opinion
are filled with young blood. Still, the
practicalities of usability, desirability
and manufacturability must come along
with this voracious appetite for new.
These are all critical factors in the Value
Proposition of any technology company
in the 21st century. I mean come
on, no one really made a living from
vapourware did they? This is where the
experienced older people come in. They
care about the detail and intuitively
know what will work. Yeah, great idea
kid – now let’s design this thing with just
the elements on the periodic table, shall
we?
Manic Designer and His Jet Set Willy
When I touched and pushed the buttons
of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k for the
first time in the 1980’s, I unwittingly
demonstrated how the kinesthetic,
aesthetic, electronic and mechanical
elements play their part in the ultimate
user experience. My ‘speccie’ was ace – I
spent hours with my father trying to write
code that ran simple games. A playful
boffin designed it for an age where
anything was possible and the pots of
money were bottomless. Get the design
of a product right and we will learn by
doing, enjoy by experiencing and stay
through engagement. Which is great
because for the most part that is the aim
of engagement technology, to get people
to spend more time on it, right? Well,
not always is it the case that a company
wants their customers to hang around.
Sometimes the customer journey is SAS
style: in – done – out. But largely the
experience should be lingering, engaging
and allow you to take away more than you
came with.
Bring Your Own Wearable
But as usual, our workplace lags behind.
Why is that? Well, for a start it can be
a hassle getting authorisation on new
technology, procurement drag their
heels and integrating it requires the buy
in from a whole army of doubting IS/
44 KIOSK solutions
IT gatekeepers. So, for the most part
companies avoid nu-tech like the plague.
This won’t get any easier as the tech gets
cheaper and sexier. Bringing your own
wearables – or indeed any technology
– into a company is slowly but surely
becoming accepted. This is usually back
office stuff though. Once we bring it to
the shop floor – ooooph (sharp intake
of breath) we are in a whole different
place. For many fair reasons, retail and
banking have seen BYOD tech interaction
in branch as less than desirable. From
uncontrollable show rooming (the art of
touch feeling in branch and then buying
online for less) to man in the middle
attacks (grey hat pranksters getting int