Kiosk requirements
What a kiosk has to support — browser, scanner, on-screen keyboard, and screen controls — before it can run an OmniLab experience.
Check that a kiosk can actually run an OmniLab experience before you order hardware or sign off a provider's proposal. Send this page to your kiosk provider and ask them to confirm each point in writing.
Browser and web frame
The kiosk opens the OmniLab experience in an embedded web frame. That frame has to behave like a modern browser, not a stripped-down viewer.
- A current Chrome-based engine. Older embedded browsers fail on animations and payment-free checkout flows, and the failure often looks like a blank screen rather than an error.
- JavaScript enabled. The experience will not load at all without it.
- Frame-to-host messaging enabled. The experience sends layout messages to the kiosk shell so it can size the frame correctly.
- Touch events passed through to the frame. If the shell swallows touches, games look responsive but nothing registers.
- Full screen. Address bars and browser chrome invite visitors to leave the experience.
How the experience is loaded
Ask your provider one question early: does the kiosk load the OmniLab experience as the page, or does it build its own page and put the experience in a frame inside it?
Loading it as the page is the straightforward option and the one to prefer. The alternative works too, but only if the experience is served from an address under the same domain as the kiosk's own page — otherwise the browser treats it as a third-party frame and blocks the data it needs to keep someone signed in.
The symptom if this is wrong is specific and late: everything works until you test a real loyalty card on site, and then every scan stops at the identity check. Settle it before the build, not during acceptance testing.
Scanner
- 1D barcode support covers loyalty cards and printed vouchers, and is the minimum.
- QR code support is optional, and worth asking for if you might switch to QR-based invitations later.
- Fast scan response. A visitor who has to hold a card still for several seconds will walk away.
Agree with your provider exactly what the scanner outputs. OmniLab receives the scanned value as text, so any prefix, checksum, or leading zeros the scanner adds must either be stripped by the kiosk or accounted for in the values you issue.
On-screen keyboard
This one matters only if new participants fill in the acquisition form at the kiosk — but when it applies, it is the single biggest cause of drop-off. A cramped or laggy keyboard loses the signup.
Ask your provider to confirm:
- Large, touch-friendly keys sized for public standing use.
- Full alphanumeric entry.
- Easy access to email characters — the at sign, dot, hyphen, and underscore — without hunting through symbol pages.
- The keyboard opens automatically when the visitor taps a field, and closes when they finish.
- Autocapitalisation and correction, which reduce typos in names and email addresses.
Keep the form short. Every extra field is another keyboard interaction in a public space. See Set up an acquisition form.
Screen controls the kiosk must provide
OmniLab does not draw any of these. They belong to the kiosk shell.
- 1Background image and your branding
- 2“Touch the screen to start”, sized to be read standing up
- 3Animated pointer towards the scanner
- 4Home and close buttons — the visitor’s way out at any moment
- 5The experience stays loaded behind the modal
- 6“Are you still there?” message
- 7Visible countdown
- 8Stay — returns to the experience
- 9Return home — ends the session
The welcome screen opens the frame; the inactivity modal closes it. Both are yours to design.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Welcome screen | Invites the visitor to scan, ideally with an animated pointer towards the scanner |
| Home button | Returns to the welcome screen from anywhere |
| Close button | Ends the current session |
| On-screen keyboard | Lets the visitor complete the acquisition form |
Network
The kiosk needs outbound internet access to your OmniLab domain. If the venue runs a restricted network, give your IT team the campaign address early — allowlisting is slow and is a common launch-day blocker.
Screen size
Give OmniLab the kiosk's screen resolution and orientation before the testing stage. Kiosk screens are often tall portrait panels, which is different enough from a phone or a desktop that the experience layout is worth checking on the real device rather than in a browser window.