Reinforce the audio experience in Toshiba’s retail self-checkout kiosks.
time :
Jun. 2022 - Aug. 2022
type :
Individual Work
tools :
Figma, Miro, Adobe CC
functions :
UX Research, UI/UX Design
Overview : Over the summer of 2022, I worked as a UX intern at Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, focusing on ad-hoc design support and research works. This project is a research task I did to uncover the audio design best practices and implement in the new grocery self-checkout machines.
CONTEXT
Self-check services have a huge growth in market and preference but NOT in user experience
Self-checkout services have great potential in the grocery market, but the poor shopper experience and accessibility have caused resistance. In this regard, I was tasked to research about the best practices of audio features and implemented in the self-checkout system to rectify the problem.
Fig. 1: Market research about the grocery self-checkout services
WHY AUDIO?
One key feature to fix the poor experience lies in the audio output and it is also a requirement according to law
Audio provides instructional information to facilitate the checkout process, and is essential according to the American Disabilities Act (ADA), some of the requirements include but not limited to:
Devices that deliver sound, including required speech output, shall provide volume control and output amplification.
Speech output shall be provided for all information displayed on-screen.
Grocery stores that do not abide by ADA regulations will face severe financial penalty. The maximum civil penalty for a first violation of ADA regulations is $75,000 USD. For a subsequent violation, the maximum civil penalty is $150,000 USD.
Fig. 2: Audio features are necessary according to ADA
RESEARCH - SHOPPER FEEDBACK
Current audio features lack shoppers’ control and cannot help them recover from checkout errors.
To understand shoppers’ opinions about audio output, I interviewed with 5 friends who regularly use self-checkout in grocery stores and secondary feedback from online forums, then summarized the following pain points:
Audio features lack of user control and freedom:
Shoppers want to turn off audio due to redundant information and privacy concerns but often fail to do so.
Audio features does not help shoppers recognize and recover from the errors:
Audio instruction is unclear and doesn’t allow shoppers to repeat the instructions should they miss it in the first time.
Fig. 3: Key shoppers feedback from the interviews
RESEARCH - COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
The audio accessibility also has NOT been emphasized in the grocery stores
The competitive analysis had revealed that the accessibility designs such as audio rerouting for visually impaired shoppers who carry personal headsets, or adjustable volume for shoppers with different needs are rarely focused on the self-checkout machines:
60%
Do not have a volume control feature
100%
lack audio source rerouting features
100%
Do not include audio play, pause, and replay
60%
Do not have visual cues to support audio output
Fig. 4: Some of the screenshots from the video recording I did for competitive analysis
IDEATION - CRAZY 8 / PRIORITIZATION MATRIX
Audio output should have flexible setting, providing clear instruction, and fulfill an inclusive checkout experience.
With the research insights to learn the problem spaces, I began referencing over secondary materials like material design guidance and research reports, then brainstormed to jot down all relevant features through a prioritization matrix.
The proposed new features were then been narrowed down to ideas that are relatively easy to get implemented and have higher value on usability and accessibility.
Fig. 5: The prioritization matrix of the proposed audio features
IDEATION - USER FLOW
Mapping the audio features over the grocery self-checkout process
User flow mapping is the final task. I did thorough research to uncover the key audio/sound details such as the type of timbre to be used and the default decible level. Unfortunately, due to NDA, I cannot fully show the final work.
Fig. 6: The template of the user flow I created (contents are been removed due to NDA)
PROPOSED UI DESIGN
Final design of the new self-checkout interfaces
While my tasks ended at providing research insights and mapping user flow, I wanted to practice my UI design skills and visualized the proposed features. Thus, I leveraged Toshiba’s latest self-checkout interface as basis to implement the audio features.
Final Design with The New Audio Features
* Click the thumbnails to learn about different design decisions
FUTURE PLAN
Continue optimizing the accessibility through further integrations with both hardware and software
In my design vision, the future of audio design should be focusing on both hardware and software integrations. Besides the UI designs below, choosing the type of screen reader software and its compatible hardware integrations should also be top priority.
Future Design of The Audio Features
* Click the thumbnails to learn about different design decisions
INTERNSHIP REFLECTION
The value of research and how a small feature can have such an impact on UX
While I did not do much of a REAL design project throughout the internship, I learned a lot about the research work in the human-centered design process. By practicing the UI implementations on my own, I was able to fully appreciate and realize that a solid research is what lies the foundation of a good design.
What I'd do differently for this project given the right time and resources:
Recruiting shoppers with disabilities to do further testing
I failed to find any shopper with visual impairments or any other disabilities for interviews, so I used secondary research to fill in the gap, yet, to collect more up-to-date information, it is necessary to recruit such shoppers to get their first-hand feedback.
Conducted an in-store usability testing
Grocery self-checkout is nerve-cracking as shoppers are under pressure to finish the checkout process as fast as possible, especially when there is a long queue behind. Thus, it would be ideal to conduct an in-store testing to simulate real shopping experience. This will help uncover more authentic data about the audio usability.
Thanks for Reading
If you’d like to learn more about this project / experience, feel free to reach out to me. I'd love to chat !
