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Mental Models at the Gas Station
Don’t put diesel fuel in your unleaded gas tank!
Last week, I drove my dad’s car from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, to Chicago. As you can guess, I had to make frequent stops for gas. With my long career as a User Experience Designer, I am hyper-aware when interacting with any type of interface, from digital to physical. I’m even sensitive to something seemingly as simple as a gas station pump.
After the first gas stop, I started taking pictures of the gas pumps as I proceeded north to Chicago. I noticed that there were several different designs of gas pumps, the biggest difference being where the diesel fuel pump was located. Below, I will show three examples of what I found and what I think is the best pattern that matches people’s mental model.
The Best Match for the Mental Model: Unleaded Unattached
The very first pump I came across turned out to be the best example of a pattern that matches people’s most likely mental model. To back up just a bit, I believe the most prominent mental model people have of gas station pumps is that the diesel pump will be entirely separate from the unleaded gas pumps. This way, there is very little chance of people mistakenly putting the wrong fuel in their car. I don’t want to get into the ins and outs of what diesel fuel would do to a car…
