Poor Interface Design

Today I had to actually physically go to the bank, something I virtually never need to do, and I encountered a great example of poor interface design.

At the drive-through, there’s the terminal for the canister that’s used to send stuff to the bank teller via a forced-air tubing system.  This terminal has only 2 buttons, Send and Call, but the canister was behind a hard plastic door and therefore inaccessible to me.

I sat there for a few seconds looking at it and trying to figure out what to do.  I thought that perhaps pushing or tapping on the plastic door would open it, but it did not.  The teller must have noticed the stupid look on my face because she got on the speaker and said, "Can I help you?"  "Yes, I’d like to make a deposit," I said.  "OK, just press the Send button and put your check into the canister," came the reply.

Why, of course!  You press the Send button in order to retrieve the canister.

I had actually considered pressing the Send button, but I assumed that it would send the (empty) canister to the teller, before I’d gotten a chance to put my check into it, which would obviously be stupid.