Exploring design principles for self service technologies: The case of a ticket vending machine

Abstract

The principal goal of this thesis was to research self service technologies used in public spaces, and how they can be improved upon. The main research question posed for this thesis was: "How well do the existing design principles support the ongoing development of self-service systems and are they su?cient?". There were also two sub-questions posed to further explore the topic: "How can novel design principles be used to improve the usability of self-service technologies?" and "Which methods are optimal for researching self-service technologies?" In order to answer these questions a range of research methods were used. These methods included observations, focus groups, usability testing and a review of existing literature. For the purpose of having a clear focus a speci?c self-service technology was chosen, the Skyss ticketing system. A prototype version of the existing system was created and tested with users, leading to a novel design principle that was named integration. A second iteration was also created to demonstrate the concept of the novel principle. The conclusion of the research was that a novel design principle can potentially enhance SST. However, there is still much room for improvement in the domain of self-service technology, and more research into design principles and methods is a feasible way of doing so.