Internet Kiosks and the Target Audience

Internet kiosks. Web kiosk software. Kiosk software. Multimedia touch screen kiosks. Cbt means interactive computer based training. Kiosk-in-a-box. The Web Kiosk Commander. Internet kiosk software.

Internet Kiosks
and the Target Audience
Tips and Hints for Creating a Successful
Internet / Intranet Informational Kiosk Solution

If you think you can simply place your web site on a public access kiosk and instantly have a success story, you may want to think again. Just because you’re providing your site to the public via kiosk doesn’t mean you have an winner by any means. When you take your site "to the public", remember two key points: what types of people comprise your audience, and what is their level of web expertise.
Since you’re reading this right now, you already know a bit about the web. The trouble is, most implementations of informational web kiosks assume that everyone knows how a web page works, and everybody will be at home with the interface. If your entire target audience has been exposed to the web, then your assumption becomes truth and you have much more liberty with your implementation. However, if your target audience is Joe or Jane Q. Public, consider the following tips and hints when considering an Internet / Intranet information kiosk.
The "Touchable" Web Site
Your web site should be designed to be 100% "touchable". By touchable, I mean that it is intuitively obvious that objects on the screen, when touched, will do something. Take a good look at your site and evaluate its touchability. Expose your site to a handful of people who have not used the web and experience your site though their actions. It may surprise you.

No Frames
Frames should probably not be considered unless the frame is permanent and does not require scrolling. Frames can cause confusion - both in navigation and in scrolling - especially if your implementation is touch-based and uses large "scroll buttons" to scroll. The buttons will only work if the correct frame is active (which happens naturally with a mouse click but not with touchable scroll buttons).

No "Blue" Hyperlinks
Design your kiosk so that even Gram or Gramps could use it. Depending upon the target audience, this could means absolutely no text-based hyperlinks within your site (!). I’m pretty sure Gram doesn’t know that if you touch an underlined text component it does something (that is, unless your Grandma knows how to hang 10).

Font Considerations
The previous tip makes this next statement somewhat redundant but is worth another mention: no teensy weensy fonts. Not only is it difficult to read and/or touch but it breaks the hyperlink rule. Think big!

Form Considerations
If your audience is potentially non-web savvy, do not use forms to collect information. The user will not know that they need to "activate" a field by touching it, and the experience will be nothing short of frustrating and humiliating. Use alternative methods for data collection. For example, design an easy-to-use question-by-question interface with a single input line per page that contains automatic focus adjustments.

Keyboard Considerations
If your application requires user input, you may want to consider providing a physical keyboard (versus a touch-type keyboard). The decision should be made on the amount of information required for collection. If a user has to touch-type in their name, address, city, state, etc., you’re pushing it if you force them to touch-type in all that stuff because it takes forever. If it isn’t easy and fast, re-evaluate and do everything you can to make it easier and faster. This could mean providing a physical keyboard (or membrane keyboard) at the kiosk.

Conclusion: Test Your Site with Your Target Audience!
To measure your site with respect to "instant kiosk success", evaluate your site by pre-exposing your target audience to your site. This is very easy to do (check with Grandma and see if she’s available) and it will provide you with an abundant amount of very useful information quickly and inexpensively. You’ll find it’s a lot less expensive than placing a go-zillion kiosks out in the field only to learn it missed the comprehension of your target audience.