Giving Your Money to the Gas Pump

Years ago, gas stations made a big move towards efficiency when they began to encourage quick and easy payment options via electronic machines located near or on the pumps. This gets more customers through the station quicker and puts less stress on staff.

However, many of them threw usability out the window along with over-the-counter payment requirements.


A popular method of payment for gas these days is the credit card. While using mine, I instantly recognized the standardized swipe-slots with which to swipe my plastic. However, I ran into a problem when I couldn't find the screen that typically gives you instructions on what to perform next. I saw the big one at the top of the pump- that was easy to find. But it was a dedicated output only showing the cost and gallons!

The correct screen (indicated at the bottom-right of this picture) was not immediately recognized for several reasons:

1. Proximity- the card swiper is not spatially beside the info screen that references it, as it should be.
2. Visual Continuity- the card swiper and the info screen are visually separated by the vertical line created by the two panels of the interface. This creates a semi-conceptual barrier that subconsciously indicates non-relatedness.
   
3. Most people are right-handed. Since the card swiper is on the left-hand side, it is easy to see that most people would actually stand to the left of the swiper in order to make the action of swiping easier. This means the person is standing even further away form the info screen! This problem is exacerbated even more when...
4. The info screen has blinders on it! So, while it's not entirely apparent from the picture above, the blinders actually occlude most of the screen from the user's visual angle if he/she stands to the left!

While the interface actually has many aspects that could be improved for user experience, probably the most important is the function that it serves on the most very basic level- allow users to quickly and easily pay for their gasoline.

If I had to do a quick fix, I would remove the blinders from the info screen. These exist to shield the user's pin number from suspicious prying eyes. However, pumps are typically spaced out enough laterally so that it is already fairly difficult to see one's pin number being pressed. If paranoid, one may just as easily use their hand to block the number pad as they press it- at least they could find the info area right away in that case

But if we want to stay on the side of privacy and security, it would be best to either only have them around the number pad (specific to the function it serves), or to have them on the sides of the pump itself (general but non-intrusive). Both of these solutions would avoid falsely occluding features that don't need to be protecting from suspicious eyes. Hiding the info screen from the user seems like a dirty trick if you think about it long enough.


Lessons Learned:

• Design for efficiency, but...
• Keep input areas simple and intuitive
• Make sure 'features' do not negate the usability of the product/service. They are better left out than invading the appropriate functional interaction...