I had an interesting/frustrating experience at my local ATM the other day that got me thinking. I had tried to withdraw some cash from my checking account and only after swiping my card, entering and submitting my PIN and selecting the option of withdrawing funds, did the system inform me that it did not have cash to dispense. Now, I would assume that most ATM transactions involve withdrawing cash. So, it would seem to make sense for the system to inform users before they initiate a transaction that the feature they are most likely attempting to access is unavailable. At the same time, I imagine that a flashing message, “OUT OF CASH!”, visible from across the street, would not reflect well on the bank/owner of the ATM. Still, there must be a reasonable compromise that balances the convenience of the user with the perceived image of the product/company.

This got me thinking “What would Google do?” What if, for instance, the search feature at Google was down for an extended period of time? Would the input field still accept search terms? Would the ‘Google Search’ button be grayed out? Would the interface be replaced with a ‘temporarily out of service’ message? I am fairly certain that the answer is ‘no’ to all three solutions. Google, instead, would likely do exactly what my ATM machine does. It would gather information, process my request and either succeed or fail and provide corresponding feedback. Interestingly, while this may coincidently serve the interests of the bank/Google, it is more a reflection of how software is typically designed rather than a direct reflection of business objectives. Most software is designed to encapsulate functionality. The system works until it fails, at which point (ideally) errors are identified and the user is presented with options to resolve or bypass the problems. Rarely does an application have what amounts to an additional layer of functionality that monitors the system and informs the user of the availability of key features.

My car, on the other hand, does offer this kind of ‘dashboard’ functionality via the err… dashboard. The fuel gauge, for instance, warns when my fuel level is low, rather than informing me after the fact when I’m stranded in the middle of rush hour traffic. As for the ATM, you wouldn’t necessarily want a gauge displaying how much money is left to dispense, but an apologetic alert (after you insert your card) that the machine doesn’t have cash, and perhaps a map to the nearest affiliated ATM would be a helpful convenience. I wonder, does the machine ‘phone home’ when the available cash drops below a certain threshold? Or better yet, are the cash levels of all machines centrally monitored in real time? If so, offering a map to alternate ATMs with available funds would be easy enough to implement.

Ironically, the ATM I was attempting to use is physically attached to the side of my bank, which was open at the time. I actually had to walk by the entrance to get to the machine. What does this say about me, that I would rather interface with a machine than the friendly human tellers at my local bank – and then spend 30 minutes analyzing the the usability of the machine in a blog post? Heh!