Designing an ATM for children— A rapid Design Thinking exercise

Caleb Kingcott
Aug 31, 2018 · 6 min read

This post is part of my 6-month learning journey as a Designlab UX academy student. We are currently studying UX methodology and I’ve been tasked with quickly designing an ATM for children. So lets go.

Let’s emphasise

The definition of an ATM is a machine that dispenses cash or performs other banking services.

People usually use ATM’s to withdraw cash when they are out and about to pay for goods and services that require cash over paying by card. This can be anything from paying for a taxi to shopping at a market.

Who is the target market?

For this exercise, I’m assuming that the target market for this new ATM would be children from ages 8 to 12. The reasoning behind this is that kids don’t develop the ability to think abstractly until they reach 12. Before this point, kids don’t fully understand the implications of their actions and this could be an issue for ATM use. For example, if a 10 year old kid was using a normal ATM, what would stop them from taking out $200 just because they can? What would stop them using services such as an overdraft?

A common problem that parents have had over the last few years is iPhone apps and the app store. Kids lets loose on an iPhone can browse through the app store and buy apps with a click of a button. Stories have come out of kids running bills of thousands of dollars on games and apps. Was it the kids fault? of course not! Kids simply haven’t developed the abstract thinking required to rationalise the consequences of their actions. For that reason, Kids need an ATM designed specifically for them which will take this into account.

Their limitations

The lack of abstract thinking isn’t the only limitation that we need to consider. Another problem is a simple one, height! ATM’s are designed with adults in mind so would likely be positioned too high for the average 8–12 year old.

Another issue to consider is complexity of the cash withdrawal process and interface. Children can’t deal with complex data entry and would easily be distracted by this. In addition, they are unlikely to wait for instructions. Instead, children respond better to interfaces with little text that are more playful in nature. I believe that much can be done to make an interface appealing to children and we will discuss this later.

Finally, kids in today’s world are used to using tablets and other capacitive touch screen devices. Unfortunately, children aged between 8–12 wouldn’t all have the necessary motor skills or understanding to use traditional atm’s with their keypad and physical buttons.

What would kids need out of an ATM?

Children have different needs compared to adults when it comes to money. It’s very unlikely that they will need to withdraw hundreds of pounds to buy the new Macbook pro or to pay their rent. Instead, they might need a few pounds to buy a toy with their pocket money.

What do parents need

As we are designing an ATM for children, we also need to consider their guardians. Parents are responsible for the welfare of their child so would be deeply concerned about kids accessing cash for themselves. As we’ve already mentioned, kids don’t have the cognitive abilities to rationalise. Therefore, it would be foolish to let kids lose on ATM that let them withdraw unlimited amounts of cash.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Parents are likely to see an ATM For kids as a learning experience for their children. They would want the ATM to teach their kids the value of money.

With all this mind, let’s set out how the ATM should look and the functionalities it should include.

Physical

Physically, the ATM should have a reduced height with the screen low down enough for an 8–12 year old to access. The screen should also be a full capacitive touch screen and the ATM shouldn’t have any physical buttons.

Authentication

In terms of authentication, the usual method would be a card based system where the user would insert their card and then enter the pin that they have created for that card. With limited cognitive abilities and memory, I believe that children may find this process more challenging. This is a hypothesis however so it would need to be validated by further research. If research supports this theory, a fingerprint scanner could be used over the card and pin system, making it as simple as touching the screen to proceed.

Data entry

With kids responding better to simple data entry, we can do many things to make the interface easy to use.

  • Text will be used conservatively and in it’s place voice over and video will be used to explain tasks that the children will need to complete.
  • Icons and images will be used as often as possible as kids are likely to understand these better over text.
  • Complicated language such as ‘withdrawal’ will not be used and will be replaced instead with phrases such as ‘take money out’
  • Bright colours and large buttons will improve concentration levels and make the interface easier to use.
  • The interface could be designed playfully. Rather than multiple buttons that can be used to withdraw varying amounts of money or perform other services, the process could be designed as a story led by a cartoon with voiceover, only revealing options after specific tasks have been explained.

Parental guidance

Parents should be actively involved in their child’s use of the ATM. Not only should parents have access to a web app or mobile app that let’s them set withdrawal limits, they should also be notified (by text or via app notification) when withdrawals are made with details such as withdrawal location and how much was taken out. Blocking access should be easy as parents should have ultimate control.

Further features to target children specifically

With kids more likely wanting money to buy sweets over large purchases, the ATM for children should allow small withdrawals. Not only should kids be able to withdraw the lowest note, coin withdrawal would be extremely useful. Of course, the technical feasibility of this would need to be considered.

Ideate and prototype

Testing

While I haven’t had time to initiate the testing phase which is a crucial part of the design thinking process, I would do this in the future.

How could we test the feasibility of this?

Firstly, we would need to find out if their was a need for this service. Qualitative methods of research such as interviews with parents would be essential here. Once we had validated that this idea would be a useful one, a physical prototype should be created and usability testing should be conducted. It’s important that we find out how children would the use the ATM and if the modifications would be useful to them.

Empathy is important throughout this process. As a kids ATM has never been done before, it’s more important that we are sympathetic to the needs of not only the children but also the parents. Once testing has been completed, we would need to rapidly gather feedback, create hypothesises and complete the whole process again. Only through this agile way of working would we able to create a suitable product.

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