Usability trick used in ATM’s

First ATM’s (at least in Finland) used to “eat” many forgotten cards. That made customers unhappy and it also cost a lot to the banks. Then the guys designing sw for it revisited their thoughts.

Users only goal in ATM is to get money. What used to happen was, that user put the card in, entered pin code and then told how much money they want. Then money came, they achieved their goal and left. And the card was forgotten.

Currently ATM’s work so, that users are not able to get money, before they take the card out from machine. How simply they fulfilled the need users didn’t know they have. Users would be so much unhappier if they would lose their card. Now they don’t even realise this trick.

Maybe smart homes could grow to be similar in the future. When you are leaving the house, system would check that there no lights on and stove is off. Or maybe there’s much more obvious case I don’t even now realise. Surely something to keep in mind.

I just love these simple tricks to make users being not unhappy.

This was originally posted 9.12.2010 at lostinux.wordpress.com. I've closed that blog of mine and I'm re-posting some of the most popular and best posts from there to here.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

How to make credit cards much more safe

I have simple idea how they could make credit cards much more safe. Often when credit (or bank) cards are stolen, first thieves get somehow to know your pin code. They look over shoulder or even there are these machines that videotape or record you pin code. Then they steal your card and use it asap.

What if credit cards would have two pin codes. Those would be then used after each other. So you would have codes 1234 and 5678. When you are buying something you would this time give 1234. Then on the next buy, or withdraw from ATM, you would use 5678. Then on the next you would again use 1234. Simple.

This would make thieves life much harder. If they would track you and somehow see what was the pin code you used, they couldn’t steal your card right away, since that code wouldn’t work. To somehow track your both pin codes is much harder I think.

What do you think? Isn’t it a cheap and easy way to increase security with credit cards?

This was originally posted 17.12.2010 at lostinux.wordpress.com. I've closed that blog of mine and I'm re-posting some of the most popular and best posts from there to here.  

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen