Easy ATM - a redesigned ATM for the visually impaired people by Aeshvarya

EASY ATM ATM for the visually impaired

For I564 Paper Prototyping Class With

Stuart Ough

Aeshvarya Verma Cheng YaChung Chin Powit Rungsangthiwakorn

Table of Content Executive Summary .......................................................................... 3 Introduction .................................................................................... 4 Existing System Challenges .............................................................. 4 Functional Design Concept ............................................................... 7 Early Prototype ............................................................................... 8 Informal Walkthrough ..................................................................... 10 High-Fidelity Prototype ................................................................... 11 Testing: 1 st Iteration ....................................................................... 13 Final Improvements ........................................................................ 15 Testing: 2 nd Iteration ...................................................................... 16 Design Wish list ............................................................................. 17 Lesson Learn ................................................................................ 18 Appendix: ATM Flow Exploration ..................................................... 21 Appendix: Story Board ................................................................... 22 Appendix: Story Board ................................................................... 23 Appendix: Test Script ..................................................................... 24

Executive Summary We selected designed an ATM for visually impaired people. This project is inspired by the video illustrating how blind people struggle to use the current ATM that was not well put together to be universal. To better understand the problem, we have done roleplaying, current system modeling and observe people using the ATM while blindfolded. The identified problem can be separated into two parts. First, blind people struggle to find ways to initiate the ATM usage. Current system force the blind user to find a headphone hole which difficult for the blind user. Second, the menu system and interaction was designed mainly for visually capable people. This causes the flow for blind people to be redundant and confusing. We have gone through different iteration, eliminate the redundancy and streamline the interaction flow and created an interactive voice command ATM with an improve flow of deposit and withdraw process.

Introduction Problems From the reference video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzah0A6IC5o uploaded by Tommy Edison – visually impaired user), we found that the current ATM does not cater to the varied needs of the blind population. We then did some testing blind folded to better understand what kind of problems the person in the video had. We finally create a model of the existing system and identify the following pain points of the current ATM system. • ATM environment is exposed and make blind people vulnerable • Inefficient processes which required unnecessary steps. • Complicated layout putting burden to user’s cognitive load and memory. Result from our background research show that the existing system tied to expectation or a sighted person. The system heavily relied touch screen based interactions and merely add a voice over to make it accessible, not necessary usable, for blind users. To better support the blind people we are redesigning the experience associated with the usage of the ATM system. This covers both the flow and system redesigning. Scope We are redesigning the whole experience associated with the usage of an ATM service. This experience is limited to the redesign of overall flow focusing on “Withdrawal” and “Deposit” features of the ATM service. Along the process we are also redesigning the complete hardware of the ATM system.

Existing System Challenges From our research from video, role-playing, existing system modeling and literature review, we have found the following problems and pain points of the existing system. Challenges 1: It is difficult to start using the ATM After carefully studying carefully from the video and we found that it is difficult to start using the ATM in blind mode. First, blind people need to know if the ATM does support blind people. In the machine that we investigated, there would be a small brail that the blind people need to search for. The current system forces the blind person to find a headphone jack in order to initiate a visually impaired procedure. If the blind 4

people try to swipe the card immediate, this will cause the system to assume that the user is sighted person and began normal procedure. Furthermore, the ATM will start speaking immediately after the users plug in the headphone. If users are not wearing the headphone, they might miss the instruction and got stuck with complete silence. To make the matter worse, the headphone jack is very difficult to find. Design Goals • How can blind people easily start using ATM? • How can recognize the user as a blind person? Challenges 2: Vulnerability and Safety We found that doing bank transaction for blind people make them very vulnerable to people close to them. Since they are not able to see what the person lining behind them is doing they can be at risk of getting assaulted. Even when using the headphone, there is still a dilemma. If the blind person turned up the volume, someone might hear the information. But, if he/she turned down the volume and the street was so loud then they cannot hear instructions from the ATM. Design Goals • How can we create a safe and private space? Challenges 3: Current ATM sequence and layout leads to confusion and requires high cognitive load We have found a research paper that confirm the problem that we seen in the video and also expand our understanding that in reality the current system is not usable. The paper was about asking blind people to use ATM, from several banks, in blind mode to find out whether or not it is usable. The result shows that there are many parts that could burden the user including: • Complicated long explanation about each part, user needs to locate every part to access the machine • Location of different parts and proximity, after inserting the headphone jack, the user will be requested to insert the card on the right. The explanation reference words like “clockwise” and “inches” which might be fully understood by blind users. The relative position might seem easy but this is not true for the blind. • The blind mode menu system is merely a read out from the normal mode, which is less relevant to the blind, for example printing receipt. Design Goals • How can we create an easy to user and understand system? • How can we make the ATM process more efficient?

Figure 1 Current System Flow Model

Challenges 4: Complex hand navigation The picture below shows the location that blind people need to access while trying to withdraw money. While this might not be difficult for a sighted user, each time a blind user navigate away from a location they will need to find that location again. This makes the system complicated and difficult to use. How bling people use current ATM? 1. Find the introduction. 2. Find the headphone jack. 3. Listen voice introduction. 4. Insert card. 5. Enter pin. 6. Use keypad to select function. 7. Get money. 8. Take receive.

Design Goals â&#x20AC;˘ How can we streamline the flow with layout?

Functional Design Concept Design Goals: Easy ATM From the problems identified we came up with the design goals that we are going to satisfied in the design. We will refer to our system as Easy ATM. • • • • • •

How can blind people easily start using ATM? How can recognize the user as a blind person? How can we create a safe and private space? How can we create an easy to user and understand system? How can we make the ATM process more efficient? How can we streamline the flow with layout?

Based on these design we came up with different concepts of our new system, Easy ATM. Concept 1: Safe ATM Space We can provide a quiet room with automatic locked doors, and a smart warning system. The system goes with smart identify that means Easy ATM will know who stand behind it. Also we preload the information into Easy ATM system. This way we will be able to eliminate the need of using the headphone which is one of the most time consuming step. Concept 2: On ATM Map Navigation We imagine some alternative ways that will help the blind navigate to different part of the ATM (e.g. from headphone jack to card reader). Possibly the on the ATM there could be a visual cue to help blind people navigate. Concept 3: Speaking and Listening ATM Current ATM speaks to the users but the users will only answer using the keypad. We can create a simpler navigation system if we allow user to use voice command. Concept 4: Smart Credit Card System If the ATM can recognize that user information such as, if the person is blind, their language, etc., then this could eliminate many steps that the user have to go through and prevent the user from getting into a wrong mode. Concept 5: Auto Initiate ATM Instead of waiting for the user to initiate the process, may be the ATM is aware when the user is walking in front of the ATM and therefore can start the introductory instruction.

Early Prototype ATM Design From the functional design concept part, we found some possible way to create the first prototype. First, we need to change the physical parts. We decided to eliminate different parts and strip down to only three main elements, card reader, numeric keypad, and tray. In these three elements, the sorting is up to down. Begins on the top (card reader), using center part (numeric keypad) to input the pin code, and taking money and card back from the bottom (tray). Other designs includes: • • •

•

Easy insert Card Reader: This simplified the system so that the user do not have to worry about the card orientation and find small space to insert the card. 3 Step Easy (Top-Down): This makes sure that user can easily recognize different part and minimize the hand navigation distance. One-way in, One-Way out: We assumed that the card reader will also be the location where the user will insert money. This way the user will “input” things in the same place and take the “output” from the same place. Money will come out with cards.

Figure 2 Sketch of our first prototype

How bling people use Easy ATM to withdraw? 1.Drop the card into the reader (no directions, only drop) 2.Enter pin code, and interact with the voice 3.Take money and card from the tray. How bling people use Easy ATM to deposit? 1.Drop the card into the reader (no directions, only drop) 2.Enter pin code, and interact with the voice 3.Put money into tray, close it. 4.Take card from the tray.

Figure 3 First Physical Prototypes

ATM Flow Design Along with the physical prototype we design the script for the ATM, here we have the following features: • • •

ATM start the introductory script once the user comes in front of the ATM Voice command with Keypad to Press (4 for No, 6 for Yes and Enter Key) Simplified the menu system: We trim the menu into the main functionality withdrawal and deposit while hiding other menu in the current menu system.

Informal Walkthrough Findings • The user would like to get some introduction about the machine to get an idea how he would interact with it, especially for first time user. • Need feedback when participant push the wrong button. • The bottom tray is difficult to get the money and the card. • There is still some problem with the Computer script for the ATM • Separate Enter, Clear and Cancel key from the keypad • The Keypad do not provide a good enough tactile to make them feel that this is the keypad • It is difficult to recognize the location of the numbers • The distance between each module makes it difficult to navigate • Going from top to bottom is not easy for the user • Need Feedback when pushing each button. • Tactile indicating Enter, Clear and Cancel is at the far right, the user might not find it.

High-Fidelity Prototype Space and environment Design In our first prototype, we did not stress so much on the environment. Therefore in this iteration of the prototype we stress more on the environment. We conduct the experiment in a more closed area to be able to get more context of a room. We also introduce the script that the ATM will tell if the user is the only person inside the room. ATM Design Changes Based on the early prototype testing with phase 1 prototype we noted several shortcomings in the early redesigned flow and especially the hardware. We have following changes to this iteration: Change 1: Horizontal Layout The previous prototype arranges each part vertically, which from our observation we realize that it is difficult for user to navigate. In this iteration we use a Horizontal Layout instead. Change 2: Touch Card Reader We would like to eliminate the need to understand different card orientations by changing the card reader into a RFID touch card reader. This way the user to not need to find the place to insert the card, do not need to worry about the orientation and also this eliminate the possibility that they might for get the card. We used different texture material to support the â&#x20AC;&#x153;touchâ&#x20AC;? sense of a blind person. Change 3: Big Simple Keypad From observation, we realized there is a disconnection between using keypad and voice command. The user will user voice command however when entering pin, amount of money, answering yes and no, they would still use the keypad. We eliminate the series of Enter buttons and then replace all the need to confirm with simple voice command Yes and No. User will also enter amount by saying numbers. User can also cancel the transaction by saying Exit at any time instead of using a cancel button.

Figure 4 Simple Sketch illustrating what we want to prototype

How bling people use Easy ATM? 1.Place the card on the reader(no directions, only touch) 2.Enter pin code, and interact with the voice 3.Take money.

Figure 5 Second Iteration Simple Prototypes

ATM Flow Design Changes Change 1: ATM Parts Introduction First From the problem that people do not know the location of the Card Reader, we move the ATM parts introduction before asking the user to put the card on the card reader. Change 2: Improve ATM Script Multiple Wording changes for easier understanding, e.g. “Tap the card” to “Place the card or the card reader” Change 3: Other Menu Navigation System In the first prototype we assumed that if the use want to do some other transaction they will navigate using the keypad, now since we are changing the physical part we need to change the way the user could access these other functions. We place it at when the user is choosing deposit or withdrawal they can say “other” to access other type of transactions.

Figure 6 The flow of ATM flow for Prototype v2

Testing: 1st Iteration Participant A • When inserting money, the user expects that the ATM will pull in the money. • Participant is confused about ATM mentioning “other people in the room” • Participant wants to hear an introduction of the location each module. • Participant would prefer a more natural speech. • Participant was worry about how blind people can know if the voice come from the computer. Participant B • Need a clear feedback when the person say something other than available option “We do not understand your command” or “Try again” • Need a better explanation on the keypad and how to location the numbers.

• •

“Tap the card” is confusing and not complete, “Place the card on the card reader” might be more appropriate ATM announcing the current balance out loud might be dangerous for the user. Possibly the ATM could print a brails receipt instead. o Brails receipt Participant cannot see, therefore they are unsure where is left middle right exactly. Feedback sound of the money dispenser moving make it easy find out where it is.

Participant C • At the start, participant is trying to locate different module as the instruction was given. However, the participant was concentrating in touch the ATM so that they miss most part of the instruction. o “I didn’t hear everything at first” o “I would like to be able to say repeat to get a repeat instruction. • Participant approach the card reader from the bottom and get really confused with the prototype o I think it is a cover, may be because of the material • Do not understand the instruction “Tap the Card”, Participant tap their fingers on the card • I don’t know how big the ATM is so I am not sure where is right or left. • Money tray is confusing, “it didn’t take my money so I try to push in” Need for Script Improvements • Try asking the questions before we ask them to take the blindfold out • Ask the questions again when they take blindfold out. • Facilitate about the location that they are in (They are in a room) • Explain about how blind people location numbers on the keypad. • Stress on the marking keypad (on number 5) o “Show them the keypad that have a different marking in the 5 button so that they can understand what it is”

Final Improvements Change 1: Develop rectangle fence at the bottom of card reader There is an empty space at the bottom area of the card reader. One participant approached the card reader from the bottom and got really confused. We added a paper closure to the prototype to prevent user from getting into a wrong area. Change 2: Make the touch feedback on number 5 more prominent At first we assumed that participants understand about marking at number, however they do not always understand that. Therefore we improve the script to introduce to the keypad and how they can find each number. We also make the more different than previous iteration. Change 3: Provide an elaborate introduction script. We changed the introduction slightly so it would be easier for the user. We explain first from the money tray and at the end with the card reader. This way once the introduction script end the user can interact with the card reader right away.

Figure 7 Final Version of the Prototype

Figure 8 Add Caption here

: ATM script : When user says, ”help”, the voice from ATM. : When user enters wrong pin. : States

Testing: 2nd Iteration Participant 1 • Would prefer soft lady voice as the computer. Participant 2 • At the start, the participant was trying to figure out the different part so they missed the instruction and did not know where other parts are • Participant said that “I wish I could request for instruction” • The Participant was trying to reach in the area outside the Prototype • I did not feel that these are buttons.

•

In the second time (Deposit Task), I am more familiar with the machine now so that I can do it faster

Participant 3 • • • •

The keypad was huge that I did not expect it to be a key pad It was easy It is good to have a different texture because The participant expect the money inserted to be pulled into the machine like the way they inserted bill in other machine

Design Wish list Here is the design wish list encompassing the future scope of the project: Wish list 1: Retractable Interface We actually have this idea implemented in the high-fidelity prototype. We want each part to hide itself when the user does not need it anymore. However when we actually prototyping it, even though we can push back the keypad, the keypad is so big that the user will still be able to feel it presence. So for the future, we would each part of the ATM to show and hide itself depending on what the user is doing. Wish list 2: Better ATM Boundary We want to improve the boundaries of the ATM machine so that users, when wander around, could have a sense of where they are, either in front of the machine or not. In addition, they will be able to understand the space better Wish list 3: Keypad tactile feedback Right now, we have sound feedback every time the user press a button. However there are still some comments about tactile feedback, “I am not sure if I am pressing the button”. It will be interesting if we can use a real keyboard number pad to replace the current design so that the user can get a tactile feedback every time they press a button. Wish list 4: Braille receipt Wish list 5: Enhance Help Function The system we design will provide a more elaborate instruction if the user do not understand. We can extend the help to cover more problems apart from not understanding instruction.

Wish list 6: Touch Location aware on ATM Many users still struggle in the first time use when they trying to figure out the ATM parts while listening at the same time. Sometimes they missed some of the instruction given by the ATM. We could think about a way that the user can receive feedback of the location they are touching. Wish list 7: Clear in take of money The money tray needs to provide better feedback when the user is inserting money e.g. pulling of money when inserted. Wish list 8: Soft humanized speech Wish list 9: More real Finally we think a more holistic hardware modules so that we can further explore our solution.

Lesson Learn Lesson 1: How much can we empathize our user? In many of the prior projects, we usually have related experience that we can more or less imagine what kind of problems would the user face or which solution would be more suitable than the user. However in this project, our user is blind people whose experience and understanding might differ totally from us. In order to understand more about the blind we tried to watch a video of a blind people using the ATM, trying to use ATM blindfolded ourselves and even did some literature research. Though this improves our understanding immensely, we still got into many discussions about which solution is better for the user. We come to realize a very important fact that ultimately â&#x20AC;&#x153;we do not knowâ&#x20AC;?. Not even in problems that we can relates to. In the end we still need to make assumptions and based on that assumption we make a simple prototype to evaluate if it right or wrong and how could we improve it. In hindsight, we have realized that in many of the prior we also need to make many assumptions, it was just easier of a jump to make an assumption that we understand the user. Lesson 2: Limitation and Creativity Very early in the project, we were discussing about the direction that we should take, creating a completely new ATM for the blind people or creating something that could be put on top of current ATM. We decided to do the latter.

We had long discussion about technological limitations, monetary limitations, very useful thing that we will probably need to talk about at some point in time. While it yield better understanding of what we have in mind, this restricted our creativity. We were stuck inside our own box of thinking. Partly by knowing that there would not be much to prototype and by knowing that there is not much other that usability improvement to the existing ATM we decided to step back and design the ATM experience instead. The second time we allow ourselves to be more creative and less restricted. Interestingly, while the end result is still practical we produce a much more interesting concept than the first time. Once we got the first prototype, this helps to get our ideas rolling and got a very interesting concept that would show each part of the ATM only when the user need to interact with it. So thinking about limitation and creativity, it is important to know what is possible and what is not. However, when we were designing it is very important that we do not get stuck in long discussion about technological limitations because we still do not know where the idea is growing into while I think totally wild idea could waste time but a lot of the time we learn something from those ideas it can just be saved for later. Lesson 3: Prototype Fidelity Whether we should create a high fidelity or low fidelity depends on “What we want to learn” and “What we want to test”. At first we were confused about how we are going to prototype and how good should it be. We were thinking about making each part of the ATM prototype so that participant can interact with them as if they were real. We planned to create a new easy insert box that would be connected to the money dispenser so that user can hear the card dropped at the end of the process prompting them to get the card. This is a highly complex prototype and would require a lot of time for us to make. Later, once we started prototyping, we realized that the concept that we want is that the user would get a feedback when they need to take their card and that is thing that we are going to test. So, in the end we created two separate boxes for the user to insert the card at the top and another at the bottom. Then we simulate the concept by taking the card in the top box and move it to the bottom box ourselves. This works perfectly in introducing the concept especially when our participants are blindfolded. We have learned that most important before we start making a really good high fidelity prototype is to know “what we are testing”. If we are testing how people interact with the box and money dispenser then we should definitely make it good enough that the participant can understand the concept. But in this case were testing the experience and the whole process so our simple prototype is sufficient.

Lesson 4: Giving a good Introduction Introduction is especially important in our case because there are many different things that cannot physically design. We imagined that the ATM would be in a room so that the users would be in a safe and private environment. In our informal testing, we did not mention about this design, so the user do not fully understand what we have already design. This is why we have received a lot of comments around being afraid that someone would take their money or maybe someone is pretending to be a computer. While these are interesting facts, we have already think about it and instead of being able to get a feedback on our concept we just get the similar design idea. Another example is how most participants do not understand how can they know position of the keypad. Most keypad will have emboss on number 5 so that blind people could location other numbers easily. This is the fact that we know but did not introduce the users in the informal testing. We found that most participant were confused about how can they find the number. Though, this give some interesting method in how they realize the number, this was not very useful to our project because these were the method that people who can see would use. In the formal user testing, we used briefly introduce about both the room and concept about how to use the keypad which allow us to get more feedback relating to what we are testing. Nevertheless, introducing the keypad (we use the phone keypad to be an example) did cause some unwanted expectation from the user (the user expect the keypad to be smaller). So we need to be more careful next time that the introduction would not interfere with testing.

Appendix: ATM Flow Exploration

Figure 9 This is one of the early ATM flow that we have designed.

Appendix: Story Board

Figure 10 Showing how blind people can find ATM, ATM environment and how ATM initiates a transaction

Figure 11 Showing the step when user goes through Withdrawal

Appendix: Story Board

Figure 12 Showing the step when user goes through deposit.

Appendix: Test Script Welcome • •

Thank you for agreeing to help us test the prototype! My name is _______________. I am a student in paper prototyping class. Today, we would like you to help us evaluate our prototype and give us some feedbacks.

Encourage Comments • • •

Before we move on, I would like to stress that we are not testing you or your ability to complete the things that I ask you to do. I am looking for your honest feedbacks and see how you. If you are struggling with some part those are the best feedback you can give

Brief Background • •

•

We designed a new ATM that will be used by the blind people. I would like to introduce you, how blind people recognize number on the keypad. In each keypad there will be a bump indicating the position of the number 5 on the keypad. Once you know where number 5 is then you can location the position of other number. <show the phone> This ATM will be in a room in which other people cannot come in until you finish the transaction.

Task #1, Withdraw Money Goal/Output:

Inputs:

To test if the user will be able to: • Understand how the new card reader works • Understand how the keypad works together with voice. • Locate different modules • Understand the steps taken to withdraw money • • • •

Know that scenario that they are doing Know the pin Know the amount of money they want to take out Take the user to the ATM

Assumptions: User is already enter the ATM room and is moving towards the ATM. Steps:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Touch the card on the card reader Enter Pin Select Withdrawal Enter the amount Confirm the amount Take the money

Expert time: Instruction for user: Notes

“You are walking towards an new type of ATM. You would like to take out 20 dollars out of the ATM” • •

Do not start in front of the ATM Start a little away from the ATM, then take the user to the ATM so that they understand if they move closer to the ATM it will detect if the user is standing in front of the ATM.

Task #2, Deposit Goal/Output:

Inputs:

To test if the user will be able to understand: • How the new card reader works • How the keypad works together with voice. • The single insert/take money tray • Locate different modules • Understand the steps taken to deposit money • • •

Know that scenario that they are doing Know the pin Know the amount of money they want to put into the bank

Assumptions: User is already standing in front of the ATM Steps:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Touch the card on the card reader Enter Pin Select Deposit Enter the money in the money tray Confirm the amount

Expert time: Instruction for user: Notes

“You would like to put 40 dollar into your bank account using this ATM.” • •