SELF-SERVICE TECHNOLOGY
Cash and note acceptors: • You may smirk, but for certain types of vending machines in public locations, coins are often desirable. For areas such as supermarket self-checkouts and laundromats, they could be viewed as essential.
• Note readers are expensive and pose their own set of challenges of security, maintenance and accuracy. Nevertheless, for supermarkets where accessibility to all is vital, banknote validators coupled with change-giving coin mechanisms are integral to providing self-service for all.
Contactless card readers: • EMV contactless readers are available from several manufacturers, with a number of mounting options. For outdoor kiosks such as EV charging points, some devices are designed to be mounted behind a glass or polycarbonate front panel providing complete protection against the weather and vandalism.
Guided instructions: • Step-by-Step guidance: Provide clear instructions for each step of the process. Use visual cues to indicate progression.
• Animations or highlights: Use subtle animations or highlights to draw attention to the current action or selection.
Consistent layout: • Uniform design elements: Maintain consistency in layout, colors, and button placement across screens to establish a coherent and predictable interface.
• Standardised controls: Use familiar controls, such as “Back” and “Next,” to maintain a consistent user flow.
Accessible design: • Consider accessibility standards: Design the interface to be accessible to users with disabilities. This includes providing options for text-to-speech, adjusting text size, and ensuring compatibility with screen readers.
• User testing: Conduct usability testing with a diverse group of users to identify potential accessibility issues. Pay particular attention to how well touch control of selections works on armoured or ultra-robust screens.
Error prevention and feedback: • Clear error messages: If a user makes a mistake, provide clear and concise error messages with guidance on how to correct the issue.
• Confirmation screens: Display confirmation screens for critical actions to prevent accidental selections.
Responsive Design: • Fast response Times: Ensure the interface responds promptly to user inputs, preventing delays and frustration.
• Efficient loading: Minimise loading times for graphics and information to maintain a smooth and efficient user experience.
Payments on self-service terminals When it comes to payments there are a confusingly large number of options available. For most self-service terminals and kiosks, EMV contactless payment has become ubiquitous because it can be implemented cheaply and easily, and contactless readers can be small, smooth and easily cleaned or disinfected. However contactless alone is not the right choice for every machine type and application.
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• For less arduous applications, surface-mount variants are popular and can be bolted straight onto the front of the machine or kiosk wherever there is space.
• The potential issue with the contactless-only approach is SCA (Strong Customer Authentication). This is where the cardholder’s card issuing bank - as part of the payment authorisation process - decides that PIN is required to authenticate the cardholder. This can also be because a card has been used for more than five contactless transactions. Clearly PIN can’t be provided, so unless the customer has another card to try or Apple Pay / Google Pay on their phone, the transaction will fail and the sale lost.
• Certain merchant categories are indeed exempt from SCA, for example in parking, and there is supposed to be an exemption for low-value transactions, but the card issuers call the shots and, whether for reasons of risk, location or other, can require SCA at any time.
Chip and PIN readers: • Considered the gold standard of card-present payments, Chip and PIN provides the most secure and widely accessible means of card payment. Contactless payments made on a Chip and PIN device can be authenticated using PIN to meet the challenge of SCA when required.
• Usually deployed as either an all-in-one device incorporating a contact reader, contactless reader and PIN Pad, or as is common for self-service devices a 2 or 3-part solution with a PIN pad and separate readers.
• Countertop PIN Pads designed for retail use are often repurposed for use in kiosks and self-service checkouts and this is not an optimal solution. They are designed to sit on a countertop under the supervision of the merchant, not be bolted, however ingeniously, to a self-service terminal. Devices can be tampered with, disconnected, or stolen, and owing to the way cables emerge and brackets are attached to the device, they can be difficult to clean or sanitise.
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