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'It hasn't delivered': The spectacular failure of self-checkout technology (www.bbc.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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'It hasn't delivered': The spectacular failure of self-checkout technology::Unstaffed tills were supposed to revolutionise shopping. Now, both retailers and customers are bagging many self-checkout kiosks.

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[–] 29 points 2 years ago* (14 children)

ugh... self checkout here in switzerland works like a dream - it's not the self checkout idea that's problematic, it's the customers.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I concur, in the Netherlands they are rarely ‘full’. Had to wait a couple of minutes during the Christmas craziness, but that about sums up my waiting time at self-checkouts.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    Most self checkouts in the US work fine for me too. The only issue I ever have is when stores have the weight sensor in the bagging area turned on and it does the stupid unexpected item in bagging area crap. There is one model that I won’t touch when I see it though because it was slow as hell even when it was new.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Do yours freak out when you put your re-usable bags in the bagging area even when you tell it you're using 4 of your own bags? Or have two barcodes on packages and if the wrong one scans (either because you aren't sure which needs to be scanned or because they're next to each other and you don't get a gun), you need a cashier to override? Or have weight sensors that are just wrong about how much items should weigh? Or only have enough room for like 2 bags of groceries but it isn't ok to take any out of the bagging area?

    I don't think it's just customers.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Never really had any problems.

    Do yours freak out when you put your re-usable bags in the bagging area even when you tell it you're using 4 of your own bags?

    no weight sensors, and where there are, you can put the bags on the platform, wait for like 20 seconds for it to recognize them and continue with the scanning.

    Or have two barcodes on packages and if the wrong one scans (either because you aren't sure which needs to be scanned or because they're next to each other and you don't get a gun), you need a cashier to override?

    never had that happen but this is the store's problem and I'm guessing doesn't happen all that often - neither the fault of the machine nor the customer.

    Or have weight sensors that are just wrong about how much items should weigh?

    never experienced that either with the ones that do have weight sensors.

    Or only have enough room for like 2 bags of groceries but it isn't ok to take any out of the bagging area?

    the ones with weight sensors have like a 1m*1m platform, there's plenty of room for like 3-4 full bags.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Sounds like you guys just have better self-checkouts than we do

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (1 child)

    looks like the majority of the complains are related to the weight sensors, and you can't scrap those if you have people stealing - that does just not happen here in any significant amount.

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  • [+] -6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

    Ah yes, typical technical folk, blame the user for bad design.

    If your target audience can't use what you've designed, it's the fault of the designer, not the user.

    I say this as having been in IT for 30+ years now. This argument is always presented by juniors, because their design "couldn't possibly be wrong, the users are just doing it wrong".

    UI needs to be intuitive and obvious. Don't blame the user if you failed at this.

    Edit: Hahahaha the downvotes! Please, send me your resumes, so we know who not to hire! Hahahahaja

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    There are many people who can’t grasp anything technology related. I’ve seen people tapping a can against the scanner instead of scanning the barcode and getting mad it didn’t work. UIs on most self checkouts these days are the same with different branding and they work well.

    It is impossible to make something everyone can use when people let their brains shut off any time they have to use a machine.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    You're not wrong, but it's not just the UI on the kiosk, it's the whole checkout process. A trained cashier on a real checkout line is much faster because the machine isn't nerfed and trying to hold their hand while preventing them from stealing. The real problem is the stores are trying to shift the labor onto the customer but the customer isn't getting much benefit for the effort nor has any motivation to be particularly honest in light of having this chore thrown in their lap.

    I don't think they can redesign the UI to overcome that. It's not really a UI problem, it's a conflict of interests problem and they're not going to solve that unless they completely redesign the checkout process. The little Amazon convenience stores that know what you have as you shop seem like a better approach, but I'm guessing they're not all they're cracked up to be since they haven't seemed to catch on that much.

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