This term when we were asked
to consider a human-machine system along with potential Human Factor issues and
mismatches, the one that immediately sprung to mind was the dreaded self-serve
checkout. Admittedly I enthusiastically awaited the arrival of these new devices
at my local supermarket.... short queues, no dreaded small talk from
uninterested operators asking “How are you” without really caring for your
response, and simple processing; I mean come on, I am an educated adult studying
a dual Bachelor degree.. How hard can it be?
What the supermarkets had failed
to advertise was that ‘HAL’ (the computer from ‘2001 A Space Odessy’) had in
fact survived and had integrated himself into the electronic personalities of
their self-checking systems, along with his twisted sense of humour and
penchant for evil antics!
Self-serve checkouts are equipped
with several seemingly obvious components designed to perform various functions,
money in, money out, eftpos capabilities and print receipt slots. Individually
each element of the arrangement makes sense, each a necessary piece of puzzle,
a system designed to simplify the shopping process by rewarding the user with
efficient service, a sense of achievement and a basket of groceries!
However,
when all these bells and whistles are combined the innocent operator finds
themselves faced with a blipping, beeping, flashing malevolent machine and having
to look in several different places at once, (up, down, across and under) all
whilst the evil robot, imbibed with an impatient attitude, issues repetitive
and annoying commands like ‘insert coins first and then cash’ (Why? The
Anarchist in me wants to try.. just once, to put the cash in first....) “Look up item”, “insert
item in bagging area” (can’t imagine where else I was going to put it....) “remove
item from bagging area” (I just put it there!) “Unexpected item in bagging area”
(I have noticed this mostly happens with confectionery...) then “do you want a
receipt?” (Well as tempting as it is by this point to politely advise the machine
what it can do with this particular offer, I am worried that if I don’t have
evidence that I have paid for my purchase, when I “remove bags from bagging
area” alarms will sound, lights will start flashing and a voice will start
screaming “Thief encountered in bagging area one!”
In summary this
human-machine interface consists of:
A
self-serve check-out with varying components to aid the operator in performing
the function of scanning, weighing and paying for individual grocery items
An
innocent shopper whose demeanor rapidly diminishes from patiently confident to
confused, harassed and highly stressed..
An
equally tense, hassled and impatient shopping attendant whose function it is to
placate the demands of the malicious hardware and beleaguered customers....
Smirking
check-out operators overlooking the entire process from beneath their plastic
smiles and smoothly running registers!
I suspect the system goal probably
differs in expectation between the consumer and the warped humour of the
designers....
The Human Factor issues
become even more apparent when just as you think you have mastered the
idiosyncrasies and various portals of the machine, you change supermarkets only
to find that the ‘money in’ slot has been switched with the ‘money out’ and the receipt
window has disappeared altogether?!
Potential relationship
mismatches would be that there are far too many things happening at once, the
system would need consistent calibration to ensure that bagging weights are
identified, all controls and voice guidance are in English (even though the
responses are mostly in French...) and each supermarket chain has decided in
its wisdom to make sure no two components are in the same place, size, shape or configuration as their
competitor?!
The moral of this critique
is that humans, in trying to be clever, have once again been outsmarted by a machine.
As Hal would explain it “I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think
that any conscious entity can ever hope to do... and “It can only be attributable to
human error....”
He may be right.....
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