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Every self-service transaction produces one or more tangible, measurable results — a certain number of bills dispensed, a certain product info sheet displayed on-screen, a certain ticket printed with a certain value.

But it also produces one very large intangible: the impression it has left in the mind of the consumer. That impression could mean more to the project's success — or lack of — than any of the hard metrics.

"If you watch a great commercial, you walk away from it thinking that it's a great product that was advertised — even though it was not necessarily a great product, just a great commercial," said Greg Swistak, executive director of Kiosks.org Association. "It's the same thing with a kiosk — if you have a great experience with a kiosk, then that automatically gets translated over to the store you're shopping at or the product that you're learning about."

Science gives way to art when it comes to sculpting the customer experience — sure, there are polls and surveys to conduct, but a great many things go on in the mind of every user, and most of the time they will keep their thoughts and opinions to themselves. So it behooves the deployer to do as much research and planning on the front end as possible, to make sure every customer's experience is a great one.

"At the core of any successful touchpoint is the user experience," said Brian Ardinger, director of business development for Lincoln, Neb.-based Nanonation. "With the right experience you can empower, engage, and excite customers in ways never before possible."

Take a look around

At the earliest stages of planning, it is important to keep in mind the physical space where the kiosk will reside. This is an easy thing to overlook or spend too little time on, given how much attention and planning the kiosk itself needs. But if you gloss over this step, you might be doing so at your own peril.

"Let's face it, first impressions are important," said Derek Fretheim, chief executive officer of Irvine, Calif.-based manufacturer CeroView. "You wouldn't want a bunch of weeds, broken concrete and toys consistently in your walkway leading to your house. Why would the environment surrounding the kiosk system be any different?"

According to Ardinger, careful environment analysis is a key aspect of planning for any project.

"When it comes to customer touchpoints, the environment has a major impact," he said. "Some applications developed for one environment fail miserably when deployed in another. Issues like lighting, connectivity, and noise all play a factor in what can and should be developed."

Making a GUI that makes sense

Let's say that a customer sees a kiosk in its environment, and decides that it merits a second look. Here is where the rubber meets the road, and it is time for the content to shine.

There are whole schools of thought on interface design, what works and what doesn't. The basics remain the same, though: high-quality, appealing graphics presented in a manner that communicates your basic messages quickly and clearly to the user.

Ardinger raises the point that as times and tastes change, so too should the visual design of kiosk software.

"Low-quality video, clunky buttons and lack of design aesthetics are a disconnect with what today's customers raised on Xbox and MTV expect from a customer experience," he said. "Don't skimp on content. It shows faster than anything else."

The quality of your content, in a way, is analogous to the quality of service you receive from a waiter in a restaurant — when it is good, it usually goes unnoticed. Bad service, though, gets noticed every time.

"Bad content always stands out and can wreck a presentation regardless of the quality of the technical application," he added.

"Keep it simple, intuitive, and know your audience," Fretheim said. "Too many times I see kiosk interfaces that are way too busy, confusing or not very well thought out."

Following up

As mentioned earlier, customers keep most of their opinions to themselves — you are not likely to get too many unsolicited letters from end-users telling you how great your kiosk worked for them. You probably won't even hear from the ones that hated the experience — they'll just stop using the machine, and tell their friends and family about the negative experience they had.

Fretheim said CeroView uses tools like post-deployment exit surveys and focus group testing to see how effective their machines are in the field. Ardinger also places a heavy emphasis on usability testing, which he said "should be a mandatory part of the development process since it catches problems in terminology, flow, and messaging well before real customers interact with the device."

While every end-user is different — each one is a human being, after all, with all of the diversity that entails — it is wise to try to get into the "average user's" mind, and see things through their eyes: Why is this person using this kiosk? What does he want it to do? How does he want to feel about the process? These intangibles add to the experience in a very real way, as real as the nuts and bolts of the transaction itself.

"The basic transaction has to work, but that is simply a foundation," Ardinger said. "Clients need to be able to layer on the 'wow' to create interactions that keep customers coming back for more."