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Doing double duty

Software lets you spin your Web content easily onto a kiosk. Find out how.

August 8, 2005

If your company has a Web site, chances are you've already spent time and money getting the content tweaked to perfection. With a little careful planning, you can make that content work on a kiosk as well.

To a first-time kiosk purchaser, it seems like a no-brainer: Take your company's existing Web site and move the content to your new touchscreen terminal, thereby saving a bundle on content development. After all, both are customer-facing, self-service interfaces, so why reinvent your company's wheel?

Unfortunately, reality is not that simple. Web and kiosk content have some superficial similarities, but they also differ in key aspects. A transition is possible - and usually worthwhile, too - but only if you take the right preparatory steps to ensure that the end result works on its new medium.

"Kiosks are a one-to-one medium, unlike a Web site, which is one-to-many," said Dave Heyliger, president of Rocky Mountain Multimedia. He emphasizes simplicity: While having a wealth of choices and navigation options on a Web site is a good thing, it quickly becomes a negative on a kiosk.

"A kiosk is a different medium," said Dave Gonsiorowski, founder and chairman of software firm WebRaiser Technologies, whose S3E-Commerce package takes Web sites and transforms them into kiosk-friendly content. "You wouldn't print your Web site to use as a company brochure, and moving to a kiosk involves a similar change in thinking."

A few important guidelines to keep in mind as you prepare for the transition:

Keep it simple. Be aware that the audience for a kiosk is going to be a diverse one, particularly if it will be stationed in a high-traffic retail location like a shopping mall. Make sure your interface, content and attract loop are simple enough to make sense to everyone in that audience.

Make it ergonomic. People using the Internet are usually sitting down. People using a kiosk will most often be standing up. This means you'll have to communicate your information in a faster, more direct manner, as people might not be in a relaxed frame of mind (particularly if there is a line forming behind them). Important information should be bright and front-and-center. Use larger fonts and significant contrast between foreground and background colors to help users' eyes get the message quickly.

Make it touch-friendly. With rare exception, most kiosks use touchscreens as their primary interface. This means small buttons, text links and other small elements will be frustrating to try to touch, if not downright impossible for someone with big fingers.

On a Web site, economical use of space often results in menus and navigation systems that stack links close together. This works well when using a mouse, but is practically useless when the interface becomes a finger.

"Just go to a Web site and ask yourself, `Could I access this if it were on a touchscreen?'" said Francie Mendelsohn, president of Summit Research Associates. "The answer is usually no."

Keep it wide and flat. On the Web, having a large set of options is almost always a positive. On a kiosk, it becomes a distraction at best, a logistical nightmare at worst.

Mendelsohn advocates a wide-and-flat model for a kiosk interface, as opposed to the narrow-and-deep model that typifies most Web sites. "The number of click-throughs that you can allow on a kiosk shouldn't go deeper than four," she said. "With a Web site, you can go deeper and deeper."

Make it fast. When all is said and done, remember that a kiosk transaction should be a fast one - after all, this machine can only serve one person at a time, so it is in your best interest to get that person taken care of as quickly as possible. This is diametrically opposed to the goal of your Web site, which is to keep people around for as long as possible.

"No information overload!" said Heyliger. "Get them in, get them out and do it fast."