<aside> 💡 This is an in-depth case study of the design of the Parsons New Kiosk, a welcome experience for visitors of the new center utilizing the large-format touchscreen kiosk in the lobby. This was one of my student projects.

For more details and info, you can contact me at [email protected]

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Table of Content

What is it?

A welcome experience on a large screen Kiosk.

A welcome experience on a large screen Kiosk.

Parsons the New School has built a new student center and is looking for some design expertise from the students.

We were asked to design a welcome experience for visitors of the new center utilizing the large-format touch screen kiosk in the lobby, which displays upcoming events, news headlines, and next week’s weather forecast. The outcome was three motion sequences that can loop in the lobby, transitioning between the different types of content.

My Role

Since this is a student project, my role is the sole designer that is responsible for all the end-to-end processes, including but not limited to researching, user profiling, wireframing, and creating hi-fidelity mockups.

Field Research & Persona

There is already a kiosk located at one of the school buildings. So I took a few hours standing beside it and observing how people interact with it. Here are some of my key findings:

• The kiosk machine I observed has a vertical display around 49 inches. However, it is not a touch screen and can only display static images. The content is mostly the photocopy of flyers and some posters.
• The problem I noticed on this machine is that people can hardly read the contents from a certain distance(they are flyers). As soon as the users approach trying to read it, they don’t have enough time to read through. If they miss a page and want to see it again, they have to wait for the auto-loop for another round to see the content they are actually interested in.

Based on the behaviors that I observed, I categorized the users into 2 types.

“Pass-By”

A pass-by user has something important to catch up, such as going to class or having a meeting at a certain room

• Usually only have 1-3 seconds of attention for the kiosk
• Usually stands 5 or more meters away from the screen
• Instead, they are focusing in a certain direction like the elevators.

“Stop-By”

Stop-by users are not as busy as “Passer-by”. They notice something on the screen is related to them or interesting so they try to see the details

• Have more than 10 seconds of attention and are willing to interact with the screen
• Close to the screen
• Still, their flow would easily be interrupted and they have to leave. Such as when the elevators arrive.
• There is a short time period between having seen the kiosk and actually walking up to it. The page sometimes refreshes before their interaction.