Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Path: utzoo!sq!msb
From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Subject: Re: Yucky ATM interfaces (WAS Re: Touchscreens)
Message-ID: <1991Jun21.102055.24309@sq.sq.com>
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
References: <6460@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> <1991Jun17.062203.1381@sq.sq.com> <80373@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 91 10:20:55 GMT
Lines: 35

I wrote:
> However, I'm particularly annoyed by a machine installed a few months
> ago in my bank branch.  (Royal Bank of Canada, Yonge/Eglinton branch).

Now that I think of it, this machine has a second notably bad piece of
design in addition to the enabled-then-disabled numeric keypad that
I posted about before.

In all ATMs that I can remember using, the way to signal "no more
transactions" is to remove your card -- and this is sensible, because
it helps prevent you from leaving it behind.  Extra care is taken when
you're withdrawing cash, this being the only transaction type where
you walk away from the machine with something other than a transaction
record slip: you are required to choose whether there will be another
transaction (or sometimes simply required to remove your card) before
the cash is dispensed.

On the passbook updating machine, however, there is no such requirement,
and you *always* walk away with something in your hand, i.e. the passbook.
It's easy to forget your card.  They recognized this by adding reminder
displays to the screen, but this is at best a workaround.

What they should have done, of course, was to have the machine hold
your passbook until you remove your card.  (It doesn't turn pages,
of course, so it has to return the passbook to you in that case; but
before doing so it could display a warning on the screen and require
you to confirm your understanding by touching.)

-- 
Mark Brader		"Do UNIX users ever think about the fact that most
SoftQuad Inc.		 of their financial dealings are processed in
Toronto 		 languages that they wouldn't be caught dead in?"
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com			-- Carol Osterbrock

This article is in the public domain.