ICICI ATM Machine Usability Issues
I was amazed to read simple things that web developers ignore when developing websites which hampers the usability of the projects in the Dr. Jakob Nielsen’s book, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity. And the ideas it generated in my mind applies to everything I see in my daily life. And one such incident happened today when I went to my Bank’s ATM Machine…
ATM Machines are replacing Cash Counters in a big way in India. And I have been used to using ATMs so much that I shiver at the thought of visiting a real bank branch to conduct business. So, well I believe ATM Machines are some of the best examples where usability should be totally applied on. I would not go into the basic details because the workings of the ATMs I see in India are very unfriendly to new people and it will take pages of rants. But I noticed a very basic flaw today when one of the 2 machines in the Sector 11 ICICI Bank Branch, Panchkula refused to accept my Debit Card. The problem was the error message it displayed. It was only in 1 language! And the language was Punjabi. Boy that was weird. I remember the first time I noticed the 3rd language option (for Punjabi) to chose from the ATM menu, the first time I used an ATM Machine after shifting to Chandigarh (it was the same bank branch…). And they do still have the 3 language choosing options on the login (whatever!) screen. But the error message it showed when I inserted my card was only in 1 language. That was bad.
Accepted Punjabi is a pretty common language around here. But ATMs should be universal. People travel long distances to conduct business (or for pleasure) carrying little else but plastic money. And if the machines they have to interact with are not even displaying the most common universal languages (English in general and Hindi for India), it calls for some error corrections!
And the bright spot after that pita was that the gentleman who was using the machine next to mine had his card stuck inside the ICICI ATM machine. With no particular reason! No, he did not insert a wrong PIN Number 3 times, in fact he just took out a bunch of Mahatma Gandhis (for the un-iniated 500 rupee notes!) and after exiting, the card did not come out!
Bollocks.
The only help he could get from the security guard was that he would have to wait for Monday morning to contact the people inside the bank to get his card back.
Dude, better be careful the next time you insert that card into an ICICI ATM Machine!
And please do not suggest me to switch banks. ICICI has the most accessible (in terms of the numbers) ATMs so; I had rather have my cash out with my card stuck than have no cash at all in cases of emergencies!
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