Self baggage check: is it user friendly?
– posted May 28th, 2009 by Randall Snare No comments
Checking my bags at the airport always fills me with anxiety. It seems like a gamble on whether or not they will arrive at their destination. Everything that happens to them once I hand my luggage over is invisible to me, and therefore sinister and untrustworthy (also wrong).
Checking in gets more invisible
Last week Elizabeth and I travelled to London to go to Nielsen Norman Group’s Usability Week. Aer Lingus’s relatively new Area 14 (which for some reason they describe as “vibrant” when really it’s just a shiny basement) now has self check in, not just for yourself, but also for your baggage.
This is how I had to interact with the scary communicating (and I think slightly patronising) kiosk.
- I put my bag on the still turnstile
- I scan my passport into the machine
- I verify my flight number
- A scary red light above the turnstile scans my bag: somehow that weighs it
- The machine prints out my luggage tag
- I struggle to attach the tag to my bag, but most of it sticks to my hand (I chalk this up to clumsiness as opposed to lack of usability)
- The turnstile carries my bag into darkness; I shed a single tear
The humanlessness of usability
I liken this self baggage check to online forms. Why? Because the more forms are online, the more transactions a business can do. But the quality of the transaction (completed registrations, payments, etc.) depends on the quality of the form. The same anxiety exists when you’re “alone” online as well. You’re entering your credit card details, perhaps into a void.
How to do forms right: reassuring the user
The way to combat this anxiety is reassurance. Give the form a context: always let the user know where they are in the process of filling out the form. And provide a confirmation screen at the end, so the user knows that he/she is 1) finished, and 2) successful.
Humanlessness (in machines and web forms) needs a little humanity. A simple “Your X was successful” does wonders for the stress levels, and keeps people coming back (as long as it doesn’t block users’ goals). If only a steward had been milling about Area 14, to tell me I did a great job checking in my own bag, then perhaps I would have been more confident doing it. And I’d be more likely to do it again.
I did indeed get my bag in London, a testament to those cold-hearted Area 14 kiosks. Self-service is an undisputed way to save money, for all businesses. But only if it’s done right.
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Categories Design, Life outside iQ, Technology, Usability
