Touch screen kiosk: the models, the uses, and the software that runs them

A touch screen kiosk in a lobby or a store earns its place under one condition: what it shows has to be accurate, up to date, and built for the person walking up to it. Here is what a kiosk is made of, what it changes in your spaces, and how to stay in control of its content.

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Definition

What is a touch screen kiosk?

Three parts, and nothing more complicated than that.

A touch screen

The visible part: a panel that responds to a finger, in portrait or landscape, from the 15-inch screen on a counter to the 55-inch panel of a welcome totem.

A media player

A small box — or a component built into the screen — that stores the content and plays it, even if the network drops for a few hours.

Management software

The part that decides: which menu, which language, which information, at which time. Without it, a kiosk is a screen that answers nobody.

A touch screen kiosk is therefore a self-service terminal: visitors find what they came for on their own — an opening time, a floor plan, a form, an order — without taking up anyone’s time. What separates it from a plain digital signage screen is that exchange: a signage screen broadcasts, a kiosk answers.

The same object, under many names

The vocabulary is unsettled, and that is normal: touchscreen kiosk, interactive kiosk, digital kiosk, information kiosk, touch screen terminal and interactive totem all describe the same device. The differences are about use, not technology: an information kiosk informs, a welcome kiosk registers, an ordering kiosk takes payment. The hardware underneath looks very much alike.

The models

Six families of kiosks, six jobs

Pick the model from the gesture you expect of the visitor, not from the datasheet.

Information kiosk

Opening times, maps, prices, what is on today. Visitors look, find, and move on.

Councils, stations, museums

Welcome kiosk

Visitors announce themselves, the host is notified, a badge prints. The visitor book keeps itself.

Office lobbies, industrial sites

Ordering kiosk

The catalogue gets browsed, the order gets built, the queue at the till melts away.

Food service, retail

Payment kiosk

Self-service payment with a card reader. Going through a till becomes optional.

Shops, car parks, service desks

Feedback kiosk

Two taps on a smiling face and the rating is in. More detail on the survey management page.

Reception, healthcare, hotels

Interactive table

Same idea, laid flat and open to several hands at once: content gets viewed together, annotated, compared.

Showrooms, meeting rooms

Interactive kiosk menu in a hotel lobby

One menu, a few taps, and the visitor is self-sufficient

A kiosk journey has to read in a second: four to six choices, plain words, large icons. Everything else — the sub-menus, the documents, the forms — unfolds behind that first screen. This is what separates a kiosk people use from a kiosk people walk past.

The market agrees: interactive kiosks account for USD 37.7 billion in 2026 and are forecast to reach 46.8 billion by 2031, a 4.4 % compound annual growth rate (Mordor Intelligence, 2026). Retail alone holds 31.6 % of that revenue.

What it changes

Three effects, visible in the first week

A kiosk replaces nobody: it takes over the repetitive gestures and gives time back to the people who welcome visitors.

The queue loosens up

The queue loosens up

Simple requests — an opening time, a floor, a form to fill in — get handled at the kiosk. The desk keeps the cases that deserve a conversation, and the line moves.

Feedback arrives while it is fresh

Feedback arrives while it is fresh

Two taps as the visitor leaves beat a questionnaire emailed three days later. Answers land in the platform, timestamped and sorted by location.

One device, several jobs

One device, several jobs

The lunch menu at 11 am, the safety briefing at shift start, the visitor’s language on the first tap. The same screen changes role by time and by place.

Sectors

Where touch screen kiosks earn their keep

The hardware barely changes from one sector to the next. What changes is the journey you offer the visitor.

Retail and food service

Self-service catalogue, ordering at the table or the counter, today’s offers on screen at the right time of day.

Office reception

Visitor registration, badges, wayfinding between floors, and a visitor book that fills itself in.

Hotels and tourism

Self-service arrival, practical information in several languages, feedback collected on the way out.

Transport and public bodies

Timetables, procedures, city maps, and statutory notices available in self-service.

Healthcare and clinics

Arrival check-in, routing to the right department, queue management and patient calling.

Sport and leisure

Member access, class timetables, signing up for a session, booking a slot.

In context

Three places, three journeys

The same software building blocks, assembled differently.

A public authority reception

A public authority reception

A kiosk at the entrance absorbs the routine requests and leaves staff to the case work. More on the local authorities page.

  • ✓Procedures and documents to bring
  • ✓Building map and floors
  • ✓Statutory notices on demand
  • ✓Appointment booking
A gym or leisure centre

A gym or leisure centre

At the door, the member identifies themselves, checks the timetable, books a class. Reception stops being a compulsory stop.

  • ✓Member access
  • ✓Today’s class timetable
  • ✓Signing up for a session
  • ✓Notices and works in progress
An office lobby

An office lobby

The visitor announces themselves, the host gets a notification, the badge prints. The visitor book fills in without anyone thinking about it.

  • ✓Visitor registration
  • ✓Host notification
  • ✓Safety briefing to acknowledge
  • ✓Room booking from the kiosk

Accessibility

An accessible kiosk is no longer optional

Since 28 June 2025, self-service terminals fall within the scope of European accessibility law. Worth knowing before you buy.

Wheelchair user operating a touch screen kiosk at lowered height

What the European framework says

Directive (EU) 2019/882, known as the European Accessibility Act, has applied since 28 June 2025. Its Annex I names interactive self-service terminals explicitly, alongside transport ticket machines and queue ticket dispensers. It binds anyone placing such a terminal on the EU market, wherever the company itself is based.

  • ✓Technical reference: EN 301 549
  • ✓Web portion of the journey: WCAG 2.1 level AA
  • ✓In French public-access buildings, the accessibility rules of the order of 20 April 2017 apply on top
  • ✓Reach height, contrast, touch target size, and a journey usable without fine eyesight

The practical rule

Compliance happens in two places: the hardware — height, tilt, clear floor space for a wheelchair — and the journey on screen. The first is decided at purchase and cannot be fixed later; the second can be corrected at any time from the software. With E-CLICK, one screen can offer a mode with enlarged targets and reinforced contrast, switched on with a single tap. We can show you in a demonstration.

Control

Staying in charge of what the kiosk shows

The software is what separates a kiosk estate you run from a kiosk estate that runs you.

E-CLICK, inside E-MANAGER

E-MANAGER is EMITY’s web dashboard; E-CLICK is its interactive side. You build the menus for your kiosks there, choose what shows at which time and on which site, and publish. The kiosks update themselves, wherever they stand.

One account covers one kiosk or a thousand, and access can be divided up: a site team edits its own content without touching anyone else’s. Full feature list on the E-CLICK page.

Touch screen kiosk running a feedback journey

One place for everything

Content, schedules and permissions live in the same interface, however many kiosks and sites you run.

Updates from anywhere

A visual corrected at 9 am is live at 9:01 on every kiosk concerned. No more trips on site to change a poster.

Modules to assemble

Queue management, visitor book, surveys, room booking, speech synthesis: each kiosk gets what its location needs.

Permissions per person

Every user sees their own scope and nothing else. It matters as soon as several sites publish in parallel.

In practice

From delivery to the first visitor

Allow half a day for a first kiosk, with no particular IT skills.

1

Plug it in

A power socket and a network connection — wired or Wi-Fi. The kiosk boots and announces itself.

2

Register it

The kiosk appears in E-MANAGER: you name it, give it a location and a time zone.

3

Build the journey

The menus, content, languages and modules that suit this place get assembled in the editor.

4

Publish

One click and the kiosk shows the journey. Later corrections travel the same way, without going back on site.

Content and hardware

Creating the visuals, and keeping your screens

Design without a third-party tool

EMITY’s built-in editor lives inside E-MANAGER: a visual, a card or a poster is composed straight in the platform, with no export and no extra account. In most cases, that is enough.

If your teams already work with Canva or Adobe Express, both connect as well: the visuals arrive in the media library without a download step.

Your existing kiosks keep working

EMITY stays compatible with every manufacturer — LG, Samsung, iiyama, Philips, Sony, Vestel, ViewSonic, ChromeOS. An estate already installed does not have to be replaced to change software.

  • ✓E-SOFT installs on the screen itself: Tizen (Samsung), webOS (LG) or Android
  • ✓E-BOX takes over when the screen cannot host anything — the media player
  • ✓Compatible screens and e-paper panels are covered separately
  • ✓Taking over an estate run by another vendor’s software: that is a supported case

Trusted by

Estates of 1 to 1,000 screens, in more than 20 countries

1,000+

customer accounts

7,000+

connected screens

130+

reseller partners

20+

countries

At Colissimo, 300 screens keep logistics teams informed. At Europcar, 360 screens and touch tablets are installed across the French branches. At Schindler, more than 100 lift cars carry useful information for passengers.

Distribution runs through a network of certified resellers across France and Europe: installation, training and support come from someone close to you.

Comparison

Central software, or one kiosk at a time

The table starts to matter with the second kiosk. Past five, the gap is measured in hours every month.

One kiosk at a time With E-CLICK
Updating a piece of content Walk to each kiosk, USB stick in hand Publish once from E-MANAGER; every kiosk follows
Scheduling ahead Remember to do it, on the day Set the days and times; the playout starts on its own
Adding a function (queue, visitor book, survey) Find a separate tool, and one more contract Switch the module on inside the platform
Changing screen brand Start again with the manufacturer’s software Every manufacturer is supported; the estate can be mixed
Handing control to a local team Share one login between several people Create a user with their own scope
Creating the visuals A separate design tool, then an export EMITY’s built-in editor, plus Canva or Adobe Express if needed

Frequently asked questions

What people ask before they commit

A self-service terminal combining a touch screen, a media player and management software. Visitors find information, fill in a form or place an order on their own, without occupying anyone at a desk. The software is what makes the kiosk interactive: without it, the screen displays but never answers.

The exchange. A digital signage screen plays a loop of content that passers-by watch. A kiosk waits for a gesture and adapts what it shows to the request. Technically both run from the same platform, and one screen can do both depending on the time of day.

The panel detects the touch, the media player displays the matching page, and the software decides what sits behind each menu. Content is stored locally: if the connection drops for an hour, the kiosk keeps working and resynchronises afterwards.

Two separate lines. Hardware runs from roughly €890 to €5,415 excluding VAT depending on screen size, format (counter, totem, outdoor) and peripherals — card reader, badge printer, barcode scanner. Software is a monthly subscription based on the plan and the number of screens: Standard, Premium or Excellence. A quote is prepared case by case, and renting a kiosk is possible.

Yes. Directive (EU) 2019/882 (the European Accessibility Act) has applied since 28 June 2025 and names interactive self-service terminals in its Annex I. The technical reference is EN 301 549, with WCAG 2.1 level AA for the web portion. It binds anyone placing a terminal on the EU market, whatever the country the company is based in. In French public-access buildings, the accessibility rules of the order of 20 April 2017 apply on top — reach height and clear floor space in particular. So the hardware is chosen with that constraint in mind, and the on-screen journey is corrected afterwards from the software.

In the large majority of cases, yes. EMITY supports every manufacturer: the E-SOFT application installs directly on Tizen (Samsung), webOS (LG) or Android screens, and the E-BOX takes over when the screen cannot host anything. Taking over an estate previously run by a competing product is a supported case.

Wherever a question comes up: the entrance, the approach to the till, the waiting area, the point where a building branches. A kiosk parked in the middle of a circulation space, with no reason to be there, stays unused. And leave clear floor space for a wheelchair.

Queue management and ticket calling, visitor book, satisfaction surveys, room booking, statutory notices, speech synthesis and NFC or RFID triggering. Each kiosk gets the modules its location needs, and not the others.

A power socket, a network connection, and the kiosk appears in the platform. Allow half a day for the first one, mostly to build the journey; the next ones reuse the same template in minutes. No particular IT skills are needed, and the nearest certified reseller can handle it.

On two levels. Physically: format, colours, vinyl wrap, floor stand or wall mount. And in content: menus, icons, languages, brand guidelines, using EMITY’s built-in editor — or from Canva and Adobe Express if your teams already use them. For hotels and multilingual venues, see the hotels page.

Next step

Try it on a kiosk of your own

A demonstration takes twenty minutes: we build a journey, switch a module on, and publish it in front of you. If something is missing for your case, we will tell you.