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For people who fly regularly, automated check-in kiosks offer them an expedient, painless way to check-in - or do they?  When checking in for a recent flight I was prompted twice on the kiosk interface as to how many children between between the ages of 0-4 and how many children between the ages of 5-12 I was traveling with, on the same screen with 5 selection buttons for each question.  This usability disaster broke the illusion of a seamless checkin experience and fostered frustration.

It would have been easy for the kiosk design team to provide a better experience for their customers - but they chose not to.  Why is this important?

Companies have made platform investments to support Enterprise 2.0, but seldom, if ever, consider the lifecycle of interaction with these systems.

The majority of organizations are falling short of providing even basic usability enhancements that could help allow their users to connect with resources to support their work.

How do we Make it Better?

• History - The Enterprise knows where users have been, who they are and who their peers are.  Stop making users click though a series of links to get to access resources.  Almost all social platforms / portal technology have analytic capabilities.  It would save time and enhance productivity if users were automatically presented with their most accessed resources in a list on their home page.  Anyone who has used modern web browsers benefits from this, as their most accessed sites are always readily available from a simple interface
• Role - We also know who a user is.  Instead of the kiosk asking me a series of questions completely unrelated to most traveler's journeys (I would estimate that 80% of people on my flights do not travel with children), they should have simply asked "are you traveling with children under the age(s) of 12?". This would save 80% of the flight participants time and frustration, maintaining the illusion of a positive, seamless checkin experience (a similar concept is covered in For an Effective Intranet: Throw Out the Corporate Home Page).  Take a look at your corporate directory / HR data and start to innovate on top of it.

Think about Our Enterprise Kiosk
As amazing as Enterprise 2.0 technology can be as an enabler, it will only be as good as its level of accessibility.  Many organizations have some form of E2.0 technology at this point, but fail to go the final mile to look at the user experience holistically.  Ever time communications tools and information are made more accessible in the correct context, they provide a tangible time and cost savings.  On top of the savings, users are able to have a more seamless experience working with the tools - allowing them to connect and contribute with greater frequency, realize benefit and champion adoption.