If you plan to hire a vendor to design and develop your touch screen kiosk program, you probably don’t need to be concerned with the interface design because your vendor will be handling that for you.  However, if you are a “do it yourselfer” you should keep some basic design concepts in mind when setting up the user interface.

First, what is it?  The user interface, sometimes referred to as the interface or Graphic User Interface (GUI), is the mechanism that allows access to the computer programs.  Basically it’s the menus, buttons, etc.  The input devices can also be considered interfaces but for this blog entry I will concentrate on the design of the menus and buttons to be used in your kiosk software.

You must realize that what seems easy to use to you, may not be easy to use for someone else.  My best advice in planning your interface is to look at other similar applications and see what you like and don’t like about them.  Also, it is always best to create test interfaces and use them on the specified hardware to get a good “feel” for the ease of use.  Remember that a button that is easy to click with a mouse may not be so easy for the finger of a child or physically disabled visitor.

Big Buttons!  Although the look of your screen designs is very important, you will need to strike a balance between art and usability.  Anything that is available to click (or touch), whether you are using a touch screen or not, needs a big button.  We at point2explore design all of our touch screen kiosk games and programs with buttons that can be easily clicked with a finger.  Look at the end of your biggest finger.  If you have small hands, look at the fingers of your biggest friend or relative.  That is the minimum size you should use for EVERY button on your screens.  Even non-touch hardware is difficult for some people to control, so the bigger the buttons, the easier to use.  If you have so many buttons that you can’t make the buttons big, see the next paragraph.

Basic presentation rules apply.  If you have ever viewed a PowerPoint presentation with 8 point type that no one can read, you have witnessed bad presentation design.   The content on the screens in your kiosk software needs to be presented in small segments.  No one will read a full page of text on a computer screen.  The most effective screen presentations adhere to the rule of “less is more”.  Overwhelming screens will cause users to run.

Instructions.  No matter how easy you think your program is, someone will struggle with what to do.  Instructions like “touch the screen” or “touch here” are not insulting but valuable for some.  Every action that you expect someone to understand should be clearly identified with text, or even better, diagrams.  Usually children will just beat away at the screen until they figure out what to do but adults will generally walk away if they don’t know what to do.

ADA compliance.  It’s easy to get the guidelines for ADA compliance from the web.  It’s a lot to read but if you are required to be ADA compliant, you really need to adhere to them.  If you are not required, it is still important to be considerate of the disabled.  You may have programs that a blind person can’t use, there’s really no way around that.  But you can use large screens, type and buttons to assist the vision impaired.  You can add narrated instructions and sound prompts to assist also.  You can include all recorded narration on the screen as text for the hearing impaired.  A general rule of thumb would be to squint your eyes or cover your ears and try to use your program.  Make adjustments based on the difficulties you find.

Response.  We are accustomed to a response when we take an action.  Your interface should use visual or audio response on button clicks and other actions.  Buttons can animate when clicked (note that rollover images do not work with touch screens).  Button sounds and sounds on screen changes or results also help a lot.  The added animation and sounds makes for more work, but not only do they make your program more user friendly, they make it more entertaining (which is a great thing).

We at point2explore offer our customers the ability to give “DIY” kiosk software a try.  We offer a number of “Do-It-Yourself” touch screen kiosk programs that enable our customers to create and maintain their kiosk programs themselves.  Check out our web site for details.

If you have any recommendations or additions, please comment by clicking the “Comments” link below.  We’d love to hear from you!!

Chris Meyer

President

CD Meyer, Inc./point2explore

point2explore is product line of customizable touch screen kiosk programs including interactive games and informational programs.  point2explore products are currently running in over 100 museums and have been used in corporate events across the country. Visit our web site at http://www.point2explore.com.