Design of a Restaurant Kiosk Interface

Self-service technology (SST) has been widely adopted by service oriented companies in different settings, such as hotel, restaurant, and airport. Although customers are less hesitant about using SST nowadays than before, how to increase customer satisfaction and repeat patronage remains an unresolved issue in this area. The current study proposed a new interface for restaurant kiosk, which has a human figure as a virtual server. It can invoke social responses, which cannot be achieved by a standardized restaurant kiosk interface, from customers. Besides, making customers feel like interacting with a real person rather than a machine will enhance the enjoyment of purchasing experience. A detailed illustration of specific programming codes used in MATLAB was provided. MATLAB is a widely used software environment for system designs. It is a powerful linear algebra tool, with a set of toolboxes that extend its basic functionality. This study focuses on design aspect, and uses theories from communication and information technology as design guidelines.