Working with kiosk touchscreens felt especially relevant to me, as they are becoming just as common and influential as mobile and web interfaces. What matters here is not only the kiosk itself, but the physical space it lives in. Seeing how people move, stand, wait, and interact around it is just as important as what happens on the screen. Having hands-on experience in this context felt very aligned with where the market is today.

The scope of this project focused on evaluating Erewhon’s first self-order and checkout kiosk using an existing UI designed by another team. My role was centered on research, usability testing, ergonomics testing, and post-testing UI recommendations. I started with competitive analysis and first-hand exploration of self-checkout kiosks across different use cases. Testing them myself made certain things immediately obvious. Some ideas were clearly misaligned and got eliminated early because I knew they would not work in real conditions.

During testing, I looked beyond task completion alone. I paid close attention to reaction times, posture shifts, moments when participants leaned in, narrowed their eyes, or hesitated after tapping an element. These details often spoke louder than success rates. Post-click reactions were especially telling. They were natural, unfiltered, and revealed user expectations instantly. From a solutions standpoint, one of the biggest realizations was that they don’t have to be complex. Small adjustments, like element opacity or placement, can significantly change how confident and clear the experience feels.

Another key takeaway was understanding that users do not perceive interfaces in isolated parts. They absorb the experience as a whole. Every element contributes to a single impression, whether intentionally designed or not. Seeing this reinforced how important cohesion is, not just clarity at the component level. Overall, this project strengthened my belief in usability testing as a high-impact discipline. When done well, it removes guesswork, prevents avoidable mistakes, and saves time and resources for the business.