"Welcome Center" kiosks

[disk]

We are in the process of setting up two kiosk PCs near the entrance of our main building. The idea is that with appropriate signage, those in need of information can easily find assistance by using one of these PCs. The main functionality would be provided by a web browser naturally. Currently, I don't believe that we have a good landing page for such a specific use. We have a page with information about counseling, another for registration, another for campus maps, etc. But in my opinion, there should be a landing page with large tiles that allow the user to select one of these topics. There is also talk of making these all-in-one PCs with a built-in webcam for video chat. Management wants "one touch" video chat capability so that a user could reach someone from a particular office during specific hours.

 

Do any of you have "welcome center" kiosks like this? If so, could you perhaps share a link to the web page you designed for such a project?

 

Also, if anyone has any additional tips or suggestions, I would love to hear them!

 

Thanks!

 

Edit:

 

I should also mention that having our web team embed the video chat functionality into the web page seems like the only way to get "one touch" easy. Maybe something like this?

 

https://www.sitepoint.com/webrtc-video-chat-application-peerjs/

 

We looked at using Skype for Business or the built-in Windows 10 Skype app, but they are both a little too busy UI-wise for use with the kiosks.

Edited August 8, 2017 by disk

[Chr1sM]

Hi,

 

I created a system that sounds like what you are looking for 10 years ago. It seems to have popped off Sourceforge and it's so long ago I wouldn't be able to retrieve it (I changed jobs a good while back).

 

You could try going to Sourceforge and searching on "digital signage". All the software is open source i.e. awesome as long as you are willing to put a bit of work in :-)

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

[disk]

Thanks! I'll look into that.

[Ric_]

A while back I saw a really cool welcome kiosk that does almost what you need... of course I can't find a link to it now. Basically it ran an app that used the Lync client SDK to integrate the video calling bit and it even printed out a visitor badge.

 

Anyway... I did find this LyncAutoAnswer by shanselman which may give your app people a bit of a start.

[disk]

A while back I saw a really cool welcome kiosk that does almost what you need... of course I can't find a link to it now. Basically it ran an app that used the Lync client SDK to integrate the video calling bit and it even printed out a visitor badge.

 

Anyway... I did find this LyncAutoAnswer by shanselman which may give your app people a bit of a start.

 

Looks promising! LyncAutoAnswer definitely appears to have the functionality we are interested in.