Interaction design

Have you ever experienced that when you want to pay with your bank card you slide the card through the machine and it says you did something wrong. Quickly you try again after which the shop assistant tells you to turn around the card; the magnetic part was on the wrong side!

It also happens to me and I see this happening all the time in supermarkets and other stores where you can pay with your pin card. How is it possible that we still make mistakes with devices we use every day? So let us have a closer look at the usability of these payment devices.

First of all we make the difference between the types of machines. The devices differ in buttons, size, colors but they all use tree types of principles for sliding your card through the machine;

1. Back to front with the card standing
2. Left to right vice versa with the card standing
3. Front to back and back to front by sliding the card in and out of the outlet

Since principle three is mainly used for credit cards and we only focus on pin payments this principle will be discarded.

From an ergonomic point of view the second principle is definitely the best option. With both left and right hand the card can slide easily through the slot. While at the other principle you might have to hold your hand in an uncomfortable position because you are not standing on the perfect place or you might simply have something else in your favorite hand. It happens to me a lot that I hold my wallet with my (favorite) right hand and then have to slid the card with my (not favorite) left hand. With the first principle this gives my hand an uncomfortable feeling.

Entering the pincode or confirming the payment give some usability problems but most recent devices have larger screens and bigger buttons with color that help the usability. Most problems exist in how the card should be slid through the card reader. Looking at the area where the handling takes place the devices do not communicate how to hold the card. Both sides of the card reader have similar colors, surface, tactility and shape.

The only use cues or feedback for users to understand how to slide the card through the card reader is an icon. From all the devices two icons are used the most. Both icons try to suggest a certain depth of the card, trying to communicate that the card has to be inserted in a particular way. Obviously it is not very successful in this communication. I think few people can tell you what the icons mean.

Designing such icons is difficult and can be frustrating since the outcome is rarely pleasing. But next to the design, the placement and size of the icons is of great importance as well. It is likely that with the existing size of icons many people will not see or understand the icons. The eyesight not only deteriorates with elderly of seventy or eighty, but already sets in at the age of forty. The placement of the icons is mostly close to the actual card reader, this seems the most logic place.

From the analysis we concluded that;

• The shape of the devices do not support communicating how a card should be slid in the card reader.
• From an ergonomic stand of view the working principle in which pin cards have to be slid from left to right and right to left is best.
• The icons fail in communicating the meaning to everyone.
• The icons are too small and should get a more prominent place in the mapping of the product.

We will try to develop a concept that helps users understand how they should slide their card in the card reader.

Do you have a good idea? Mail me the sketch or render and I will attach them to the post.