Confusion at Your Self-Service

When designing quality customer self-service experiences, account for potential malfunction scenarios as well as high use and age on equipment and software

If you've ever been in a hurry to mail an oversized envelope or package at the Post Office and used one of the USPS self-service machines, perhaps this will sound familiar to you.

What Happened to Me
Until a few weeks ago I had only used the machines to weigh an envelope and buy a book of stamps. However, on this occasion I was actually purchasing postage for an oversized envelope. I didn’t want a big label with postage and address, just a simple stamp-like postage sticker to place in the right corner.

I went through the transaction on-screen, paid for my postage and received my receipt. I could not, however, find the print out of my postage. I assumed this would be delivered to me in the tray marked Postage, which seems a logical assumption, but I also checked the area under Label as well. Nothing.

I then proceeded to wait on line to speak to a human being, defeating the purpose of using the self-service kiosk in the first place. The postal clerk tiredly told me my postage was indeed in the machine, “You’ve got to bend down and feel around for it, but it’s there.” Really? I thought I’d already done that.

I went back to the machine. I bent down and felt in and around the Postage tray. Again, nothing. Another clerk came out onto the floor and in a very annoyed tone said, “Bend down. It’s there, in the other one.” So, I reached into the Label tray and sure enough poking out of the slot behind which lies the guts of the machine was the edge of my postage sticker.

I'm Not Alone
The following week I was back at the same post office and using a machine to check the amount of postage needed to mail a letter. The woman next to me was having the exact same meltdown experience as I had had the week before. This and the respective weary and surly attitudes of the two postal clerks I had dealt with assured me that my confusion and reaction was the norm and not the exception when making this and similar purchases.

Who or What Is To Blame?
I’d like to say that it’s just one thing that causes this kind of major fail, but it’s actually several things working in concert that get overlooked by the engineers and designers of the hardware and software and all the folks who work with them and their client, in this case the USPS, who review and give feedback and ultimately approve and sign-off on their work. So, it's a whole host of people, some of whom work in the field of customer or user experience, but who really don't understand all of the permutations of what that experience entails throughout the life of a system such as this.

Where They Went Wrong

1. Actions on screen are out of sync with related actions “off screen.”
   Meaning, you can finalize your transaction and receive your receipt before your product is deposited into the tray, which makes users think the machine has taken their money without delivering their product. This can happen because machines are designed to perform these transactions in a logical sequence that ensures payment is received before postage is printed. (Makes sense.) However, real time transaction speeds and printer wear over time, can lead to delays in postage printing not considered or experienced during design and testing.
   
   When designing quality customer self-service experiences, account for potential malfunction scenarios as well as high use and age on equipment and software.
   
   
2. Clearly, “Label” and “Postage” as Product Categories are confusing and problematic.
   SLXLMThis is true not just for my specific transaction, but in general. Every company or organization should have a list of words they need to be careful in how they use—“Postage” is at the top of the list for the USPS.
   
   As a label for USPS Self-Service machines, “Postage” seems an odd choice if the intent is clarity for general public use.
   
   Nearly all of the transactions available could very easily and understandably fall into the category of "Postage," except, I guess, if it's possible to purchase additional services without also purchasing postage, like insurance, in which case that might be a "Label."  By similar logic, in today’s world of adhesive stamps, pretty much all kiosk purchases could also be defined as a "Label" in addition to "Postage."
   
   Since these terms are meant to direct consumers to where their purchase will be delivered and either term applies to almost all types of purchases, it's hard to fathom how no one in the design or approval process ever recognized how maddeningly unhelpful these terms are or insisted they be replaced. And, if that isn't bad enough, both "Label" and "Postage" are accompanied by the exact same meaningless icon (see right image) that does nothing to help define the type(s) of purchase dispensed from the related area. They are so small and unrecognizable, I'm not sure why the manufacturer bothered with them.
   
   Finding the best universal language possible for labels, buttons and instructions requires significant consumer/user testing and, even then, you need to continually review and refine it.
3. Placement of the Label and Postage product areas is inconvenient for consumers.
   
   An average size adult woman or man (over say 5’3”) needs to bend down to retrieve purchases from either area or see that their purchase has been printed. If a small child accompanies them or another patron, it also makes their purchase attractive and vulnerable to that child's curiosity and quick hands.
   
   ​However, if the trays were placed at a height easier to fully check by adult eye, it would provide some compensation for the confusion caused by the deposit labels and the occasions when there's a disconnect between transaction completion and postage delivery.
   
   

Even a built-in workaround, while not as elegant as streamlined simplicity, provides better user experience and indicates awareness of customer needs than no solution at all.