STRATEGIC PARTNERS
April 24, 2003
NEW YORK -- Citibank ATMs now feature a friendlier and more human-like message script than ATMs of the past, according to a Columbia News Service report, with a screen message that reads "I'm working on it, just a moment, please" while the transaction is being processed.
"We do try to have text that sounds a little more conversational," said Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Citibank.
The friendlier ATM is part of a recent trend in the field of human-computer interaction. However it raises questions, such as how much informality people will tolerate in a computer, particularly one that dispenses money?
The first ATMs did not have interfaces designed to be appealing to the customer. "When they first did the text on the ATM screen, it wasn't a thing of beauty," said Rob Evans, director of industry marketing at NCR. "They weren't designed with the user in mind."
Larger financial institutions such as Citibank, Wells Fargo and Fleet Financial are trying to design ATM screens that are more attractive yet intuitive. Introducing screens with a distinctive look is easier with Microsoft Windows-based ATMs and software that is increasingly "open."
However, an experiment recently conducted at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute revealed that some people may still be unable to accept a human-like computer -- or ATM.
In the experiment, the subject sat at a computer and worked on a database. The subject's actions on the computer were monitored by a researcher sitting at another computer. Then, the researcher would simulate a computer offering advice on how a person should perform a task, with the advice appearing on the subject's screen in the form of pop-up windows.
"People are, of course, used to a help panel that comes up when they carry out an illegal action and it's kind of bland," said John Carroll, director of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech. "But generally, help systems don't criticize our plans or our goals."
Carroll found that the experiment provoked strong reactions from the subjects. First, a person would become frustrated with the computer for making value judgments on the subject's methods.
Despite this aggravation, the subject would then begin to assume that the computer was smarter than it actually was. When the computer invariably could not measure up to the subject's raised expectations, the subject would become even angrier.
"Once you add a little bit of human-like behavior, people don't have a good way of drawing the line," said Carroll. "This is a hazardous, hazardous area for user-interface design."
Carroll's experiment hearkens back to an ATM prototype used five years ago by two Australian banks, National Australian Bank and Westpac Banking Corp. The ATMs featured a cartoon of a grandmotherly woman called "Granny." The character spoke in an Australian accent so thick, said NCR's Evans, that even Australians found it offensive.
In addition, the ATM messages included chides that customers were withdrawing too much or not enough money. The prototypes were met with hostility from bank customers.
"The challenge there is to come up with tools and methods and language that is not perceived as invasive, or overbearing and offensive," said Evans.
Carroll warned that a polite ATM may not have the effect on customers that banks hope for. "People may see it as cloying or effusive or faking an intelligence that's not really there," he said.
