context
It all began with an encounter..
I was waiting in line to order food at a food court in Korea, and I saw a grandma struggling with using the kiosk. I had to help her with her order because she was completely clueless. That sparked a question: how are the senior citizens’ experience with self-service machines?
01 Optimizing existing research
Setting the Stage
Starting with white paper research, I began to draw from research articles on kiosk usage by seniors in Korea. I stumbled across a helpful survey result by the Seoul Digital Foundation. The three main reasons why seniors are reluctant to use kiosks are because they are difficult to use, not necessary, and there is peer pressure.
02 gathering nuanced information
How do senior citizens feel about ordering using kiosks, and what are the challenges they face in the process?
At a local McDonalds that had kiosk machines as their main method of service, I conducted guerrilla interviews with 7 senior citizens between the age of 60~80 to empathize with the users on a personal level and figure out what makes kiosks challenging to use.
02 brainstorming ideas
3 design directions were proposed to address user needs
A. Accessible Kiosk Machine
The ideas were evaluated based on the three pain points that were discovered:
Reflecting on the pain points, the kiosk aid app was the best solution.
04 USER TESTING AND ITERATIONS
Key design decisions
With the initial wireframes, I tested my product with 5 seniors between the age of 60~80, observing their performance on specific task that were instructed. Based on the usability tests, I made appropriate iterations.
1. A more identifiable store finder
2. It needs to be intuitive!
3. Accessible Touch Targets
05 Takeaways
Key to good UX is ALWAYS empathy
Be EXTRA EXTRA wary about accessibility!
With this being an app for seniors, I had to ask myself in every choice I had to make: what’s more accessible and intuitive? Accessibility is tricky, especially if you are not experiencing the struggles first hand. I had to iterate my designs to make it more accessible -- increasing the button size and font size, simplifying the user flow, and adding features like menu button on the top right corner so users can check their order anytime.
Empathize with THEIR logic not MY logic
Answering questions that came up throughout the design process would not have been possible if I had not relied on user interviews or the data I retrieved from my research. There was a point while I was designing when I realized that I was coming up with my own solutions by "empathizing" with my logic. Instead of finding answers and empathizing with my thought process and my heart, I needed to return to the user research and focus on what the users said. When I thought that wasn't enough, I conducted rounds of user testing.
06 Future steps
Moving forward...
The design of this user experience was geared towards tackling the pain points of senior citizens. However, the target users can be expanded to anyone who wants to order food at restaurants, since if it is accessible for people with special needs, it is easier to use for people who do not have special needs.
Technical Considerations
Being a cross-device user experience, the kiosk might have to incorporate a QR code scanner that is attached. The kiosk's hardware and software should be optimized for fast processing and responsiveness during QR code scanning and payment processing.
