers onto, which are often littered with staples and thumbtacks.

In the computer kiosk industry, there are also several sub variations to think about. Often, I see ATM machines that have upgraded their screens to full color touch screens, and can even vend postage stamps at the ATM. The ATM industry is taking advantage of touch screen technology in order to provide a better customer experience, and to allow them to utilize more impactful advertising and design on the screen. Every touch point with the client is important.

Speaking of vending, many vending machines are now a quasi kiosk mix. Using a touch screen interface to engage and assist with the functionality of the products offered or how to complete a transaction. But in the end, they are still simply a vending machine with mechanical levers and switches to release the appropriate product through the cabinetry. But in the not too distant future, I think you will see vending machines take on a more multi-faceted role in assisted selling, surveys, product promotion and more. They have the real estate, why not? If you go to the supermarket, you will likely see vending kiosks for DVD rentals, or the famous Coinstar spare change exchange machines. Their interfaces are nicely done, and they often have a small amount of promotion taking place. Every touch point with the client is important.

Often, a self service kiosk may be used to provide you with a encoded mag stripe card such as a store loyalty card, or a membership card tied to your digital account. Not exactly vending since you are not there to buy a product, more of a "dispensing kiosk". It may allow you to create a membership account, manage your preferences, gain points by watching a promotional commercial, and yes... dispense your loyalty card. You'll use that card when purchasing to get discounts or coupons, and the store will better understand their customer's buying habits by store, region, time of year, etc. And you can revisit the kiosk to swipe that card and edit your preferences. All by dispensing an account card to you.

Occasionally kiosks are transactional, and allow you to purchase at the kiosk. Perhaps you are in a retail store but need to buy something they don't physically stock in the store. Square footage isn't cheap, and they keep those very large items or rarely purchased items in a warehouse. But you may be able to browse the full product catalog at the kiosk and actually pay for the item and have it shipped to the store or your door. This is a great way for retailers to not lose your sale just because you couldn't find the right item on the shelf in your size.

Often kiosks are simply self service informational devices. Browse through a list of recommended items that would go great with the item you just scanned at the shelf, or learn about why certain types of hair styles need a particular conditioner. Find out about a health issue, or which wine goes best with spicy flank steak (I recommend the Malbec from Argentina in the International wines department).

A more recent use for kiosks is the help desk or concierge concept. A self service kiosk to find information or solutions, and when you need an actual person to help you, you touch a "live agent" icon to do an instant video chat with a helpful and knowledgeable staff member who give you the personal touch that is sometimes still essential to an interaction with clients.

Convergence. I guess that is what I am really talking about, there are many ways that a kiosk is more than a kiosk. Often taking advantage of multiple technologies to make the shopping experience a good one. Once the mall kiosks start integrating computer kiosks that vend items, that's when it gets kinda hard to describe! My blog is devoted to discussing computer kiosks in general, and that often means the integration of several hardware components, software drivers, and a pool of vendors to bring a total solution together. Kiosks are now being used to supplement digital signage, or interact with cell phones via SMS or email. Every day we are challenged with a new concept from a client that has a unique need, with a convergence of unique hardware components, branding needs, and custom software requirements. We enjoy the unique nature of each challenge, and the resulting solution.

What other kinds of kiosks can you think of? Comment below and lets learn from each other.

Green Kiosks - Recycle please

2008-05-12T17:32:00.003-04:00

I've been musing for some time now about kiosks and the ability to go Green. Last year, IBM announced that they were going to make their new IBM AnyPlace kiosks more Green and environmentally friendly. At first you think... it's a computer, how green could it be? Well, for starters they are using more recycled plastic, lower power consumption CPU's, no paints in their finishes, and processes that take less energy to produce parts. This is a good start towards green, I love it when a big corporation refines it's product and processes to be more efficient.

Another kiosk hardware vendor, Olea, has produced a kiosk enclosure out of sorghum plants. It was first shown at the NRF in Jan 2008 and again at KioskCom 2008. While not a production ready unit, it shows that it can be done. Their enclosure looked like a box made out of bamboo, but it was actually an engineered panel made from sorghum waste material. That is a great idea and our hats are off to Olea for engineering this enclosure. It shows it can be done, and gets our creative juices flowing about how to make a more environmentally friendly kiosk.

I guess when steel is required for security and durability in public spaces, we could try to use only recycled steel for our enclosures. But what about alternative material such as the laminated plant panels Olea created, is there a good green kiosk material we can use out there such as this? If you know of any good environmentally friendly materials that can be used structurally, pass on the idea. Perhaps we will build it. As I continue to muse about the topic, I wonder where I can go to learn more about green building materials? I suppose it would be the same trade shows that builders and architects attend? There must be a central place to locate these types of materials. I just have to hunt them down.

Other industries are using green materials to build their products, and I'd love to see some examples that may spark ideas for our kiosk industry. Readers, what have you seen out there? Does your company produce green materials? If so, comment below or email me your thoughts.

KioskCom follow up

2008-04-25T16:02:00.001-04:00

KioskCom in Las Vegas was fun and there were lots of new things to see. Everyone's feet are tired but we all gathered many new leads and had opportunities to talk to other vendors in the industry. The show was unlike last year in that the flow of traffic and prospects was... how do I say it... not necessarily slower, but more evenly distributed. Instead of 80% of the leads arriving in the first 2 hours, it was fairly consistent throughout. Except for the last 2 hours of the final day, which is almost always slower. That's to be expected.

Many of the same industry vendors as always and a few new ones too, like Big Wave who has an online software service to help manage kiosk rollouts and kiosks that are out in the field. This is an important tool that can help make rollouts go smoother, allowing all of the players to login and see the current status, post message, see specifications docs, installation notes, all the way down to the tech on the ground who can make updates for each machine he touches. And post launch this can be used to manage the kiosks over time. It's an interesting product that you may not even think of when you are first putting together a kiosk project and planning for the rollout, but once you go through a large rollout, you'll understand the value of it. Check out www.bigwavesoftware.com for more information

Another lively booth at the show was a bit unexpected... and I'm not sure if it's really a kiosk, but it is a self service device. The company is Glenview Health Systems, and the product is BioMeasure. It measures your height, weight, and you grip some handles on the side where it can presumably get a good bit of information about your body and the final product is an analysis of your BMI body mass index, and other helpful information. It became a competition for everyone to get measured and see how they stacked up! I was pretty average, and leaning towards being overweight. But I think I dropped most of that weight by the end of the show from all of the walking you do at shows and in Las Vegas itself! Check out their cool product at www.biomeasure.net

There was a great seminar on PCI compliance that was presented by Fast Transact
that dealt with many great security issues when it comes to credit card transactions at a kiosk. It also spent a good bit of time talking about kiosk security in general, from the OS and application level all the way to the physical level which was very very interesting. I hope they continue to have these seminars at every show! The folks at Retail Solutions Providers Association www.goRSPA.org also gave out a great CD about this topic. There were several Ah Ha moments at the seminar where a white hat hacker gave his perspective and insightful observations.

Our company showed off it's new model of kiosk hardware, the EasyShip XL which you can see at our newly re-designed web site at: www.ElectronicArt.com

A fun side note, an employee of mine passed this link on to me, which is a blog entry from a self proclaimed "trade show virgin" who lists lessons she learned at a recent show. Check it out at: http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/iland/2008/05/nine-lessons-from-trade-show-virgin.html

Getting Ready for KioskCom

2008-04-11T18:04:00.005-04:00

Well, it's time again for KioskCom in Las Vegas. This show runs each spring and fall, between Vegas and NYC to give both coasts a chance to see the latest in Kiosk and digital signage technology and vendors such as our company, Electronic Art. We've been working hard to prepare, including loading up the kiosks into large crates (that cost more than they should to ship), preparing brochures and business cards, making sure the booth materials are ready and more! And trying to meet deadlines for shipping, etc.

This is the first year that the KioskCom show is including a digital signage show within the same show floor with one entry fee! The two technologies are very similar when it comes to hardware, networking, etc. and most large deployers are integrating both into their overall interactive marketing strategy. Or they are considering both, which makes it easy for them to get more bang for their buck by attending this single show. Our firm provides hardware and content for digital signage as well as kiosks, so we will have a 37" touch screen panel in our booth running some demo content. Check us out in booth 521 at the show.

Those guys at JD Events (show operators) are working hard to make sure everything goes off without a hitch... and they always do a superb job with this show. And it helps that they are all very nice people too!

These shows are a great chance for you to see, touch, and learn about kiosks and the various vendors who can help you deploy your kiosk initiative. You will be tired after walking the floor for hours and your eyes will hurt from all of the visual stimulus which is why it is great that you can walk down the hallway in the Mandalay Bay and eat at a nice restaurant or get a coffee at Starbucks to recharge your batteries. I like the Rum Jungle which is a restaurant / nightclub that mixes fire and huge walls of glass with water cascading down them to make for an interesting atmosphere. After 11pm, the gogo dancers come out as people switch to party mode. You'll even see scantily clad women swinging on trapeze in the rafters over the bar... that's right, just like a circus... Vegas is crazy! Also, check out the hottest nightclub going right now, LAX in the Luxor. Last time I was there I saw Dave Navaro, but beware... the line to get in is very long for the common man!

But I digress, back to Kiosks! Be forewarned, the following paragraphs are less of an unbiased view and more of an opportunity to talk about our company.

At the KioskCom show, we will be unveiling the latest kiosk design in the EasyShip family of products called the EasyShip XL. This kiosk enclosure uses a modern metal enclosure to hold a full size thermal role printer that can print 8.5x11 print outs, or optionally could hold a small form factor pc to run your kiosk and digital signage screens. It also has an overhead signage panel option. See it on our newly redesigned web site at: http://www.electronicart.com/ or see it in person at the show. We will also be showcasing official IBM Paper which you'll find in our printers. You'll also see the original EasyShip kiosk with it's new oval base that is 20% larger to provide greater stability.

We are also announcing a new partnership with a local fabricator. Our new kiosk fabrication partner has enabled us to have greater capacity, more options, quality engineering, and lower costs. That's right, the original EasyShip kiosk is now dramatically cheaper than last year and the new EasyShip XL is a very good value too. The printer hardware is the most expensive part of the kiosk! Contact us through our web site to get a quote for your kiosk needs at http://www.electronicart.com/ .

Are you planning to attend? Need a free pass to the tradeshow floor? Contact me to get one! My next Blog post will probably be at the show or a post show follow up to the cool things I've seen at this year's KioskCom show.

Show Dates: April 16-17 2008, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, NV
October 15-16 2008, Javits Convention Center, NYC
KioskCom

Traveling with Kiosks via Airports

2008-04-04T14:08:00.000-04:00

Recently we traveled to pitch a kiosk concept to a very large prospect and the meetings went well. We brought along an IBM AnyPlace kiosk to demonstrate some of our recent custom kiosk applications to the client, which we do often. It gives them an idea of the type of applications they could build, show the level of design quality we can perform, and allows to to touch and feel some actual hardware. The IBM kiosk is retail hardened and can take a lot of abuse and constant interaction. But then we put it up against Delta airlines and the TSA.

After packing it in a foam lined hardshell travel case (TSA locked), we checked the kiosk with our other baggage for our return flight home. All seemed well until we opened the case a week later to prep the kiosk for our next pitch. The kiosk screen was broken! Imagine the shock and then anger. You always wonder how roughly they treat your luggage, and now we have a gauge of the high level of abuse. This glass is not cheap or fragile. It's touch stuff with lots of coatings, etc. (see IBM's specs at: http://www-03.ibm.com/products/retail/products/anyplace/index.html )

As you can see from the picture, it must have taken a hard and heavy blow from a sharp object or corner of another package. But through our hardshell case? That takes some effort. And now that it is a week or more past our return flight, I don't know if we can issue any kind of complaint or claim. I doubt they will cover this, so I am simply down one unit and out a lot of money. My next step is to see what IBM will charge to repair the unit for me. They have great warranty service, but this would not be covered, obviously.

Shipping electronics is always risky business, and passenger airlines are not in the habit of being gentle with the luggage in their care. I'm sure this would be a bit less likely with a carrier such as UPS/FedEx who handle a lot of fragile items daily. An airlines is expecting clothing and golf clubs most of the time. We ship a lot of kiosks via common carrier and rarely have any problems. But we are going to have to re-evaluate how we travel with the kiosks on passenger airlines. We are currently evaluating other types of hard shell cases that we can check with the airlines, and will likely come up with a good solution that we will resell to other customers.

How about you, have you had similar experiences? Do you have mobile kiosks and need to protect them? How do you travel with them?

Digital Signage Expo follow up

2008-03-05T15:09:00.006-05:00

Headrest kiosks by Tapinto
Originally uploaded by Tim Burke Kiosk Guy

Well, I've had a few days to recover from the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas Feb 27th - 28th 2008, and I'm ready for a few more comments. First let me say, Vegas can really wear you out. It seems like the only time I go is for tradeshows and I spend 5-6 hours walking around tradeshows shaking hands, talking, meeting and greeting and kissing babies (not actually). And everywhere you go in Vegas someone is charging you twice the value of the service or product (because you are in Vegas) and it take forever to get around the city. I made the mistake of thinking the show was at Mandalay Bay convention center when I booked our rooms, so we ended up having to take planes, trains and automobiles to the far side of the strip both days to get to the "Las Vegas Convention Center". Ugh. At least the center is very nice and the show was well organized. The food court is not half bad either!

Okay, the first photo is of a headrest kiosk network by TapInto which is a British firm that has a GSM network of kiosks inside of the headrests of cabs / Taxis (see first picture). They plan to expand this into more than just cabs, but are busy growing this network first. Very impressive setup with a nice clean interface allowing guests to view news, movies, television, play games, see maps, find local dining, and see discounts from sponsors. I think the sponsor area can even send coupons to your cell phone if I remember correctly. Their booth had a London style taxi with a larger flat screen inside for a larger interface as well, all set to some cool music. Nice booth guys! David Welsh shown here is their technical director and a very knowledgeable resource at TapInto.

Other cool things at the show include Admart's booth of low tech small screen Point of Purchase video players called AdView. Sure, its not touch screen (has play buttons) and it only supports video... but this can be a low cost product demo tool that is small enough for onshelf display. We have 3-4 RFPs that can benefit from this product, as a full touch screen interactive hardware device is too expensive for their budgets. These guys are not far from our Cincinnati location, they are in Danville Kentucky! See them online at http://www.admart.com/adview.html.

TruMedia had a special camera setup that can watch how many faces actually view your digital signage. It was really cool, you could see how it highlighted faces that it recognized and were pointed towards the screen. A nice reporting interface gave charts and graphs of the number of visitors, repeat views, and various demographics. Another vendor named CognoVision had a similar product that could use any video camera (not TruMedia's proprietary hardware) and had similar capabilities. Very cool measurement tools!

Did you attend the expo or exhibit? Share you comments below and let's discuss!

Greetings from the Digital Signage Expo

2008-02-29T17:42:00.006-05:00

3M Rep shows rear projected kiosk
Originally uploaded by mauser_fan

Well I've spent the past two days exploring the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas. I was there initially for a meeting of the advisory board of the Digital Signage Association of which I sit on the board. The Expo was a very large show this year. It was double the size of past expos, as the digital signage industry grows by leaps and bounds.
There were many cool digital signage apps, but also many that could be considered kiosks in my mind. The photo here shows 3M's Vikuiti rear projection kiosk/signage application. A projector displays content onto a glass surface that has a special 3M coating. The image is projected through that material for viewing on the other side, and only on the surface of the coating, not the rest of the glass. The photo here also shows that a touchable menu can interact and change the content of the video being projected. Very cool retail application, and it could be used in many other solutions too. http://www.3mdigitalsignage.com/dse/ .

Other fun items seen at the show include the LongPen remote book signing tool that is being used by Borders Books. Created by author Margaret Atwood, the video conferencing solution is combined with a remote controlled pen, allowing an author in a remote location to talk to the consumer and sign a book for them! Very impressive and fun. Think of the saved travel time and expense for the authors. They could do multiple book signings each week and never leave their office. http://www.longpen.com/

All in all, the show was a big success. Our company, Electronic Art was in attendance and was there to cement some relationships with Cisco systems who has a robust digital signage network system, of which Electronic Art will become a VAR and content management / provider partner. Also, we evaluated using NetKey as a digital signage management tool as well as Kiosk OS system.

I'm still in Vegas at the moment, working at Starbucks before flying home tomorrow, so I'll try to post more entries from this show in the next week. So many to talk about!

Did you attend the show? If so, comment below on your favorite booths and products.

Simplicity of Interface Design

2008-01-30T12:56:00.001-05:00

Verizon-Store4
Originally uploaded by mauser_fan

Design is an interesting thing because it is so subjective. Everyone has an opinion on design, what they like, what they prefer, even if they don't understand what drives their opinions. Sometimes kiosk interface design can become very complex, hard to navigate, and frankly too much to look at. Often simple is better. Better because it is easy for the viewer to understand the purpose, and easier for their eyes to focus on important content.

Design can often set the mood, visually simple design can set a calming mood and affect the user's experience. Busy designs or designs with heavy animation can often create a sense of high energy and can be good for kiosks with a multimedia or entertainment purpose. But either way, design should be strategic with the goals and the user in mind. If budget allows, do focus groups or A/B testing to see which designs provide the desired results or actions by the guests.

Just be careful of the dreaded "design by committee" which is when multiple people within a corporate setting feel they have to interject their own design ideas, and in the end you get a Frankenstein design, which is often poor. Trust talented design professionals who went to school for design and know how to effectively engage. Just be sure to give them all of the strategic goals up front so they can consider them when conceiving the designs. While I'm not a good designer myself, I did attend art college and know how the creative process works (I ended up in photography). I have also managed interactive teams with design agencies for nearly 10 years for major brands, and know both the account executive side of things as well as the designer or producer side of things. Give a good designer the right information, and you'll be happy with the results.

As you know, with this Blog I often reference kiosks I see out in the real world, and the image shown here is from a local Verizon Wireless store near my home. I took the images with a camera phone so please excuse the quality. This check-in kiosk is simple in design, which makes it easy to understand and the guest can quickly perform the task at hand. Branding is consistent with VZW's other corporate material and onscreen media. Our company has done mobile marketing kiosks for Verizon Wireless and while the design is a bit more creative on ours, you would still tie the two together in regards to branding.

The purpose of this kiosk was to quickly get the patrons to the store into a queue for service. The store is always busy, and they find it to be most effective to get them into the system and then allow them to wander the store until their name is called or posted on digital signage in the store. This prevents them from standing in a physical line, when they could be exploring new phones, accessories and making impulse purchases. It was pretty effective and made the process clear.

More images of the interface are available on my Flickr account here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21792517@N02/2176776060/ along with other retail examples. The photos show the hardware, as well as the onscreen interface to allow guest to self serve and get checked in.

Check-in kiosks are a common form of self service. We have developed check in kiosks for an American Express sponsored event where guests registered online before the event, and checked in at the kiosks once at the event. They confirmed their information and registered for the door prize at the kiosks. They also filled out a short survey that enabled us to gather yet more demographics and learn more about them. Amex and other sponsors had onscreen branding and expo information. The beauty of this type of setup is that it allows you to measure attendance, build your profiles of your guests for remarketing purposes later, provide automated sweepstakes winners on site, and more. All done electronically, not by hand and by paper, thus speeding up the time for turn around of data for data mining, removing double keying and lowering error rates.

Check in kiosks can take many shapes, event check-in, hotel check-in, or retail check-in such as this example above. How might your company use check-in kiosks? Comment below and share your experiences.

Virtual Bartender kiosk in retail store

2008-01-07T20:04:00.001-05:00

IMG00234
Originally uploaded by mauser_fan

I was recently told to go check out a kiosk at the local "Party Source" retail store. So my salesperson and I head over at lunch and find the "Virtual Bartender" kiosk. It's a very well done point of purchase retail kiosk that is setup on an end cap. It has a good use of video to describe how to make drinks with a bit of whimsical humor. It also has "recipes" on how to make the drinks and you can print them to a receipt printer below the screen. Good signage above, and around the screen are well made, and the kiosk uses a wide screen touch panel that is becoming more common.

This POP kiosk is great because it has the product referenced on the kiosks sitting right in front of you. You don't have to find it in the store. This kiosk is by Bar.com, nice job guys! I'm sure that there was a lot of work put into this, and the video production budget must have been pretty big!

See more of these images on my Flickr account. I have many interface shots.

Tis the season to plan your next kiosk project

2008-01-03T18:00:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been a busy December. Our firm has been cranking out proposals for kiosks and digital signage like mad men! This is the time of year when many corporations need to either spend money by the end of the year, or they are taking the slow time at the holidays to start planning initiatives for 2008. Often, the planning and fact finding is done at this time of year, to prepare for budgeting season that is often in the March time frame. Budgeting is proposed internally, and then approved by the end of the corporate calendar year which is often June. That money is then part of the following corporate calendar year's budget. Development on these projects may not start in earnest until the summer or fall of next year.

This is an annual exercise for firms like Electronic Art and my competitors. We are all cranking out proposals, responding to RFP's, and letting everything else get pushed back while we attempt to land this new business. It can be frustrating, but this is when many projects are born, and this groundwork can make it possible to land that project in the late spring. There is often a long sales cycle in regards to these projects. It can be frustrating for the "new business development" staff, but accepted.

If you are looking for firms to bid on a kiosk or digital signage project, take a look at your needs. Think about what "pain" you are trying to solve, and do a good job of outlining what you want from the vendor. If what you need is an off the shelf solution, start comparing apples to apples. If your needs are custom or you want it custom built so you "own it" and don't have to pay licensing... outline the project well, and find vendors who will be consultative in their approach. Often a good vendor can suggest good features for your project that you may have overlooked, and raise concerns about feasibility and cost (do you REALLY have a Google budget to build this??) and tell you how they can save you money, or implement tools to speed up time to deliver.

For example, we once had a client with a small budget that needed a content management tool to manage the kiosk. We could have built him one if he had budget, but he needed to spend much of his budget on hardware, design, and video production. So we suggested the use of a free third party tool to allow him to manage textual content, in this case it was a calendar of events. This allowed him to spend his money where he really needed it. Now we also had to explain the dangers, which include that vendor going out of business, etc. But the risk was low since the third party vendor was Google. We integrated the Google tool within a day and had that portion of the project out of the way.

At the same time, realize that your kiosk vendor has to be careful not to give you a full project description for free that you can shop around to his competitors. So often a consultative approach may lead to a consultation fee to cover the cost of R&D, Project specifications creation, flow charts, wireframes, etc. If you don't have this work already done, then expect to pay for it. In the end, you'll have all you need to get the funding, or have a clearly defined project, so you and your vendor know what is being built.

Some prospects come to us with clear specifications for their project, so we can give clear pricing. Others are vaguely written, or don't have enough information to accurately price but still want a price by next week. So those proposals are often written with price ranges such as "between $50K - $75K depending on complexity". If the client cannot define how complex it will be, what features it will have, and what level of integration is needed... how can I know what it will cost me to build it? As a solution provider, I have to be fair to the client and my company.

A kiosk solution provider should listen to your needs, and be consultative in their approach. Sometimes it is not about selling you the biggest project they can, but rather selling you the right project for your budget or what is right for the project. But make sure you are being fair to them and giving them what they need to help you. Like Jerry Maguire said to Rod Tidwell in the movie "Jerry Maguire" - - "Help me... help you".

Kiosk Cell Phone Interaction Follow Up

2007-12-19T19:59:00.000-05:00

As a follow up to my last post, the interaction of cell phones and kiosks or digital signage can be made real by existing technology. Bluetooth and SMS are the most common ways to interact. These can be integrated into many kiosk projects via partners such as BlueFire Digital. I became aware of BlueFire in February of 2007 and have been wanting to integrate their tools into a kiosk project for quite some time. I haven't found a project yet where the client was willing to try this technology, or the budget just didn't allow for the additions. But its a compelling proposition, lets look at some pros and cons:

Bluetooth:
Pros - no cost for messaging, other than battery life. Can send messaging to the phone from the kiosk via graphics such as Jpeg, PNG, Gif, etc., or video or MP3. Text maybe... a smart phone may have software to read a text file, but a regular dump phone may not.
Cons - Requires a bluetooth dongle (antenna) to be added to the kiosk enclosure. That may only be a problem for slim form factors that don't have an enclosure. Connection speeds can be slow, and some users don't fully understand how to use.

SMS:
Pros - Text! Which can be the best way to communicate in some scenarios. And no programming required in the kiosk (generally speaking) and no extra hardware.
Cons - Text! Limited to 160 Characters per message. Also, the kiosk doesn't truly interact, a SMS hosted service does... (Fees vary upon usage). Users may also be charged a fee from their carrier if they don't have unlimited texting.

There are pros and cons to either method. But it may be right for your project. Generally, only a particular market segment will "get it" and be willing to interact this way. But that is growing as people become more familiar with texting their votes to American Idol, or downloading ring tones. If your market target is the younger generation, these tools may be great for your brand.

Also, how you interact is important. Don't think that you can simply broadcast a bluetooth message out to any device nearby. Technically its possible, but frankly, you won't know if that device is in someones purse, or jacket and they may not know you are asking to connect to their phone until they get home from the store and look at their screen. Even if they do see their phone telling them that someone wants to connect, most people are unlikely to allow a connection from an unknown or untrusted source. So you will likely have to prompt them to "opt-in" by having a compelling reason for them to choose to send something to their phone. Perhaps a branded jingle as a ring tone, or a MP3 instructional audio snippet to help them with a task, or a coupon.

Ah... coupons. Now, a bluetooth coupon is compelling, especially in retail. But many retailers are not yet setup to scan a bar code from a phone screen. So your coupon may be a graphic that says "show this coupon to the cashier for 10% off your purchase". If the retailer can work this way, this is a good way to measure usage at the kiosk, and its value to the consumer. If you're giving 10% off of a purchase, simply for interacting with the kiosk or digital signage, I think many consumers would interact.

And then you have their eyes. That is so important in a venue competing for their attention. If they are at your kiosk and you have a compelling brand message, you can get them to do more than just get the coupon... you can get them to change from a passive consumer to an advocate. You could introduce your latest products, you could get them to join you in your green initiatives. But it has to be compelling, and better yet, targeted. Have them give you a contact point such as an email, and you are getting permission to interact again. Send them to your website and you can do very measureable things. So, is that coupon for 10% off of a purchase worth it now? If you integrate a full program with goals and measurements, and a compelling targeted message, I think you come out ahead in the ROI proposition.

What do you think? Click the comment link below to post back a thought or comment.

Cell phones for boarding passes

2007-12-05T18:58:00.000-05:00

This NPR story is very interesting and talks about the use of a cell phone as a boarding pass. Essentially a message is sent to your phone with a 2 dimensional bar code that is your boarding pass information, and the ticket agent scans the screen just like they would a paper boarding pass you may have printed out at home. 2D bar codes are great because they can hold a lot of information within the "pattern" that traditional 1D bar codes cannot. You've seen 1D bar codes on most every product since 1986. You may not recognize the 2D bar code yet, unless you've been to a trade show where all of your contact information is stored in a bar code on your badge for exhibitors to scan, or you may have seen them on a UPS shipping label.

The use of a cell phone as a self service device to allow you to identify yourself has big potential in the future. Imagine a kiosk or interactive digital sign being able to scan and recognize you by a bar code you were sent via email. Or it may be able to recognize you via bluetooth or similar technology. Imagine a kiosk that allows you to sign up for a program or service, receive a code via email or sms within moments, and be able to interact with the kiosk, or be able to purchase your product without cash or credit cards. There are a lot of potential uses for this technology going forwards, it is just waiting for companies willing to adopt it in an engaging way that provides real value to the consumer.

I recently became aware of a "pay by phone" service called MocaPay. MocaPay allows you to sign up for an account online (or at a kiosk?? Anyone??) and add cash to your account from your credit or debit card. You can then go to any merchant who accepts MocaPay and purchase with your phone. It works like this: You SMS MocaPay your PIN number, and it returns the message with a response including a code number that is good for 15 minutes. You give the code to the merchant and walk away with your product. Your account is debited once you have used the code. The service doesn't cost you anything to use, the costs are to the merchant at a rate similar to a credit card transaction. Could this be the new Visa? The convergence of so many technologies into one device now also converge your wallet into your phone along with a PDA, Camera, etc.. I've been trying this service out at my local coffee shop every morning, which is named.... get this... Moca. Total coincidence!

This young company is primarily targeting the younger early adopters who already embrace cell phones and SMS messaging. They are growing in the USA in cities with large college campuses where this target market is ripe. They get the merchants and universities to sign up to allow this audience to purchase with their phone.

All great stuff, great ideas... now we need customers and deployers to figure out when it's appropriate to integrate these tools for their projects. Could this be you? I know I'm thinking about it when consulting for clients!

Power protection for kiosks

2007-11-09T08:03:00.000-05:00

If you read my last post, I ranted about kiosks that are not working. Sometimes that is due to hardware failures, and sometimes those failures are not the fault of the hardware provider. Any time you have electronics plugged into A/C outlets there is a risk of lightening strikes, power surges, brown outs, and more commonly: dirty power. All of these electrical issues can cause hardware to fail, or act abnormally, or even cause the operating system or software to have "issues".

Now a customer who has deployed these kiosks in their retail store, or office building etc. has probably contracted with a software developer and a separate hardware provider. They may have even used another company for networking, installation or internet access. So there are a lot of people to point fingers at when things go wrong. Sometimes it is better to use a total kiosk integrator (see my company as an example) who can provide software, hardware, & installation so that the customer only has one butt to kick when things go awry. And that integrator will often know what element is causing the problem, and just fix it rather than start the finger pointing game. But a situation like "dirty power" or "line noise" can be hard to troubleshoot, and can make things happen that are unexplainable without a lot of investigation.

This is why it is often a prudent investment to use an A/C line conditioner to prevent this right up front no matter if you are the integrator or the customer that is buying the kiosk. A small investment (around $150-$175 per unit for a good one) will keep your kiosk from having downtime, possibly loosing data or at least loosing opportunities when a customer is ready to interact. That could be hundreds or thousands of dollars lost and your reputation tarnished. The small investment makes your total cost of ownership (TOC) lower because over the life of your kiosk deployment you will make fewer service calls out in the field, have fewer wasted hours trying to troubleshoot, and fewer wasted hours shooting emails back and forth trying to determine what went wrong. Thats hard to see up front when you are planning and budgeting for a deployment but I hope you will think of this now and save yourself, your partners and your customers a lot of grief.

We are, after all, talking about computer hardware / software in an public space, often un-manned or managed. There are enough ways for it to fail like vandalism or sabatoge, that you have a hard time fighting... why leave open a unprotected A/C line (which you can defend) and have that be the cause of failure? Also, if you are using a cabled ethernet connection, this is another source of danger as sometimes the surges come across the network or phone lines and not the A/C lines. Protect those points of entry too. I'm not talking about a simple power surge protector here, I'm talking about a quality line conditioner which will prevent line noise or dirty electric. And they will often have a surge protector built in as well.

As an example, our firm has a client who uses kiosks in a mobile marketing campaign for many large brands. They have non-IT savy staff members traveling all over north America setting up for consumer facing events. One day a field team calls and states that the kiosk has failed. Three quarters of the screen are black, and the software can be seen only on one quadrant. Well, there were lots of ideas why this would happen, such as high heat since it was outdoors in a parking lot under a tent. But the temperatures were well within tested temperatures and should not have cause it to fail. We had our onsite warranty team go and replace the unit. When the unit was tested later, it worked just fine, even outside in the sun. We later found that they were running the power to the computer kiosk from a generator. Generators are great mobile power sources but often produce dirty electric sinewaves. A line conditioner was the fix.

There are many available from companies such as tripp lite, APC, ESP and many more. We like the guys at ESP whose product is being integrated more and more in the kiosk industry. Often as an option by hardware fabricators. Their products are inside of many large NCR ATM machines, behind a lot of large corporate copiers and expensive electronics. This stuff works great, we even use it to protect our phone system. Our company sells these as an option for new kiosks and can provide them with leased or rented kiosks too. It just makes sense. Now they can be a bit big, so hiding them will take a few more inches than a surge protector, but its worth the protection and the uptime you will not ever think about. Peace of mind? Or prudent planning? As long as you protect your investment and your reputation, I think you're one smart kiosk integrator!

Disappointing Kiosks

2007-11-05T21:30:00.000-05:00

You've probably seen a kiosk that has an error message on screen or even a kiosk that has a blank screen. A non functioning kiosk is worse than no kiosk at all. It undermines the consumer's trust in a reliable source of content or their trust in the capabilities of the provider. Sure, we all pretty much understand that computers are not perfect and will need some maintenance from time to time, and that not every company has world class IT support teams. But you can implement systems that will alert your team when something goes awry, or reboots itself in attempts to clear the problem. Sadly, many companies that implement kiosks don't want to consider these possibilities, or they are the first thing in the budget that gets "nixed" when trying to make the numbers work. Ongoing maintenance and support are important considerations. Onsite warranty from hardware manufacturers combined with good software infrastructure and a plan... are the basics of maximizing uptime.

But one thing that is perhaps even worse than a non functioning kiosk is a kiosk that is well designed, has good signage, has a good purpose, and then fails to deliver on it's promise. I recently saw an example of this at the Cincinnati Airport (CVG). As you enter the baggage claim area there are two large stations of three kiosks each, that promise the visitor hotel information and courtesy phones. When you approach the screen, you see three links: Hotel Courtesy Phone, Visitor Information and Kiosk / Airport advertising information. Obviously, this was put together by whomever has a lock on airport advertising, otherwise why would you give that last topic such importance for a visitor kiosk? When you click on Hotel Courtesy Phone you get a page with a bunch of logos of local hotels and basic information on them. If you click a button, it promises to call that hotel for you so you can book a room. The phone dialing did not work.

So I tried the Visitor information in hopes of finding out what to do around town, where to eat, shop, and perhaps some quick local history. Nope, the page loaded with a simple but terrible message: "Content coming soon". I can tell you that these kiosks had already been deployed for months, and still there was no content. I was disappointed. Not happy, not delighted, not impressed, I was let down by the content provider, not the hardware or operating system. It was simply a lazy provider of content that did not live up to their promise to the consumer.

I wanted to voice my dis-satisfaction so I clicked the third link to learn about airport advertising and find the company responsible for the content. But guess what, I found the same "Content coming soon" message on this screen. So even if I wanted to add my hotel to the list, or find out how to help this sad excuse for a content provider... I could not. I had to shake my head and let out a slight chuckle that can only come from someone in the business. I should sit nearby and see how many other visitors come away from the kiosks with a positive experience. I'm sure I'd be sitting for many hours. Turns out the kiosks are provided by cvg-ads.com, which I looked up on my Blackberry browser. The site was empty too. Ugh. However, I just checked it again and it forwards to coreyairportservices.net which is also light in actual content, and overly complex in design of the flash tool to show available ads. They will show rate cards for some items, but not the kiosks. They do digital signage and promotions within the CVG airport. It appears that this is their first airport market.

The kiosk hardware is nice enough, these are Slabb brand kiosk enclosures, with touch screen and phone handsets. I even liked how the power cords were nicely covered where they run into the wall and plugged into a power source in a room behind the wall. Nicely done! So I can find no fault in the hardware installation, no fault in the operating system and the screen design was even decent. But the most basic element, the content was limited or missing. The opportunity was there, and they missed it. How many people tried to get some value from these kiosks during their first months of deployment and were also disappointed? Those visitors will likely never walk up to those kiosks again. You get one chance to make a first impression and you had better not mess it up. A returning guest at your kiosk will cut you a break when you have a temporary hardware / software failure, but that's because they already like the product you deliver which is "the content". A first time guest will not give you any slack and will not likely return.

Final day of KioskCom NYC 2007

2007-10-25T09:54:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was the final day of KioskCom. It was a bit slower than the first day which gave me a chance to walk around the show and talk to potential partners, see what my competition has been doing since the last time I saw them, and see what is the latest cool offerings for our industry. Here are a couple of them:

Innovative - Flexible Monitor Mounts

These guys have some cool mounting solutions for kiosks and screens. There are many times that you need to mount an all-in-one kiosk onto a wall or an existing enclosure, and you want the ability to tilt it up or down depending on the height of your guest viewing the screen. These guys have what you need and have the unique ability to make custom modifications for special needs projects. Since they sell direct, you can request this sort of change if you need it, unlike some of the existing similar products on the market. Check them out at : http://www.lcdarms.com/

StacoSwitch - Tactile Touch Screens

This product is amazing. Imaging touching a button on the screen and feeling it depress like a real button would feel? That's right, its not just a flat screen, it is truly interactive. Their product integrates with a touch screen monitor and has a software developer kit (SDK) that allows you to use their amazing tools. A small hardware component behind the screen sends a pulse to the surface of the screen when you touch it that makes your brain think you just depressed a 3 dimensional real world button. I love this product and hope to be able to use it on some future projects. It doesn't integrate with all products such as many all-in-one kiosks like one of my favorites (the IBM AnyPlace) but does work with many open frame screens. You have to experience this product! http://www.tactiletouchscreens.com/

IBM - Rooster Kiosk

IBM has done it again and innovated the industry with their new Rooster kiosk. This kiosk will sit and stare at you until you believe it is a real chicken little. Its so compact that I cannot find the screen, but I think its somewhere inside of those glass eyes. I just don't dare go close because it might peck me in the face. They have even chosen to use the claws of the rooster as input devices instead of a traditional mouse. Man... those guys are amazing.

Okay, it's not a kiosk. While tearing down the tradeshow, it suddenly appeared on top of a crate staring at us while we worked. Freaky! Where did it come from? Nobody knows. Who's stuffed chicken was this? We can't be sure. But everyone was a bit un-nerved by it and was afraid to touch it in case it was booby trapped. I left before it met its final resting place... But I think one of the tech guys from Raleigh may have taken it home for dinner that night.

The show was great and a lot of fun. The next show is in April and back at Mandalay Bay Las Vegas. We will have our own booth again like last April and be showing some new software and some of our own exclusive new enclosure designs. If you were at KioskCom or have questions about it, comment on these blogs. I'd love to hear what you have to say. If you want more pictures or more thoughts, let me know.

KioskCom Day 1 evaluation

2007-10-23T23:02:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm back after a long day of trade show work. Lots of talking and hand shakes, explaining our offerings over and over, sometimes in different ways just to keep it interesting for myself. The show has had very good traffic from an exhibitor point of view. Today I spoke with several big brands such as Sprint, Best Buy, Lowes, Georgia Power, and several others. Many expressed interest in having further discussions or creative brainstorming on some of their efforts. We are showing our healthcare patient self check-in application, and actually met with a few healthcare organizations.

We also had many opportunities to talk to potential partners, vendors and even fellow IBM staff that can help us make the right connections. A new ISV partner in IBM's booth next to us had an "inventory management" tool that is used in retail clothing. They are "Fitting Room Central" and have just launched their kiosk controlled management tools at Macy's department stores this past week. Nice guys from Montreal Canada, with a nicely designed and built application.

We saw lots of glamorous hardware, sexy software interfaces, etc. Its really fun to see what brands our competition has been doing projects for since the last time that we all exhibited together. I also had a prospect client from Cincinnati suddenly appear at the show, he was in town and found out at the last minute that the show was going on and dropped in to see it.

Our three UPS packages finally arrived early this AM including the one that they said that "we had not shipped" which translates to "We've lost your box and don't really know where it is just yet". I guess that is there way of giving their customers "surprise and delight" when something that was thought lost... suddenly appears. Ugh. So I ended up setting up our hardware offering at 20 minutes till show opening time and sweating like a horse. Nothing like some stress first thing in the morning to get the blood flowing.

At the end of the day, IBM sponsored the happy hour on the show floor, and we put back a couple of glasses of red wine with one of our new clients, and prospect clients. IBM even had an ice sculpture of their logo. (Excess is never boring). I left and had dinner with my sister who lives in Manhattan, along with two friends of hers: one a packaging structure and design consultant and the other works for Loreal hair care. A glass of Malbec at Merc Bar on Mercer (great atmosphere) and a wonderful dinner at Cento Vini in the SOHO area on West Houston street. I highly recommend both places if you are in the area. Cento Vini had a truly exquisite atmosphere and talented wait staff as well as a great selection of wine. I will definitely come back on future trips.

Okay, tomorrow there is an early IBM breakfast and then tear down at the end of the day, pack & ship everything back to the office... it will be tiring. But there are lots of opportunities throughout the day to make new connections, hear new ideas and make new friends.

Setup day at KioskCom

2007-10-22T22:17:00.001-04:00

If you've exhibited at tradeshows before, you know that its a lot of work and a lot can go wrong. My day started by leaving a very nice hat my father gave me on the Delta airplane at LeGuardia, which I remembered in the cab into midtown manhattan. I was in a cab because the shuttle service was late after waiting 45 minutes! Even worse, there was a cab strike starting today, so the few cabs running had to take multiple people to multiple locations.

When I got to the Javitz convention center, they were not ready for me to setup yet at the IBM booth, and UPS had not delivered the enclosure I had shipped yet. So I left for lunch. When I returned hours later I found that UPS had delivered only 1 of the 4 box shipment. Thank goodness I brought the software in my carry on luggage just for this reason! I simply slipped the hard drive into one of the new IBM AnyPlace kiosks and we were up and running. The guys at IBM, Maz & David lent me their extra kiosk stand until mine arrives (IF it arrives, they still can't find one box). If I wasn't typing this blog on my BlackBerry... I'd elaborate more on the lack of accountability... But I digress.

The one day setup has been smooth for some vendors, rough for others. All of the usual players are here, KIS, Nanonation, Olea, PFU, and a slew of printer manufacturers, screen manufacturers and other ancilary component vendors and software products. Some really interesting stuff! But this fall show is much smaller than the Vegas show in April, perhaps half the size or more.

Interop is next door so I'm hoping to get a chance to drop in on that show while I'm here.

I've got a few pictures of the show which I'll try to post. There are lots of interesting things I hope to share. But for now, I'm trying to figure out how a lost and found kiosk would help get my hat back!

Tim Burke

Sent from my CrackBerry device... yeah, its that addictive! See for yourself at http://www.blackberry.com/select/ask/

Preparing for KioskCom tradeshow next week

2007-10-19T15:53:00.000-04:00

This has been a hectic week as we prepare for KioskCom NYC on October 23^rd & 24^th at the Javitz Convention Center in mid-town Manhattan. If you are not familiar with it, this is the largest kiosk industry tradeshow. We exhibited last April at the KioskCom in Las Vegas which was huge! This was the first time we exhibited at KioskCom and we had a new booth made just for this show. We had previously exhibited at the “Self Service and Kiosk Show” in San Antonio Texas the year before, but that show was bought by KioskCom and is now the NYC show next week. Interesting how these competing tradeshows buy each other out rather than compete for traffic. But there’s a little history for you.

I fly into NYC on Monday for setup of our kiosk hardware: The EasyShip, and our healthcare kiosk software: The EasyAdmit. I’ll blog from NYC and tell you about all of the busted knuckles and lost shipments (oh God, please no!) that can make a tradeshow setup interesting. During the days of the show I’ll tell you about the interesting speakers, vendors and best of breed hardware and software that is being exhibited. We tear down on Wednesday and prepare to ship everything back to our main office in Cincinnati. Hectic, but always interesting.

As I mentioned, getting ready is a lot of work. But luckily the work has been mostly on the shoulders of our expert IT administrator who has been imaging hard drives for me to take to NYC and our software developers making small tweaks to the software. We are showing off the new 2^nd generation IBM AnyPlace kiosk with dual core processors and lots of other nice features. Our company was given a pre-release version to work with for current high profile projects (a secret right now, but I’ll tell you in future blogs) and to integrate with our hardware. When we received the IBM APK it had no OS on it and getting a Win XP installed along with proper touch screen drivers was a bit of work, but our IT person figured it out. He always does, he is great. All of this he is doing while having to move our collocated web hosting servers which need to be moved by Oct. 31^st! Yeah, he is a bit stressed this month, and working hard. But in the IT industry that is what it takes to make a business run. Sales and IT are so important to a company. Times like this remind you of that fact.

Come to KioskCom if you can make to NYC next week! And look me up in the IBM booth.

Welcome

2007-10-17T18:50:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my new blog that discusses the roll that kiosks play in our world.

I am the owner of Electronic Art LLC, an interactive agency specializing in kiosk and web applications. We have built kiosks for Verizon Wireless, Sanofi Adventis, GlaxoSmithKline, and many more. We also sell / rent kiosk hardware including the IBM AnyPlace kiosk and our own exclusive kiosk stand that works with panel pc style kiosks like the AnyPlace, Pelham Sloane, and many others.

So yes, I have good knowledge of the industry and am involved all of the time. We are traveling to NYC next week to be a part of KioskCom.com, a bi-annual trade show for the industry. Last April we exhibited with our own booth as well as a part of IBM's booth. Next week we are only showcasing our EasyShip kiosk and EasyAdmit software as a part of IBM's booth. We'll do the full booth again in April 2008.

I often see interesting kiosks online, and in the real world. I try to take pictures of kiosks I see out in the public and I'll post many of them here, for discussion. I hope to provide a somewhat unbiased perspective to the discussion, but you know I'll always have an opinion. And occasionally I'll make blatant promotional comments for my company,... but hopefully always blatant.

So, give me a short while to get the technical bugs fixed in the blogging tools, and I'll try to keep this current. Contact me if you have a particular topic you'd like discussed.

Tim Burke