The Usability of a Soda Machine
Written by Russ on December 5, 2007 – 10:52 pmI like to think that I’m a trainable monkey; I feel like I can pick up most things, particularly those that interest me, in a fair-to-fast amount of time. However, without fail, I will walk to the company soda machine, insert my coins for that Diet Mountain Dew that looks like an ideal thirst quencher.
There is generally a 50% chance that I will end up with said beverage, of course.
And, of course, I press the Diet Mountain Dew button firmly, staring at it to look for that little orange light (that I still think should be somewhere on its face to let me know that a circuit has been connected, that my beverage is about to be dispensed) and hold on to a moment of hope that my thirst is about to be quenched.
50% of the time, I hear a familiar buzz and humm, a shifting of some hardware and a chucking sound as a delicious Diet Mountain Dew makes its delicious way through some cold, dark tunnel, past that little cold-stopping flap and safely into the basket that someone has placed a couple of folded over paper towels into, allowing our delicious beverage treats to come to rest safely and without harm.
The other 50% of the time generally results in me feeling fairly ridiculous.
When I press the button firmly, still staring at it for that little orange light…
Nothing happens. Well, nothing on the button.
SOLD OUT, at the rapid pace of about 1 second per letter, scrolls right to left across the LED display that normally tells me the proper amount of coinage to insert for a tasty beverage treat. Without fail, I press Diet Mountain Dew again, perhaps several times as if I’m impatiently waiting for an elevator and thinking that pressing the button repeatedly makes the elevator show up. If I have my wits about me or if someone else is in the room with me, I will quickly shift gears and press a secondary choice–either that tantalizing Gatorade in a 12 oz can or one of those mini little bottles of water.
Without fail–and even though I’ve been using this machine for nearly a year now–I continue to press the dispense button, even though the machine will not allow any other actions to occur until all of the letters of SOLD OUT have scrolled completely across the LED.
The flaw here is simple, and one that has no real impact on the vending machine creator; my money is in the machine and I’m going to buy something (most likely). I’m going to press another button, even if I have to wait another 10 seconds to find out just how empty the machine is. I will most likely return the next day and will most likely repeat this until my situation changes.
However, everyday, I’m going to sit and think about this soda machine and how foolish I feel for repeating the same mistakes. Everyday I’m going to add a little bit more loathing–until I begin to consider that a 12 oz Diet Mountain Dew that I should be able to get instantly has lost some of its lustre. Maybe, instead, the $5 coffee (Chicago proper has a tax of about 10.25%, I believe) gets my attention–or the <competitor brand> vitamin watery drink gets my attention, as does the elevator ride down, the walk around the building and the return, which costs me (and possibly my employer) all of that time.
Perhaps the real cost is to the employer, or the place in which vending machines are placed–with the exception of small town hotels; the vending machines there are often times the only dinner a late worker can get. The initial cost of the beverage is insignificant. The cost to my ego and pride is minor, but has sort of a cascading effect as I eventually get fed up (with myself?) and take my business (sometimes) elsewhere. I certainly do not reward my employer with the return of an extra 15ish minutes tacked on to my normal departure time.
Anyway, this diatribe should be wrapped up with a simple solution:
When a type of beverage is empty–hell, if it’s at X left–show us on the outside. I’d love to know when a machine is at capacity. The odds would seem high to me that the beverages are possibly warm since the machine was potentially refilled recently. When that number gets lower, I may be convinced to purchase two to ensure that I can have enough beverage to get me through a giant, spicy burrito. When that number is at zero–you guessed it–I’m going to go for my second choice, my third choice, or the phone to call the person responsible for calling the soda-machine-filler-person. Even better–add a wifi card in the machine, let it on the wifi network and have it send a nice little message when the machine reaches a certain level of dispensed beverages and the soda-machine-filler-person can get an SMS, email or some other nice little notification.
And me, well, I get to not dwell on this topic any longer, at the very least.
Posted in Usability | 1 Comment »
[...] implementation of the “system upgrade”, something broke. Much like the blasted soda machine in my office, I still get tripped up by this [...]