User Experience with Interactive Self-Service Kiosks: The Effects of Presence of Other People

Human-computer interaction and holistic user experiences are considered crucial concepts in the design of interactive products, where interactive self-service kiosks require a special attention, as they are different than any other type of consumer and personal products. The public nature of self-service kiosks suggests that social context may have an important role in understanding experience of users when interacting with such products. Yet, this is hardly reflected in the development of self-service kiosks in which usefulness and functionality are still the basic, and usually the only, concerns. This limited discussion hinders innovation when redesigning this type of products. This paper firstly studies the major parameters affecting users’ interactions with self-service kiosks and then elaborates on the influence of presence or absence of other people on user experience with interactive self-service kiosks. The studies reveal that interactions with interactive self-service kiosks are specialized according to different task qualities that these kiosks serve for as well as the social context, which highlight the necessity to take into account the inseparable context during the design of these self-service kiosks. They emphasize that not only the product interface, but also other product features, product body and context should be shaped by these task qualities and social context. Hence, suggested design implications go beyond traditional usability and technical issues, considering social context as a key issue to address to bring innovative self-service kiosk designs.