Unstaffed tills were supposed to revolutionise shopping. Now, both retailers and customers are bagging many self-checkout kiosks.

‘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.

  • lovesickoyster@lemmy.worldEnglish
    334·
    10 months ago

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

    • Nexz@feddit.nlEnglish
      7·
      10 months ago

      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.

      • lovesickoyster@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        10 months ago

        I think in the last 5 or so years of using them exclusively I only had to wait in line once due to 3/6 of them being unavailable because of maintainance.

    • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      10 months ago

      Turns out an increasingly advanced society becomes increasingly confusing to your populace when education is disregarded.

    • SmashingSquid@notyour.rodeoEnglish
      4·
      10 months 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.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.eeEnglish
      813·
      10 months ago

      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

      • SmashingSquid@notyour.rodeoEnglish
        71·
        10 months 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.

      • knotthatone@lemmy.oneEnglish
        4·
        10 months 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.

      • CADmonkey@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        I don’t know why you are being downvoted, must be a bunch of people wanting to defend a shitty UI.

        Because you’re right, a self checkout shouldn’t require technical knowledge to use.