Presentation for Pan-Baltic World Usability Day 2012
In the nearest future, millions of customers will come to grips with a new class of mobile gadgets which are expected to invade retail and service environments soon, namely mobile POS-terminals and PIN-pads. The latest models of mobile POS-terminals have all functionality of a high-end smartphone (a variety of apps running under operating system, large touchscreen, powerful multimedia capabilities, and all types of wireless communication including GPRS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi) plus NFC, the possibility to accept credit and loyalty cards of three types (magstripe cards, smartcards and contactless cards like MasterCard PayPass or Visa payWave) and a printer. Mobile POS devices can revolutionize the whole retail and service ecosystem and radically transform the behavior and social roles of customers and sales personnel. In our presentation, we describe our recent project on the user interface design for mobile POS-terminals and present guidelines for designing GUIs for this new class of gadgets.
Convert to study materialsBETA
Transform any presentation into ready-made study materialselect from outputs like summaries, definitions, and practice questions.
1 of 24
Downloaded 143 times
More Related Content
User interfaces for the next generation mobile POS-terminals
3. The business context for mPOS
By 2010, there appeared a gap between
advanced smartphone capabilities and tardy
mobile POS (mPOS) technologies
Todays consumers are tech savvy, and they
increasingly expect the businesses they
interact with to be as well
It became clear that existing method of
servicing a customer by guiding them to a
stationary POS terminal is no longer feasible,
and retailers demanded a system of servicing
the customer at the point of contact,
regardless of where it takes place in the store
In response to this demand, manufacturers
put next generation mPOS devices on the
market
4. Examples of hi-end mPOS terminals
New class of mobile gadgets
Leading manufacturers are VeriFone (USA)
and Ingenico (France)
5. Technical characteristics 1/2
Powerful processor working under
specialized OS (Telium2 or VerixV)
Touchscreen up to 3.7 (iPhone 4 had
a 3.5 screen)
Signature capture
Advanced multimedia capabilities
(including dedicated multimedia
processor)
All types of wireless communications:
GPRS, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth
6. Technical characteristics 2/2
Work with all types of credit and
loyalty cards: cards with magnetic
stripe, smartcards with a chip,
contactless cards
Near Field Communication (NFC)
Printer with graphics capabilities
7. Fields of mPOS use
Retail
Delivery
Restaurants:
table-service
and fast food
Drive-throughs
Car parks
Gas stations
Transport:
air, rail, ground
Hotels
Stadiums
Healthcare
8. mPOS restaurant scenario 1/6
Conventional restaurant scenario includes
social communication and rituals mediated by
a number of artifacts:
menu, order slip, fixed POS-terminal, check,
check holder, credit card, cash (tips for waiter)
9. mPOS restaurant scenario 2/6
mPOS terminals can replace all these
artifacts and process payments in situ
Instead of menus,
the waiter brings
a pocket-size mobile
POS device
10. mPOS restaurant scenario 3/6
Customers browse the menu and make
selections
Orders are forwarded directly to the kitchen
without waiters mediation
11. mPOS restaurant scenario 4/6
Video broadcast from the restaurant
kitchen: entertainment and learning
12. mPOS restaurant scenario 5/6
Finally, payment
with a credit card.
The check can be
printed or sent to
customers email
13. mPOS restaurant scenario 6/6
Is everything OK? No!
Probably, the main
question in this scenario
is: when and how would
the customer give a tip
to the waiter? There is
no ready answer to this
question
If the waiter loses this
source of income, he will
not accept the mPOS
technology and even
may become a
neoluddite
15. Sources of recommendations
There is no established set of UX design
principles for mPOS yet
Our recommendations are based on the
following relevant sources:
guidelines for mobile devices
guidelines for touchscreens
guidelines for self-service devices (NCR
2010)
guidelines for tabletop POS terminals
guidelines for tabletop touchscreen POS
terminals (Sj旦berg 2006; Merrill 2008)
+ our own experience in UX design for
mPOS (by now, limited to a single project)
16. Recommendation # 1
As shown in the restaurant example,
mPOS can radically transform the whole
retail and service ecosystem, its
artifacts, conventional courses of action
and established rituals
Introduction of mPOS is not only about
new business processes and UIs. First of
all, implantation of mPOS requires
careful reengineering of the whole
behavior and social roles of customers
and sales personnel
In particular, a step-by-step smooth
deployment of mPOS can be
recommended (Accenture 2012)
17. Recommendation # 2
Know the physical context of mPOS use
It is mostly about ergonomics, especially
lightning conditions, ambient noise level,
and temperature environment
Outdoors daylight or bright lighting in
floor spaces (eg supermarkets) make
information on LCD displays barely visible
For bright environments, use high
contrast, larger text and dark on light
designs
This is not the case for half-light rooms
(like restaurants): light on dark designs
are quite appropriate here
18. Recommendation # 3
Know the mPOS technology
Be aware of the differences between
transmissive and transflective screens,
capacitive and resistive touchscreens etc
There exist many publications on these
topics including those written from the
UX point of view (Merrill 2008)
Select appropriate devices for use in
different contexts
Also take into account costs associated
with different technologies
19. Recommendation # 4
Design differently for different classes
of users
There are 3 classes of mPOS terminals
users:
customers
retail and service personnel (cashiers,
sales assistants, waiters etc)
power users (system admins, cashiers
managers)
Although all these users interact with
the same physical device, each class of
users should have different user
interfaces (see Recommendation # 5)
20. Recommendation # 5 1/2
Prioritize usability goals
Generally, for mPOS user interfaces for
retail personnel, the following order of
usability priorities can be recommended:
1. efficiency (least time to perform
transactions)
2. effectiveness (accurate information, easy
input and understandable output)
3. user satisfaction (based on first two in
work context)
4. ease of learning (reduce time to learn
system by making it comprehensible)
21. Recommendation # 5 2/2
Prioritize usability goals
For customers, the order is quite different
and actually inverse:
1. ease of learning (the very first interaction
with the device must be successful; support
knowledge transfer from other mobile
devices already familiar to users, eg
smartphones)
2. user satisfaction (supported by positive
first impression of the device; rich design
and multimedia capabilities)
3. effectiveness (accurate information, easy
input and understandable output)
4. efficiency (perform transactions quickly)
22. Recommendation # 6
Do not sacrifice usability to branding
Businesses often insist that their mPOS
interfaces should follow their brand
application guidelines (brand book)
In many cases this interferes with
usability requirements because a small
screen of a mobile device itself is
inappropriate place for exercising in
branding
Prioritize usability first, with brand
reinforcement second in all situations
Explain them that poor usability hurts
their image more than noncompliance of
UI to their brand book (NCR 2010)
23. Literature
Accenture (2012) Making Mobile POS Happen: Five Ways Stores
Can Better Compete and Grow, Accenture |
http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-making-mobile-
pos-happen.aspx
Merrill C. (2008) Touch-Screen Point of Sale Software: Strategies
for Evaluating the Technology, Frisco: Fujitsu Transaction
Solutions |
http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/SOL/fai/retailing/touchscreen
-strategies_whitepaper.pdf
NCR (2010) Contemporary Interface Design for Self-Service,
Duluth: NCR Corporation |
http://www.ncr.com/newsroom/resources/contemporary-
interface-design-for-self-service-an-ncr-white-paper
NCR (2011) The Future of Retail Point of Sale: Traditional and
Mobile, Duluth: NCR Corporation |
http://www.ncr.com/newsroom/resources/the-future-of-retail-
point-of-sale-pos-traditional-and-mobile-an-ncr-white-paper
Sj旦berg S. (2006) A Touch Screen Interface for Point-Of-Sale
Applications in Retail Stores, Ume奪: Ume奪 University |
http://www8.cs.umu.se/education/examina/Rapporter/SamuelSjo
berg.pdf