Space Needle Ticket Kiosk Accessibility Study
I didn’t redesign a kiosk. I revealed a blind spot, and I gave the Space Needle a path to eliminate it.
Contribution
Client
Duration
Year
Challenge
The Problem That Wasn’t Being Seen.
The kiosks were meant to reduce lines and give guests a self-serve option. Metrics showed throughput. But firsthand observation told another story: guests hesitated, leaned closer, looked confused, shielded the screen with their hand, and often abandoned the process.
The problem wasn’t loud enough to trigger escalation, it lived in hundreds of micro-moments of confusion every day.
*I wasn’t hired to fix this. I was hired to repair machines. That proximity, hands on hardware, watching people struggle, is what revealed the real issue.
Solution
Before proposing solutions, I made the invisible visible.
I conducted the review independently, on my own time.
I mapped glare conditions across the day, measured text size against ADA and WCAG guidelines, captured guest behavior, and documented accessibility breaches across the full flow.
What I delivered to the Director of Innovation:
A WCAG-aligned accessibility checklist tied to kiosk components, text, and interaction
A shared language model (simplified phrasing, action-first sequencing)
A prioritized recommendation plan; not a vague concept, but a sequenced path the organization could execute
This wasn’t about UI layers. It was about giving leadership a clear, accountable roadmap.
Conclusion
What Shifted?
Although final implementation remained pending, the work I delivered changed how the organization understood accessibility.
The most meaningful output wasn’t a screen; it was clarity.
The organization could finally see the issue, quantify it, and act with intention.
Projected impact from prototypes and observation:
22–30% reduction in hesitation before first tap
Projected increase in completed kiosk purchases during peak hours
Reduced staff assistance, allowing employees to focus on hospitality instead of troubleshooting
More projects.
A curated lineup of design that earns its keep, simple on the surface, brutally intentional underneath.
