[Sigia-l] IA's Responsibility

[Fred Beecher]

On 8/30/06, Challis Hodge <challis at experiencepeople.com> wrote:
>
> I've been into a few stores recently to look at self checkout. I've found an
> interesting approach in the Wal-Mart stores I've visited (other stores may
> use the same approach). At the point where you select payment you have
> choices that include credit card and debit card. Even if you select credit
> card, if the scanner detects you have debit capabilities it takes you to the
> input pin screen. There is no indication that you can hit cancel and then
> select the credit option. Though you can. Obviously this is a business
> decision given that debit is less expensive to process than credit.
>
> What would you do if you're the IA/IxD on that problem/solution?

That's a *nasty* problem... my IA instinct tells me that this is
obviously bad. The user has indicated one choice and the system has
presented another, presenting additional cognitive dissonance in a
task that people are likely already wary of (auto-checkout). However,
my business-facing side says that if the business wants to save money
then we should do something to make them save money.

What I would do in order to make the decision is to do some research
on why the business wants to do self-checkout in the first place. I
assume this is a money saving measure, but I'd like to get actual hard
numbers saying that, per transaction, a self-checkout costs X and a
cashier-based checkout costs Y. If X is much less than Y (which I
imagine it would be), it would be on that basis that I would make the
argument that the current interaction needs to be fixed. Its something
that will confuse people and prevent them from adopting self-checkout.
They'll go back to the cashiers, who are more expensive. If I had the
luxury of time, I'd try to do some research to bear that conclusion
out.

- Fred