Campus Printing Kiosk UX

Printing kiosks in the campus library have a touchscreen interface that should be simple, upload a file, select pages, hit print. Reality is that the software was clearly designed by someone who has never watched a stressed student try to print a paper 10 minutes before class. Uploading requires selecting a file from a USB drive through a file browser that doesn't sort by date. You scroll through every document you have ever saved looking for the right one. That the kiosk runs on Windows embedded. Touch targets are sized for a mouse cursor rather than a finger, and that means I end up tapping the wrong button about half the time. Student ID tap for payment is convenient. Balance display is on a different screen from the print confirmation so you can't see how much you have left until after the job has started. Printer itself is fine, fast enough and the quality is acceptable for assignments, but the software layer between you and the printer is where all the frustration lives. I think the gap between what the kiosk could be and what it is represents a common problem in institutional technology. Purchasing decisions are made by an administrator who evaluates specs on paper rather than by the students who have to use it at 11:45 pm.