The AIM software can recognise a person’s gender and age so that you can tailor the content to the user, but we still had the challenge of getting people to actually interact.
As a general rule, we find that the larger a screen, the less inclined people are to interact. As the experience becomes less personal and more like a performance, people become more self conscious about using unfamiliar tech in public.
To get around this we created an entertaining attractor gimmick to spark the users interest.
When nobody’s using the screen, it works as a mirror. Once a user clocks their reflection, an animated cartoon character (chosen depending on their age) comes into frame, does a bit of monkeying about, then takes a snap shot of you with them. The user can use their phone to download and share the image, pose for a new photo with friends or delve deeper with the interaction.
The whole sequence lasts less than 10 seconds and we found that once the user starts, they soon become comfortable using the touch screen.