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Is your hardware hard to use?

Avoid common usability goofs by designing your machines with users in mind.

December 19, 2005

This article originally published in Kiosk magazine, Nov/Dec 2005.

Forrester recently evaluated the hardware usability of kiosks from prominent firms in the financial services, photo, retail and transportation industries.

The Bank of America and Kodak machines received top scores, with solid performance across nearly all the test criteria. But overall, hardware usability was poor - only three of the 12 kiosks evaluated passed.

During our reviews, confusing hardware feedback made users second-guess their actions. At checkout kiosks in two national big-box retailers, testy product scales in the bagging area gave conflicting signals about whether products should or shouldn't be placed into the bag. We also found many hardware labels to be confusing or illegible. Tiny font sizes on some hardware labels forced users to lean in and squint to decipher them.

Printouts from the kiosks that we reviewed - including receipts and tickets - lacked critical details. Receipts from Sovereign Bank and Citizens Bank contained strange codes like "MZ3531" and lacked appropriate date formatting, while Konica Minolta's receipts cut off the page numbers. Most egregious was the MBTA ticket receipt - a standard notch in the receipt paper cut out two numbers, leaving this message: "For Customer Service call 617-??2-3200."

To improve kiosk hardware, companies should:

• Build and test full-size hardware prototypes. Some hardware problems can't be anticipated until the kiosk is tested by real users. When United Air Lines developed a new hardware enclosure, it built a full-scale model of the entire check-in area and tested it in a back room at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. To United's surprise, the kiosk restricted customer view of the agents and made it difficult for them to exchange documents like tickets and photo IDs. But because United caught this glitch early, it was able to correct the problem in future iterations of the design.

• Maintain hardware regularly. To ensure a high level of reliability and extend a kiosk's life span, hardware needs to be maintained on a regular schedule. Continental Airlines' team of 12 technicians cleans and recertifies each of its 900-plus kiosks every 60 days. The result? No more than three or four are ever down at the same time.

• Size matters - invest in larger screens. When purchasing hardware, get the largest touchscreen your budget will allow. JetBlue's touch screen is huge - at 17 inches, it has nearly twice the area of Amtrak's 13-inch screen.

• Design for users with physical impairments. Plan to integrate accessibility requirements into your next hardware release. A stricter interpretation of the Americans with Disabilities Act may mandate this in the future - but more importantly, it's just the right thing to do.

Kerry Bodine is a senior analyst in Forrester's Customer Experience Group.