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Gift Card Kiosk

Put money on a gift card, give it away, and they choose the cause.

JavaScriptKioskUSB card reader
My role
I built it on my own initiative, as the church's main web developer.
When
Between 2012 and 2014
The kiosk's start screen. Large distressed lettering reads Revolution, with a red stamp across part of the word, above the words click anywhere to begin.
The kiosk's start screen, from my original screenshots.

Where the idea came from

I was the main web developer at Kensington Church. In a meeting, one of the leaders threw out an idea. What if you could put money on a gift card and give it to someone, and then they got to choose where the money went? Global outreach, local outreach, or any of the other things the church was doing.

Nobody asked me to build it. I got obsessed with the idea and went to town.

What I built

I made a working kiosk app, bought a USB card reader, and learned how to program for it and how it outputs data.

At the kiosk, you swipe a gift card or type its number in.

The kiosk screen asking Ready to begin, with a choice between swiping a gift card and entering it manually.

Swipe a card, or enter it by hand.

Each card goes into a cart with its amount. You can add more cards, edit one, or take one out.

The kiosk's cart screen listing one gift card for one dollar, with Edit, Remove and Next buttons and a way to add another card.

The cart, with a test card in it.

Then you log in to your Kensington account with your phone number, or register right there.

The kiosk's login screen, with a phone number field on the left and an empty registration form on the right.

Log in, or register.

The kiosk's Processing screen.

Processing.

The other half

Whoever got the card went to the website printed on it and picked where the money went. If I remember right, it went to a default fund if they didn’t pick. I couldn’t find a screenshot of that part.

On the main floor for Christmas

We ended up making real kiosks in time for giving season, around Christmas. They were set up all around the main floor for people to use. It was really cool bringing that to life.

These are my original screenshots of the kiosk app. The card number in the cart is test data.