This kiosk usability project will be awarded to a student in a computer science, psychology, marketing research, website design, or user interface research program. The funds support basic research in the benefits and drawbacks of kiosk usage, best practices in kiosk deployment, or research on the effectiveness of kiosks with regard to engagement, retention, usage, and more. Funds can be used at the discretion of the recipient. There is no preference for methodology, research location, or subfield. The organization particularly welcomes proposals that compare kiosk features, hardware, or software options or can generate actionable recommendations for increasing effectiveness or usability.
The Kiosk Usability Project Funding amount is set at $2000.00 USD. KioWare will also grant a number of KioWare licenses (not to exceed 10 without KioWare input/approval) for use in the study of kiosks for the duration of one year. The project is non-renewable. Students must be enrolled in a part or full time graduate program at an accredited university at the time of application. Students of all nationalities are eligible to apply.
The research project must be concluded within 6 months of the award being granted. The application deadline is June 1, 2014. Final decisions will be made no earlier than July 1 and no later than July 20, 2014. This can be completed for credit with school approval.
Applicants must submit application materials via email to [email protected].
Other requirements & information:
• The application must be made jointly with a supervisor or other scholar who will undertake responsibility for supervising the project or in conjunction with a particular course.
• KioWare licenses will be distributed as needed and grant funds will be distributed for particular project related expenses with any non-project related expense funds being distributed upon submission of the research paper for grading purposes. (Example, funds will be distributed for the purchase of hardware devices). KioWare reserves the right to limit pre project submission distribution of funds to 50% of the total fund amount, if so desired.
• Final report must include: Review of relevant literature, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion.
2 CRITERIA OF EVALUATION
The main criteria of evaluation for project will be quality of the research and potential contribution to the kiosk industry knowledge base.
No preference for particular geographic areas
No preference for particular vertical topics (healthcare, education, financial, hospitality, retail, etc).
Proposals will be judged based on:
• Research question.
• Description of the evidence that will answer the question.
• Plan for gathering and analyzing evidence.
Of particular value would be a research proposal that identifies kiosk usability best practices, standard differences of kiosk vs. web usability best practices, optimal kiosk deployments standards and descriptions, comparison of kiosk statistics vs non kiosk or traditional statistics (examples: retention, engagement, wait time, time on task, etc).
3 APPLICATION SHOULD INCLUDE
1. Applicant information.
a. Full legal name
b. Email address
c. Contact details
d. Date of birth
e. Educational history
f. Country of citizenship
g. GPA
h. List of relevant courses.
2. Institutional information.
a. Name and address of the institution
b. Full name and link to advisor institutional profile webpage (if applicable).
c. Email address of advisor.
3. Title of project.
a. Project information
b. Research question
c. Description of evidence to be collected
d. Plan for gathering/analyzing evidence
The application can be submitted as an attachment in Word or as a PDF and should be no more than three pages in length. KioWare is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.
Contact Laura Miller at 717.843.4790 ext. 220 or via email at [email protected] with any questions.
www.kioware.com
KioWare reserves the right to suspend selection for this project if the candidate selection pool is limited and/or not appropriately qualified.