ATMs

I've got a few suggestions to those interaction designers who work on ATMs. I know Seth has already discussed his issues with ATM interfaces so I thought I'd throw out my recent experience as well. This is a quick story with some helpful tips along the way.

I drove up to the ATM to make a deposit of a check I had gotten from taking a standby flight on Delta. I entered my PIN and navigated my way to the screen where it asked for the amount of the deposit. I wasn't sure how much the amount was so I grabbed the check to take a look. I see the amount and start typing in the amount on the touch pad. As I enter in the numbers, but the ATM takes me to a different screen before I hit OK where it asks me if I need more time.

The screen that I was taken to asks if I need more time or would like to cancel. As luck may have it the Cancel button was lined up exactly where the OK button used to be on the previous screen. So as I go to press OK for the amount I entered the screen changed and I hit Cancel which then spit out my card and required me to start the whole transaction all over again.

In Interaction Design we have this great thing that I like to incorporate as much as possible and it's called "Feedback". Users like feedback and here's why. Feedback essentially means not surprising users by giving them as much relevant contextual information as you can about the situation. There are several places where the ATM could use lots more feedback.

The ATM has some kind of timer that it uses for security, so people don't leave the machine and the next person can walk up to it and start where the last left off. A dialog screen kicks in because I hadn't switched screens fast enough and it assumed I had left or just needed more time. Now the ATM should be smart enough that the activity of pressing keys pauses the timers count down instead of just timing between screen switches; however it is what it is. One small improvement here in terms of feedback would be a nice progress bar that tells me exactly how much time I have before this timeout system kicks in.

Another little addition to the design of the system would be to switch locations of the buttons for the dialog screen that pops in. Instead of the button location that used to be an OK for my last screen now turning into the CANCEL button for the new screen. Take the time to determine a new location for these NEED MORE TIME or CANCEL buttons that take over without warning.

COSI

This weekend is Open House for Clarkson so I'll be hanging around the lab as usual helping out. Read into that as "I'm here for the free food". However afterwards it looks like I might go hiking, so that's exciting. Hope for nice weather.

Thesis

I've got great review comments from Jeanna, my advisor and I'm putting together the final copy to send back to her before I go out tonight to Flip-Night.

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