Design Thinking: ATM for Kids
I’m writing this post as a part of my 3-month learning journey as a student at DesignLab’s UX Academy. This piece is applying the Design Thinking Process to quickly prototype an ATM for children.
The ATM was invented by John Shepherd-Barron in 1968. It was located in London at the British bank Barclays. This first prototype was designed to dispense a fixed amount of cash when a user inserted a specially coded card.
Fun fact: It also didn’t charge a fee.
ATMs provide a service, allowing people to perform basic banking tasks such as depositing money, withdrawing money and viewing balances 24/7. Although we‘ve been using ATMs for half a decade they’re still not perfect. As technology progresses, more items we use on a day to day basis become obsolete or continually improve. The ATM is an item currently experiencing the latter but time will tell if it becomes obsolete.
When assigned the task of creating an ATM for kids I had plenty of questions. And by asking these questions I will be able to empathize with my potential users and gain an understanding of the product I should be creating.
- What will the ATM be used for?
- What problems does an ATM for kids address?
Why does a child need an ATM? - Who will use the ATM? Children — Parents — Bank Personnel — Teachers?
Is the ATM just for children? - What functionalities will the ATM offer?
Where will it be located? - What children will be using it?
How old will the children be? - What technologies are available to implement into an ATM?
- How will the interface look?
Will the machine have physical buttons, lights, speakers? - Will there be accessibility features implemented to address potential users with disabilities?
- Will the machine vary in height? Since children grow at different rates
- Is there an educational aspect at play?
- Does the child need a parent to access the ATM?
- Are there currently any ATMs for kids out there?
What problems do they address?
What do they look like? — What functions do they provide?
Where are they available? — Who are they available to?
Are there different types of ATMs for Kids? — How many types are there?
All of these questions lead me to think deeper about what purpose the ATM will serve and who will be using the ATM.
- Is the ATM to service a child’s banking needs? (withdrawing, depositing and checking balances)
- Is it a machine with audio and visual elements to distract kids when their parents are at the bank? Allowing them to play games, watch a video, etc.
- Is it a learning tool where children can ‘check-in’ and gain access to a ‘virtual account’ to learn simple banking procedures and money management.
If used for money:
- Will there be a limit on the amount being withdrawn?
- How can you avoid a child being coerced into withdrawing money for someone else?
Empathize
An ATM for kids is an interesting concept, the more you think about creating one the longer your list of questions becomes. Typically, by the time a child reaches high school they already have a bank account. Although the access may be limited, they’re still in possession of an ATM card but at that point, the child is already 15. For this project, let’s assume the target demographic is children ranging from 6 to 12 years old.
This ATM is being created for the purpose of servicing a child’s banking needs.
Why would a child need access to an ATM?
- Lunch at school, transportation to school, snacks, candy, etc.
- Gifts for family members or the latest toy for themselves.
- Attending an event (town fair, school dance, sporting event etc.)
- Depositing allowance or money from events (Christmas, birthday, etc.)
Why would parents allow their young children access to their own money?
- Helping children comprehend budgeting and money management.
- Understanding that money isn’t a limitless resource and tasks (chores) need to be performed to obtain more of it.
- Being able to track what their child spends money on and how often they withdraw/deposit money.
- Math skills. If lunch is $3 + $1 for a drink + $1 for a snack allowing the child to figure out how much they need to withdraw.
What are some possible problems one may run into when designing an ATM for children 5–12 years old?
- Inability to read or understand technical banking terms.
What is a deposit? Withdrawal? Balance? Over draft? — etc. - Varying heights as children grow at different rates.
- Accessibility options for children with disabilities.
Define
Are there currently any existing solutions in the market?
- Currently, the only existing options in the market are in the toy category. These options are to help children learn money skills & saving goals by tracking balances, deposits & withdrawals.
- They work with real money and function like a real ATM. Even remembering the child’s balance!
What are the core features that a child may need to use an ATM?
- Simple interface. Easy to understand language.
- Minimal amount of buttons and options to avoid error messages. UI will change according to the age on file. This will allow younger children to still access their money (with limits) and give older children more control on how much they need.
- Security. Children will lose a card, tell their friends their pin or forget their pin number. What option will be used to identify the user and allow access to the account? Hand Scan, Face Scan, Retina Scan or Finger Scan?
- Tracking. At the end of the month, both the parent and the child can learn what the child is spending money on and can teach them money management.
- Speaker system which accompanies the user throughout the process. The speaker will be able to ask the questions aloud so that younger children who are still learning how to read can navigate the ATM. Speaking can be accompanied by bouncing animations e.g, What is this for? Food? (Food icon bounces vertically) Bus? (Bus icon bounces) etc. So the child can pair the word with the icon and make the correct selection.
Ideate
After defining the core functionality that I was seeking for the ATM. I began to ideate. When ideating I wrote down anything that came to mind even if I was unsure if it would be integrated into the prototype.
I thought about making the ATM like a cartoon character. Having the mouth accept deposits (feeding it) and the hand withdrawal money (handing it to you). However, an external hand would be confusing when there will be an on-screen hand to gain access to your account. The mouth, can have dual functionality of accepting deposits and withdrawing money.
Prototyping
After the initial sketches, I redrew one of the user flows and began thinking of what worked and what I could eliminate before beginning the final prototype. Instead of spending more time refining my hand-drawn sketches I moved on to creating screens in Sketch.
Below are the screen prototypes I created followed by the user flow.
The entire process is accompanied by audio and the UI changes according to the age of the user (which is on file when their parents create an account). Initially, I thought about allowing the ATM to be height adjustable, by having it auto adjust to a preset height based on age. I opted not to explore that possibility because mechanically I think it would eventually fault at some point. The route I opted to go with would be using a large display like the new Chase ATMs.
By using a large display, the UI can shift according to what the average child is at that age. The Hand Scan would remain relatively low on the screen to accompany all heights as the UI would only change after determining how old the child is.
Sometimes over-preparation is an excuse, driven by a fear of making mistakes, of slipping into a space where we can be ‘wrong.’
With the allotted time, came restraints. Given more time I believe this project could’ve been explored even further. With a more refined UI, adjusting features to tailor to different scenarios, a physical prototype of how this ATM would look and more.
I thoroughly enjoyed going through the Design Thinking process. What made it even more interesting is designing for children and the various restraints / different needs to take into consideration.
