City Of Caves

When coming up with possible ideas for our kiosk, we decided to base it on a tourist attraction in Nottingham. Possible ideas included Sherwood Forest, Caves of Nottingham, Wollaton Hall, Nottingham Castle Museum, and we also considered Nottingham Forest's City Ground. After some discussion, we decided on the City Of Caves attraction in the Broadmarsh Centre. We were surprised to find out that this attraction was situated in Broadmarsh, because we had visited Broadmarsh many times, and had never seen the City Of Caves. So we thought basing a kiosk on the Caves to boost awareness, would be a great idea.

After visiting the Broadmarsh Centre, we realised why a lot of people may fail to notice the City Of Caves, as they are situated right in the far corner of the centre. This got us thinking about the location of the kiosk. We thought the kiosk would be best placed outside the back entrance of Broadmarsh, as you pass the Caves when walking through this entrance. This would be more beneficial because if the kiosk was viewed at this entrance, the person viewing it would be more likely to visit the Caves, as they would have to walk past them on the way in.

Our kiosk will be touchscreen, and will consist of information and photos about the different parts of the Caves. We thought that we would use two phidgets for the kiosk. A slider: to scroll up and down the text, and a joystick: to zoom into a photo, and once zoomed in, navigate around the image.

Usability also has to be taken into account. We would like to have a simple and clear design, that people of all ages can follow. Buttons and text would have to be as big as plausible. As it is a kiosk for a tourist attraction, there may be users who speak little English, so language variants may be needed.

Kiosks Cont.

After doing some research on kiosks, I thought I would have a closer look at some of the kiosks in Nottingham city centre. After a discussion in our tutorial with Roma, I wanted to take a closer look at the kiosk for the tourism centre. It wasn't a kiosk as such, it was more of a touchscreen, that you could interact with from outside the tourism centre, by touching the glass.

I actually found the touchscreen rather difficult to use, and sometimes frustrating. The cursor wasn't that sensitive to your touch, and would sometimes select an option that you may not have chosen. This can become annoying for planning journeys, as you have to be specific with your destinations, and because the cursor was difficult to control, this can also be time consuming.

Another example was a kiosk in the Broadmarsh Centre, which provided information for all of the stores in the centre, and also included maps and directions. This will be helpful to those who are not familiar with Broadmarsh, or for those who are searching for a particular shop. Other kiosks i spotted were the order processing kiosks in Argos, and the checkout kiosks in Tesco. These kiosks are certainly helpful when there are long queues elsewhere.

Interactive Display - iBar

I first came across the iBar on BBC World’s program called >Click, which talks about the latest developments in the world of technology. The iBar is a system for the interactive design of any bar-counter. Integrated video-projectors can project any content on the milky bar-surface. The intelligent tracking system of iBar detects all objects touching the surface. This input is used to let the projected content interact dynamically with the movements on the counter. Objects can be illuminated at their position or virtual objects can be ‘touched’ with the fingers. The interactive surface may show corporate logos from certain brands for promotional purposes. Alternatively, the iBar could show more visually stimulating images such as water effects where the person interacting with the surface would leave an impression behind. Other visual images include flowers and butterflies, where the butterflies follow the person’s hand, or even a glass that may be on top of the bar. This concept really fascinated me, and it looks amazing. However there isn’t much information on how the iBar exactly works, for example the use of any sensors it uses. But I will keep checking for any new information.

What Is An Interactive Kiosk?

For our next project, we have to design an interface for a interactive kiosk. So I've decided to find out what kiosks are, and what they are used for.

http://www.adambilgisayar.com/kiosk.php

An Interactive kiosk is a computer terminal that provides information access via electronic methods. Interactive kiosks sometimes resemble telephone booths, but can also be used while sitting on a bench or chair. Interactive kiosks are typically placed in high foot traffic settings such as hotel lobbies or airports.Integration of technology allows kiosks to perform a wide range of functions. For example, kiosks may enable users to enter a public utility bill account number in order to perform an online transaction, or collect cash in exchange for merchandise. Customised components such as coin hoppers, bill acceptors, card readers and thermal printers enable kiosks to meet the owner's specialised needs.

Examples of different types of Kiosks:

Some factors to consider when designing an interactive kiosk:

• Aesthetic design: The design of the enclosure is often the driving factor in user adoption and brand recognition.

• Manufacturing volume: This will determine which manufacturing processes are appropriate to use (i.e. sheet-metal, thermoformed plastic etc.).

• Graphic messaging: Plays a key role in communicating with potential users.

• Maintenance and thermal design: Critical in order to maximize up-time (the time between failures or crashes).

• Component specification: Typical components include Touch-screen, P.C., pointing device, keyboard, bill acceptor, mag-stripe and/ or bar-code scanner, surge protector, UPS etc.

• Ergonomic and ADA compliance: Is important to ensure comfortable and easy user accessibility.

• Interface design: Designing for interactive kiosks typically requires larger buttons and simpler decision trees than designing for a web or computer based interactive. Catchy attract animations and short dwell times are important.