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Mac Musings

Automatic Frustration Machines

Dan Knight - 1998.09.15 - Tip Jar

Some machines are designed to do a simple job simply. The best even do it with elegance.

But some make you wonder what their creators were thinking.

I have a long-term love/hate relationship with ATMs. They're so convenient: available 24 hours a day (except when you need cash), rarely a line (unless you're in a hurry), and they don't do all the slow transactions people need tellers for.

Banks sometimes go out of their way to make things convenient - sometimes for you, sometimes for themselves. I still miss $5 bills in ATMs, and really hated it when my credit union stopped putting $10 bills in the ATM. (The bank I'm with now does put in $10 bills.)

The latest convenience is the fast $60 cash withdrawal from checking. Pop in the card, enter your code, and hit one button. The ATM asks if you want a receipt, then give you your money, your card, and (if you asked for it), your receipt.

But say you want $70. After logging on, you press the Withdraw button. Then you choose From Checking. Then you type in your amount. 7-0-0-0.

Well, sometimes that's $70, but sometimes it's $7,000 - if the ATM is overly friendly and knows you can't withdraw change. Of course, some work one way, some the other.

Then there are the ones that ask if I want to handle my transaction in English or Spanish. One more button to push.

I appreciate the cultural sensitivity, but I just want to do my transaction and drive off.

Of course, the other problem is that they seem to have a real problem lining up the text on the screen with the buttons on the side. If you're in a van, you look down and they line up one way. In a sedan, you're much lower and they seem to point somewhere else.

Frankly, that's because most ATMs are living in the dark ages of text terminals while the entire computer world (*@&%#$ IBM AS/400 and a few other models excepted) has gone graphical.

Why not a graphical ATM? Instead of a small text arrow that looks like

--->

You could have a large arrow matching the size of the button beside it. If the bank is willing to spend the cash, you could even color code the buttons and the arrows on the screen. Instead of dim green characters on a black screen, you could really make it easy and friendly, as the second image shows.

You want quick cash: press green. Almost too easy!

This eliminates the need for the tiny ASCII arrows, gets rid of the dark green phosphors, and you could eliminate burn-in by running bank ads as screen savers.

While they're at it, banks should make the dumb terminals a bit more intelligent. When it scans my card, it should know that I always choose English (given the choice) and that I usually take $70 from checking on payday. So use some of that computer intelligence to do more than say "Hello Daniel Knight" after I enter my ID code.

And while they're doing that, how about a little speed? I swear the 300 baud modem on my VIC-20 was faster.

Put in the card. Wait. Enter the ID. Wait. Choose English. Wait. Choose Withdraw. Wait. Type in $70. Wait. Tell it I want a receipt. Wait and wait and wait. Hear it put cash in drawer. Wait for drawer to open. Take cash. Wait and wait and wait for it to recognize that I've removed the money. Tell it I'm done. Wait for it to spit out my card and print my receipt.

Press one wrong button and wait even longer while you undo it or start all over again.

ATMs may be convenient, but they can also be frustrating.

This is one case where computers could serve us better with an improved interface - and it doesn't even require a mouse or pull-down menus.

Read Automatic Frustration Machines, part 2.

Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986, sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

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