Wells Fargo hired Pentagram in 2005 to start a project redesigning their ATMs, both the hardware and software UI.  ATMs, we all know, are a bane of interaction design.  They’re prevalent, necessary, and well-frequented for most of us.  Unfortunately, they’re also terribly confusing and cumbersome.  Among their many problems include:

• the path to completing tasks often crisscrosses different buttons at different cardinal points of the screen.
• “Yes” and “No” actions are frequently switched depending on which task you’re trying to complete
• the only feature most people care about is “Withdraw Cash”.  And no one really knows what else you can do besides “Make a Deposit”.

Former Pentagram designer Holger Struppek writes about the Wells Fargo ATM project.  Research:

From looking at usage statistics, the design team learned that the single-most used feature of an ATM is the cash withdrawal. Even though many more services are available, most people simply want to be able to quickly and safely punch in their security code, get the cash, and leave. The objective for the new UI was to continue to offer quick and easy cash withdrawals, while making the other services more visible and accessible.

Being clear about the objective, the task and the goal that needs to be accomplished and completed, is one of those “must-haves” for designers.  For Pentagram, not only did they do away with the antiquated hardware buttons on the side of the screen (hooray!), they thought about how to meld shortcuts and personalization together:

Instead of one Quick Cash button, we introduced a whole column of shortcut buttons that behave somewhat like the History menu in a web browser. It is still possible to customize them through Set My ATM Preferences, but hardly necessary since they always reflect the most recent transactions.

Cool idea.  I think it actually works well.  My one beef with it (besides the color palette, but what can you do? Those are the corporate colors…) is the use of the icons on the top right of each button.  Why does “Get Cash” have a negative “No Smoking” “don’t-do-this” icon?  Shouldn’t it have been a cash with a 3D down arrow, signifying withdrawal?

Good read nonetheless, and a reminder that interaction design is the same whether online or offline because the subject is always the same: the human person.