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

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

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

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