For its new self-checkout terminal POLYTOUCH® NANO has Pyramid Computer the Good Design Award received. The GDA has been awarded by the Chicago Athenaeum since 1950 and is one of the most prestigious awards for industrial and product design. Anyone hoping to win one of the coveted trophies must deliver world-class innovation, concept, construction, function, utility, material, form and aesthetic appeal. We have achieved this with the NANO and the excitement was correspondingly great when the fantastic news arrived from Chicago, just in time for Christmas. Several thousand participants from over 55 countries submitted their designs for the 2021 competition - and Pyramid is one of the winners with the NANO!
The NANO is the successor to a self-checkout terminal that we created exclusively for the product range and store concept of food retailer Edeka. The interest that the Edeka solution triggered in the retail sector was the signal for us to develop the next generation of kiosks. Although the NANO contains all the advantages of the Edeka terminal, it is much more than just an update.
The first challenge for our design team when designing the NANO was to transfer the advantages of the highly specialized Edeka terminal into a solution that already covers the typical use cases for self-checkout in the basic configuration for several retail segments. In addition, the new terminal needed to be easy to adapt to special application scenarios. And indeed: the NANO performs just as well in self-checkout in food retail as it does in DIY stores or furniture stores. Its mix'n'match concept allows operators to cost-effectively convert and retrofit the mounting system and peripheral modules if their floor plan, product range or payment options change. The NANO is therefore the successful further development of a closed system that precisely fulfills a requirement profile into an open system that can be used in various retail segments for self-checkout.
The second challenge for the NANO arose from our desire to develop a terminal for both the self-checkout of the present and the future. Existing technologies are changing at breathtaking speed and new ones are emerging at ever shorter intervals. This is why an SCO terminal of today must be equipped for the technologies of tomorrow. Future-proofing is an advantage for operators and consumers. Operators can expect a higher return on investment and consumers benefit because they can enjoy future developments without having to say goodbye to the terminal they are familiar with and switch to another one: In the very near future, the LED light that guides consumers through the self-checkout at the NANO today can be replaced with an image sensor that takes high-resolution images of the items for a machine vision solution in the back office. An AI-supported process recognizes the items in fractions of a second without the customer having to search for and scan the barcodes on the packaging or even manually enter the name or code number of the item. This is why the NANO, with its openness to developments of the next generation and beyond, is a successful example of future-proofing. This is also reflected in the futuristic look, which can already be found in the mood boards, where the NANO is still reminiscent of a spaceship.
The third challenge we gave our design team concerned the appearance of the new terminal: like all POLYTOUCH® Kiosk solutions should attract the consumer's attention and invite them to self-service. Nothing about it should give the impression that self-checkout can be cumbersome, complicated or time-consuming. The declared aim was to use the visual design of the NANO to dispel any reservations about self-service and to present it to customers as the best solution for payment. To accomplish this task, the design team gave the Nano a clear design language using chamfers. The arrangement of all components and peripheral modules in a vertical line also contributes to this. Both visual features give the terminal a sublime aura that makes it a landmark visible from afar in the colorful and small-scale retail world. The vertical line of peripheral modules from the scanner at the base to the printer below the screen corresponds to the checkout procedure and guides the customer through the process in a virtually self-explanatory manner. This is why the SCO with the NANO: Scan! Pay! Be delighted!
The award-winning NANO was created entirely in-house at the PYRAMID Design Studio, which, together with the Innovation Hub, forms the company's own development center for new technologies, designs and products. In just four months, the team responsible created a production-ready terminal whose technical and visual layout combine perfectly to create one of the most advanced self-checkout solutions on the market.
The Good Design Award is the second major international award that Pyramid has won for its kiosk terminals in just two years. In 2020, the POLYTOUCH® FLEX with the European Design Award was awarded. Both awards show that we are way ahead in product design and play in the top league worldwide. In a few days, a NANO will travel to Chicago to present itself to visitors from all over the world at the Museum of Architecture and Design. The Nano will also be featured in the illustrated book (Good Design Yearbook) that the museum is publishing about the 2021 award winners. Thanks to Jan Altes (Product Management), Tobias Bandel (Product Design), Peter Engler (CAD Design) and Anthony Hunckler (Product Design) for your great teamwork!
