How I Would Design an ATM for Children

Using the methodologies of design thinking, this post is a rough version of my initial process of how I would design an ATM with children in mind. Let’s break it down:

Step 1. Empathize

What is an ATM, how does the user connect with it physically, emotionally and WHY is a child using it?

Considering the basic functionality of an ATM, I considered why it would be helpful for a child to be able to access one. My first thoughts that came to mind were 1. Teaching life skills that the child can apply throughout their life (ATM operation and money management), 2. Pulling out money when their parents aren’t around (for example: class trips, forgot lunch money, etc) and lastly for unknown emergencies (i.e child gets lost and needs a way home).

Step 2. Define

How should it look and what functionalities should it include?

Before I proceeded in the process, I needed to further define the audience I was targeting. I already knew that children are the focus, but I wanted to define an age that this system would work best with. I came to the conclusion that I would focus on ages 7–12 with the idea in mind that children of this age group would start the process of becoming more independent on a daily basis. After further defining the target, I dove into the functionality of the ATM, basing my research on the process of an existing ATM. I then evolved it in ways that would favor the child’s mind. Here’s a breakdown of the revised experience:

1. Insert Card.
2. Child uses fingerprint rather than pin so that parents and children don’t have to worry about remembering a PIN.
3. After logging in, the system opens the option to pull out of a single account.
4. There will be set amounts that the child can pull out. (This would be at parents discretion, i.e. $10, $20, $40)
5. Cash is dispensed and receipt is emailed/texted to parents as an alert.

After breaking down and revising the experience of the ATM based on a child’s demographic, I then moved towards the interface of the design.

Step 3. Ideate

This step is focusing on the initial low fidelity screens.

Step 4. Prototype

Now, let’s refine these ideas.

Step 5. Test

After finalizing an initial prototype, this project would then go into initial testing to get outsider’s perspective. Because this is just an exploration I will leave this step out.

Additional Thoughts

Rather than creating an entirely new machine, the idea would be that we would partner with existing ATM creators to build hybrid machines. This design would feature the regular option at adult height with kid option below. This option would be so that businesses utilizing ATMs wouldn’t have to worry about installing a separate system adding more cost and creating more lost space.

If you found this project interesting and have thoughts and feedback on the process, please leave a response! I would love to hear your opinion on my process.