Imagine yourself, frantic that you're going to miss your flight. The queue at check in is huge. You see this kiosk, and stumble over to it, tripping over your luggage on the way.
You get there, fumble around in your bag or pocket for your 'documents' you've got the booking confirmation from the internet, the ticket and 3 other documents they sent you in the post, that all look the same, your passport and your wallet with three credit cards and your frequent flyer card in it.
You make a mental note not to lose your car parking ticket and then take a look at the kiosk... As you do, the three children with you decide to begin making your life merry hell and there's a guy nearby who's showing a rather unhealthy interest, you think, in your luggage. Ok, now let's see you tackle this;
I came across this when doing some research for a customer recently. It's a self service check in kiosk at Heathrow. The airline will remain nameless, but it's a major long haul one (NOT one of our customers I hasten to add!).
I especially like the icon that indicates how your credit card should be inserted, showing a credit card with a corner folded over. When you've got in your hand an airline ticket with a mag stripe on it, that is actually flexible enough to fold over, and a credit card, that in my experience never folds over if you want to use it again; which one do you think most people try to insert into the slot before then looking around to see who might have seen them doing something so stupid?
Customers who feel stupid won't be delighted by their interaction with you!
FYI, the above interface accepts 'ATB's (an airline ticket format), credit cards, frequent flyer cards and machine readable passports. Today's quiz is to work out which slot you'll be happy to stick your precious credit card into before you get on to a 10 hour flight to go on a much deserved holiday, during which it would be quite handy still to have a card that hadn't been swallowed by a check in machine... Don't put it in the wrong slot now!