Digital retailing design ideas from VMSD

VMSD (formerly VisualStore) published an article a few days ago spotlighting some of the more interesting and certainly more striking digital retailing concepts that I've seen so far. By far my favorite is that for Postbank, who really hit a home run with their clean, contemporary and very high-tech looking design (pictured left). As Sean O'Leary, VMSD's technical editor notes, "In the case of Postbank, the implementation of different types of display and interactive technologies is leveraged to create a more 'human' environment," and I'd certainly have to agree with that statement. In today's retail environment where digital solutions are often still tacked-on as an afterthought, Postbank and others have demonstrated that integrating the digital elements (which in this case are entirely functional) directly into the store design can be extremely compelling. This approach certainly beats out those who are still hanging solitary unmodified plasma screens from the rasters or tucking the odd self-service kiosk into some dark corner where nary a customer will venture.

Of course, because Postbank does rely on these kiosks to actually help process customer requests (customers can work unaided in a truly self-service fashion, or can ask the help of one of the branch's bankers and tellers who roam the floor), they have the right motivation to make sure that the devices look friendly and inviting. They're also freed from having to follow the standard format of having a queue area and teller's desks, which gives them a good deal more flexibility with the floor plan.

Bonus points for making the kiosks look like JetBlue's self check-in stations, which in my opinion still set the bar for kiosk design.

Tags: Digital retailing, Postbank, self-service