Project
Sentinel Kiosk
To most people, visitor registration at a business is commonly seen as annoying and unnecessary. It can sometimes be a little painful to do, whether it’s filling out a hard copy spreadsheet or trying to navigate a complicated digital interface. The visitor registration is often the customers first point of contact with a business, so it should be seen as an opportunity to make a good first impression.
VisitorRego understands the registration system needs to be the most reliable employee in a business and focuses on making the move to an electronic registration system as simple as possible. After using a standard standalone kiosk for many years, the product slowly became both inefficient to manufacture/assemble and didn’t fit with the company vision. VisitorRego wanted to create their own brand value with a unique kiosk design, which would work seamlessly with the hardware their software platform requires.
Blender already had a working relationship with VisitorRego, having helped to develop their tabletop kiosk “Flex” several years earlier. The team wanted to continue building momentum with a full-size standing kiosk that catered for a different price point and environment. “Flex” served as a design reference for the standing kiosk, building on the family design language to create a unique brand value. VisitorRego challenged Blender to come up with a design that strayed from the common perception of what a kiosk should look like.
Blender explored a variety of concepts and working with the client, settled on a low-profile plinth design which cunningly housed the mechanical components in a compact manner. This drastically reduced the visual footprint of the kiosk. Housing the printer vertically in the main body required a pivoting platform, which would flatten with the opening of the service door. Blender created several quick prototypes of this mechanism to test and refine the idea, prior to committing it to the final design development.
The product concept kept modularity in mind – for easy replacement and assembly of parts. Opting to use aluminium extrusions as the skeleton of the product allows the use of quick fixings such as T-Nuts, clipping features and friction fit features which markedly reduces the assembly time. The modularity of the design also allows individual separation of materials for recycling and disassembly at end of life, allowing for a more sustainable product life cycle. To complement the interior design and branding of customers who buy the kiosk, a vinyl skin can be applied to the entire housing to match a colour scheme or allow representation of the company logo.
The kiosk is the perfect answer for unattended reception areas, out of hours registration, or simply when there is no available desk space. First impressions are key in business, and the VR Sentinel Kiosk ensures a professional experience right from the outset. With the clever treatment of the internal mechanical configuration, the Sentinel is able to redefine the visual expectations of what a standing kiosk should look like. Like the “Flex”, it becomes a perfectly balanced piece of office furniture that can blend in and when needed, stand out. Streamlining the manufacture and assembly with modular design and minimal components saves VisitorRego staff valuable servicing time and money in managing pre-sale and post-sale support.
WANT TO FIND OUT MORE?
From concept to prototyping to manufacture, we partner with businesses to create commercially successful products and some great ongoing relationships.
