This is the first post in what hopefully will be a series: “Adventures in Japanese UI design”.
Every now and then I will be posting some inspiring Japanese UI designs as I encounter them.
First up is the Acure drinks vending machine, easily the most impressive UI I’ve ever witnessed for something simple like a drinks machine.
Overview of all available drinks.
Detail screen – Red Bull. The description mentions Red Bull is sold in over 160 countries. The drink is shown at actual size.
Detail screen – Hot soup. Notice that this vending machine sells both heated drinks and cold drinks. The description shows calorie information and mentions the healthiness of the soup.
You can pay with Suica, a contactless IC card. Suica stans for Super Urban Intelligent Card – I kid you not.
Clear instructions show you how to get a drink: 1. Select drink 2. Pay with coins or Suica 3. Enjoy drink.
Lastly, check out this small video I shot:
Image credit for top image: © nacasa & partners
You forgot to mention one of the most innovative features of these machines is their ability, using a sensor, to recognize the sex and estimate the age of an individual who approaches it, displaying recommendations based on this data.