Physical Interface: Cash Register

In all likelihood - I have walked more in these past couple of weeks than I had in any given week during my time as an undergrad. I am fortunate enough to live within walking distance (roughly 1.8 miles) to the Interactive Telecommunications Department where I am undertaking my graduate research at NYU. More often than not - I drop into a local deli on my way to ITP to grab a vitamin water or perhaps one of those energy bars of varying brand. Upon selecting what is likely going to turn out to be lunch - I walk over to the cashier to pay my usual $4.00 in cash, a much more 'pleasant' affair now after being glared at several times for sticking out a credit card. Besides the usual stiff attitude of the deli cashiers, I have always been taken by the speed of which the cashiers operate. Usually, the cash register itself is of the older variety - a 'do it yourself' style machine where numbers of prices are punched in rather than scanned. What is most interesting is that in my experience, the old-style cash registers are substantially faster and the users seem far less likely to have a "someone get the manager over here" type moment compared to a scan-based register with touch screens. So, is this an instance of technology getting in the way rather than helping? Here is my completely research-free and high-level look:

First, there needs to be an acceptance to the fact that technology isn't always built for speed. Be it for all the right or wrong reasons - technology many times can substitute what was traditionally a simple and fast process with more functionality; resulting in a steeper learning curve for the end-user(s). I have chosen cash registers as an example for a user-interface to analyze because its advancement in features are an interesting mix of positives and negatives, as well as a device that has taken on a new relationship with its users. The cash register has 'evolved' from a interface requiring one employee to use the device, to needing an employee and a customer to interact with, to most recently - only needing a customer to interact with, now coming full-circle. I won't focus on the third advancement, but I want to write a quick comparison of the first two user-interfaces - the singular and dual user interface cash registers.


Fig 1.1: Older model cash register: simple and fast
(Stoic NYC cashier attendant not pictured)

In my example of the dual-user register - I recently went to a Best Buy in lower Manhattan to buy a DVD (The Office: Season 3... a must have) and approached the cashier in front of a rather new looking cash register system, complete with a customer input pad and stylus pen for a signature. In the end, this transaction took several times longer than an average transaction at the deli - with the very same amount of items using the exact same type of payment: a credit card (to the chagrin of the deli cashier). Generally with technology, if a user is being asked to allocate more time, then the end result is expected to be enhanced to return. My end result as a customer yielded no instant enhancements - I still received a receipt, my item, and a debit from my banking account in both transactions. As a user-interface, the technologically enabled cash register at Best Buy required effort on my part by signing with the stylus (awkwardly, as always) and paying attention to which buttons to press to proceed. The cashier seemingly did less work in relation to number of button-presses and analysis than that of the deli cashier - but the overall workload wasn't necessarily shortened, only abstracted across multiple users (such as myself) and varying interfaces. Sure, there are a few hidden benefits of the high-end register such as receipt caching for faster returns and cash back options using a debit card - but what is the ratio between transactions and the collective number of returns and debit card cash back requested on a given day? I'd say it is very likely a substantially lopsided ratio leaning toward the quantity of transactions - yet the technological advances cater to the lower frequency of occurrences in the case of the cash register.


Fig 1.2: "Sign here and press button to continue, now
press this combination of buttons to confirm...hey,
pay attention or this transaction isn't happening."

My concluding thought is that you could make the case that technology advancement for the cash register earns its keep because it lessens the work load of the cashier - but then again, the cashier is getting paid to work less at the expense of my time, so as a customer I wouldn't exactly call that a positive step unless I was on the other side of the register.