We made an interface which doesn’t work on desktop or mobile
So at the time I was relatively new to OPL it was just an average afternoon of Dec 2018. after our many late-nighters in rows and after version 1 release of psb59 platform, we were in the relax phase for time being.
I was sitting on a bean bag and contemplating on what should be our next move …
(ok ok ok I was just staring out of the window watching the traffic).
Our CEO entered the cabin and told me “your friend at the Bank called” ( and by a friend he meant Chairman of that bank who might not even know me at the time. He has a habit of hypothetically making you a friend of people at high authority some of my colleagues are now friends with Prime Minister of India. Just like I have a habit of diverting from the main storyline just so you can know what’s going on in my mind).
So what do we need to make? I asked with curiosity
It was something unusual just like this article which is not what you read usually.
On to the point we had to create a KISOK Interface.
So apparently Bank bought Hauz Khash Metro station and was rebranding it. And they wanted these kiosks there for engaging Delhiites and create entrepreneurship awareness in them and how they can help them achieve it.
But there were two challenges
We needed to create and develop this interface in one week only — — with fully functional Database and functionalities with testing and implementation
And the second — no one in the team has ever created a KISOK UI before.
We went to and fro with bank team, Our CEO on what we exactly want to create and many many google search results on how a KISOK works.
We got our initial understanding that KISOK we will be using will have Window 10 OS installed and it will behave like a touch screen device similar to a windows tablet.
Now we have 2 promising options in front of us
1 make a native windows App for the KISOK and install that on all devices
2 Make a web app open the website URL and use Chrome on fullscreen
Both ideas had their merits and demerits. However, we chose to go through the web app.
Because we had a lot of experience handling the web app and we had very little time to take on something we were not much familiar with.
So it took us many many short and long discussions and understanding to finalize the design and start with the development. It was all going good and we were happy that we pulled this off in so little time.
The day had arrived we sent it for testing on several kiosk machines — one day to go live
Everything was testing positive it was all coming together — and ohh! the joy when it all comes together in the first go.
But wait not so fast! That can’t be it right. Of course, we hit something there was no keyboard attached to KISOK machine.
Wait we can use window 10 onscreen keyboard that will solve our problem.
Yes but it created another one — it covered more than half of screen and now it was cover next and exit buttons.
No no no there’s got to be some way — how can I make such a novice mistake — like of course, it’s a touch screen device.
Why I didn’t think of keyboard issue before.
So after rambling for some time, cursing myself and many many google searches later I found out a keyboard plugin which could work on our web app
And best of all it was small in size which can be fitted at bottom of our page perfectly. We implemented it and well it worked perfectly.
If you were to pass by Hauz Khas Metro station do try that KISKOK and let me know if the keyboard is working perfectly or we could have done it differently.
