The latest ATMs
I drove up to my regular ATM this morning with the intent of depositing a cheque only to discover my bank has changed to a new style of ATM. The old ones had deposit slips and envelopes where the new ones don't.
So I read the screen - insert card for service - fine. I inserted my card and nothing happened apart from the continual rambling adverts on the screen. Weird. So I pulled my card out and as I did so it asked for my PIN. Ah. So what it means is insert and remove card for service.
So far so-so. I followed the usual instructions for depositing, wary of the fact that there was an envelope slot but no envelopes or deposit slips, and after filling in the amount and indicating which account, it asked "do you want an envelope?" Great. Out pops an envelope and immediately the ATM asks for it back with the check and deposit slip inside. Well first we don't have a pen in the car to fill out the envelope, and second we don't have a depost slip because the ATM doesn't have any. Meanwhile its insistently blinking red and beeping, demanding a full envelope. So I hit cancel. Then I hit it again. And again. And after about 13 or 14 presses of the 'cancel' button, the ATM finally cancels the transaction and goes back to its adverts. You'd think that with all the info I had to put in about the deposit, they would no longer need a deposit slip or a completed envelope. But apparently the design of this ATM requires you to be psychic, and to be able to write at the speed of light.
New ATMs are fine, but when they change the interface to be as hostile as possible, as well as having misleading instructions on the screen and a cancel button that doesn't cancel, it's just a sign of poor management and planning. I bet a marketing guy came up with this idea - the user hostility of the new ATM reeks of a marketing department "triumph".
This is Zions bank, by the way. So for those of you about to use a Zions ATM this weekend, be warned that they've been replaced by extremely user-hostile ATMs that are an ergonomic nightmare (the screen and keypad are too high up now, and the cancel buttons don't work). The user interface and lack of friendliness is so bad it could almost have been devised by Microsoft.
So I read the screen - insert card for service - fine. I inserted my card and nothing happened apart from the continual rambling adverts on the screen. Weird. So I pulled my card out and as I did so it asked for my PIN. Ah. So what it means is insert and remove card for service.
So far so-so. I followed the usual instructions for depositing, wary of the fact that there was an envelope slot but no envelopes or deposit slips, and after filling in the amount and indicating which account, it asked "do you want an envelope?" Great. Out pops an envelope and immediately the ATM asks for it back with the check and deposit slip inside. Well first we don't have a pen in the car to fill out the envelope, and second we don't have a depost slip because the ATM doesn't have any. Meanwhile its insistently blinking red and beeping, demanding a full envelope. So I hit cancel. Then I hit it again. And again. And after about 13 or 14 presses of the 'cancel' button, the ATM finally cancels the transaction and goes back to its adverts. You'd think that with all the info I had to put in about the deposit, they would no longer need a deposit slip or a completed envelope. But apparently the design of this ATM requires you to be psychic, and to be able to write at the speed of light.
New ATMs are fine, but when they change the interface to be as hostile as possible, as well as having misleading instructions on the screen and a cancel button that doesn't cancel, it's just a sign of poor management and planning. I bet a marketing guy came up with this idea - the user hostility of the new ATM reeks of a marketing department "triumph".
This is Zions bank, by the way. So for those of you about to use a Zions ATM this weekend, be warned that they've been replaced by extremely user-hostile ATMs that are an ergonomic nightmare (the screen and keypad are too high up now, and the cancel buttons don't work). The user interface and lack of friendliness is so bad it could almost have been devised by Microsoft.
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