On Saturday night, after a good dinner with quite a bit of wine and lots of sushi, a friend and I drove to the nearest ATM to draw money to fill my car with petrol.
This whole interface with a machine to enable the lubrication of financial transactions is something we all take for granted. I don`t get any thrill out of standing in front of a machine and swapping my PIN code for cash.
However, before me at the ATM was a young black man who was struggling to speak the same language as this machine. Eventually, through some sequence of button-pushing, his card was spat back at him, and he walked away disconsolately.
I approached the machine.
"There`s nothing," he said to me bitterly.
I continued on my mission to get cash. He watched in stupefaction as I managed to extract a bundle of notes from the machine.
"Would you like me to help you?" I asked.
He agreed.
I must confess that the possibility that I was getting into some elaborate scam to steal all my hard-earned cash did cross my mind. But the similar wariness with which my new friend was regarding me did put me somewhat at ease.
I told him that I was going to select the English option, so that I could understand what the machine was asking us to do. He seemed happy with that. Then I told him to enter his PIN while I turned my back.
He seemed very confused by this.
"My number?" he asked.
I nodded the affirmative. He entered it. We were then informed (as I had been) that no slips were available, and asked if we wanted to proceed. As he threw his hands up in the air in despair, I began to understand where his problem had started.
Showing people how ATMs work under normal circumstances is one thing, but expecting them to assimilate all the variables is quite another.
Georgina Guedes, editor, Brainstorm
The numerous things that the ATM program anticipates that the standard user understands and knows are so inaccessible to the hitherto unbanked user that he is stymied by the so-called convenience of electronic banking.
I was sent by my mother to draw money from ATMs using her card and PIN number from an early age. All of this is second nature to me. Slips, PIN codes, balances, options; I use these terms without even thinking about what they mean.
For someone who has never used a computer, they are virtually impossible to grasp. My poor friend, hoping to draw R40 for his ride home, was left inconvenienced and stranded by this modern technology.
Showing people how ATMs work under normal circumstances is one thing, but expecting them to assimilate all the variables (like a slip paper shortage) is quite another.
There is much work to be done, either on educating the unbanked, or simplifying the interface.
Share