Self-Checkout Machines UX Study (Part 1)

In October 2021, the UX Team assessed the library's self-checkout machines.

Research question

• How can we make the self-checkout machines better?

Methods

• The UX Team tested the self-checkout machine

What did we learn?

• Although there are three self-checkout machines, two have been out of order for the better part of a year and the "working" machine is unusable
• Barcodes not located in the upper lefthand corner of an item cannot be checked out easily or at all
• The method to desensitize an item is not intuitive
• The time out is too quick
• It is difficult to check out items that are oversized or small

Our recommendations

• The "working" self-checkout machine should be immediately discarded
• Since library staff are already intervening in the majority of interactions, it would be preferable to point users directly to the desk and completely bypass using the machine