Setting up kiosks for on-site ticket and registration sales can help to streamline your on-site walk-up sales process. ClearEvent's Kiosk Mode feature helps to set up self-service kiosks that present optimized checkout experiences for both on-site ticketing/registration staff and walk-ins.
The Kiosk Mode feature is useful for many scenarios:
You wish to close your online registration & ticket sales and only offer on-site registration & ticket sales (potentially at a different price from your online sales).
You have on-site ticket/registration staff and want them to facilitate ticket sales/registration for walk-ins and want to offer them a streamlined workflow.
You have walk-in attendees and wish for them to use on-site kiosks (e.g. locked-down tablets) to purchase tickets or register for your event.
How does Kiosk Mode work?
When Kiosk Mode is enabled for your Event Portal App, only tickets & registration forms that you specifically enable to be shown on Kiosk Mode-enabled devices will be displayed on your Event Portal App.
There are two important steps in this process:
Set up the tablets or laptops to be used as kiosks at your event.
Enable the Kiosk Mode setting for each ticket or registration form that you wish to offer on your kiosks (see below).
Consider updating your Event Portal to hide non-essential content when in Kiosk Mode.
How to set up Kiosk Mode
Kiosk Mode must be enabled on each device & web browser combination that you plan on using as an on-site ticket sales or registration kiosk. Whichever device you choose, we recommend using the Google Chrome web browser.
IMPORTANT: You must perform the following steps on each device you wish to use as a kiosk:
First, secure your device by reading the section below titled "Device Security & Privacy".
Open a new Chrome web browser (do not use the Incognito browsing mode) and ensure you are signed out of your Google Chrome profile.
Go to the Event Manager App > Event Setup section > General tab.
Open your Event Portal.
Check the Kiosk Mode setting and click the Launch Event Portal in Kiosk Mode button.
You will be signed out of your ClearEvent account and the Event Portal App will load in Kiosk Mode. The Event Portal App will display a blue "Kiosk Mode" badge in the menu bar. This badge indicates that the Event Portal App is now in Kiosk Mode and that only Tickets & Registration Forms that have been enabled for Kiosk Mode will be shown.
To open the Event Portal App in full-screen mode on a desktip, press F11 on your desktop browser. This will hide the address bar and other on-screen distractions. You may exit the full-screen mode by pressing the Esc key.
If using Google Chrome on an iOS device (e.g. iPad), bookmark the page that's currently loaded so that we can directly return to it later. With the Event Portal App open, enable Guided Access to lock down the iOS device.
If using Google Chrome on an Android device, click "Add to Home screen" from the browser menu to add the current page to your home screen.
Additional Kiosk Mode behaviors
When Kiosk Mode is enabled, you will observe some additional changes in the behavior of the system:
A Kiosk Mode label will be displayed in the top-left of the screen.
Some features of the Event Portal will be hidden. This includes all Home screen buttons that are not hidden when Kiosk Mode is enabled. By default only the Tickets and Register buttons, and the footer section will be displayed. You can adjust each page to be visible when in Kiosk Mode.
Only tickets and registration forms enabled for display in Kiosk Mode will be visible. All other tickets and registration forms will be hidden.
The social sharing buttons that are normally displayed on the order confirmation step of the ticket or registration checkout process will not be displayed, regardless of the social sharing settings.
Once a ticket order or registration is successfully submitted, after 90 seconds the confirmation screen message will be reset, and the ticket ordering or registration process will restart. This ensures no personal information like the attendee's email address and Reference # are not left on the screen. A Start Over button will be displayed on the confirmation page to enable the next guest to quickly start over.
If a ticket or registration form is marked as Private, it will not be visible by default when Kiosk Mode is enabled. You should make any Kiosk Mode tickets or registration forms Public before enabling Kiosk Mode if you wish to see these forms.
How to disable Kiosk Mode
Kiosk Mode must be disabled on each device/web browser combination that you have set up.
To disable Kiosk Mode, perform the following steps on each device where Kiosk Mode is enabled:
Open a web browser and go to the Event Manager App for your event and go to the Event Setup > General tab.
Ensure that the Kiosk Mode setting is unchecked. This will disable Kiosk Mode on this device for the current browser.
How to show a Ticket in Kiosk Mode
Open the Event Manager App > Tickets section > Tickets tab > Edit a ticket > Publish tab.
Enable the Kiosk Mode checkbox. Once enabled, the ticket will only be visible when Kiosk Mode is enabled for your Event Portal App.
How to show a Registration Form in Kiosk Mode
Open the Event Manager App > Forms section > Edit a form > Publish tab.
Enable the Kiosk Mode checkbox. Once enabled, the form will only be visible when Kiosk Mode is enabled for your Event Portal App.
Device security & privacy
Kiosk Mode enables a single device to be used by many guests to register and buy tickets for your event. To ensure personal information entered by your guests is protected, you must manually configure additional browser privacy settings.
ClearEvent recommends using a device with the Google Chrome web browser installed for Kiosk Mode. The following steps outline the required configuration changes that must be made prior to using any device in Kiosk Mode:
Open the latest version of Google Chrome on the device.
Ensure you are signed out of Chrome.
Clear all browsing data (learn more).
Click on the user icon in the top-right menu. You'll see three options in the drop-down (Passwords, Payment methods, Addresses, and more). You'll modify these settings next.
Click Passwords from the drop-down menu and turn off Offer to save passwords and Auto Sign-in.
Go back and select Payment methods from the drop-down menu and turn off Save and fill payment methods.
Go back and select Addresses and more from the drop-down menu and turn off Save and fill addresses.
When you are no longer using the device for Kiosk Mode, you'll most likely wish to restore these settings to their original values.
How To Lock Down A Kiosk Device
If your event uses tablets as kiosks to assist with on-site self-service ticket sales or registration, you'll want to lock the device down for both security reasons and to prevent users from "wandering away" with your kiosk device!
Whenever possible, use dedicated devices that do not contain any personal or sensitive data. Also, always clear the browser cache, browser history, cookies, and local data before using any device as a kiosk.
You'll want to physically secure and protect any devices that you'll be using as kiosks. This includes locking the devices to a table and protecting the screens with protective covers. You can purchase many locking device stands for your specific device by searching for "{device name} locking stand".
Additionally, most mobile devices offer ways of restricting a user's device access to just one application. Below are some simple approaches you can use to secure your kiosk devices:
iPad / iPhone
For both iPad and iPhones, you can use Apple's Guided Access feature to limit a user's access to only a mobile Google Chrome web browser. Guided Access will also silence incoming alerts from other apps. The following steps assume you will use the Google Chrome web browser on an iOS device.
To do this:
On your iOS device, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock and set it to Never.
Once you have enabled Kiosk Mode for your event, open Google Chrome and use the bookmark or home screen shortcut that you saved earlier to return to your Event Portal App.
Follow the steps outlined here to learn how to enable Guided Access on your iOS device.
Alternately, consider enabling Single App Mode. However, this approach requires you to have access to a Mac and to use Apple Configurator to set this up.
Android
For most Android 9.0+ devices, use the Screen Pinning (a.k.a. Pin a Window) feature to lock down access to only your Event Portal. Screen Access will also silence incoming alerts from other apps.
To do this:
On your Android device, go to Settings > Display > Screen timeout and enable Keep screen turned on. Please note that some Android devices may not allow the screen to be kept turned on.
In the Google Chrome mobile web browser on Android devices (do not use Incognito mode), open your Event Portal and then click "Add to Home screen" from the browser menu.
Close the web browser.
Using the new link you added to your Home screen, launch the Event Portal. Chrome will load the Event Portal and will disable the browser address bar.
Follow the steps outlined here to learn how to enable Screen Pinning, pin a screen and unpin a screen. For Samsung devices click here.
Kiosk Mode Best Practices
Carefully read the Device Security & Privacy section above and ensure your device is properly configured to prevent privacy issues when in Kiosk Mode.
Prepare your kiosk devices well in advance and test them to ensure they are working prior to going on-site.
The device's display timeout should be set to never timeout.
Bookmark your Event Portal App and set it as your Home Page so it loads automatically when you open your web browser on your kiosk device. If supported, also pin your Event Portal App link to your device's home screen.
Once you have enabled Kiosk Mode on a device, make sure to always sign out of the web browser. When using a device as a kiosk, you should always sign out of all applications.
When configuring tickets and registration forms to only be visible in Kiosk Mode, we recommend making sure the ticket is a Public ticket. Private tickets will still remain hidden when Kiosk Mode is enabled.
Configure each device to always stay signed in and prevent it from locking and not being available to take registrations.
Close any open application or web browsers prior to launching the Event Portal App in Kiosk Mode. It's best to only have a single web browser open.
On desktop web browsers, once you launch the Event Portal App in Kiosk Mode, you can press F11 to put the web browser in full-screen mode to eliminate any additional onscreen distractions.
In your web browser on your kiosk device, bookmark the Event Portal App so it's easy to return if somehow an attendee manages to wander away from the app.
Regularly review and monitor your kiosk devices to ensure they're ready to accept the next attendee.
Compatibility Issues
Kiosk Mode is not compatible with Private Browsing mode.
When using Kiosk Mode, please ensure that you have not opened ClearEvent in a mobile web browser with Private Browsing mode (a.k.a. Incognito mode) enabled.
Ticket Printing may not be compatible with all browsers. If you plan to use the on-site printing capabilities, ensure you test the printing functionality ahead of time with the actual kiosk and print devices you expect to use on-site.
Getting Help
If you have questions about setting up your kiosks, please reach out to ClearEvent Support and we'd be happy to help.