The mystery of the “Unexpected item in bagging area” experience explained
Why is it that the term “digital transformation” in Ireland has become a byword for giving the middle digit to the customer? No user experience design, that’s why.
Take my local retailer and their automated checkout machines. You know the ones. I notice many people fail to complete the simple task of checking out and paying for their shopping without needing human assistance. The reason is a poor implementation that ignores how people think when shopping: the user experience design concept of a mental model.
The result is that mysterious and useful “Unexpected item in the bagging area” audio message ringing out throughout the store, now the all-year-round soundtrack to local shopping.
The dominant mental model of customers here is to move the shopping items from left to right, from their basket to the scanner, and then to bagging, and then payment. In my local supermarket, the machines are configured to expect the opposite direction (thus the unpaid-for items get put in the final bagging area first, triggering the heavenly voice from above with the cryptic message).
We have an expensive digital implementation that delivers a dismal customer experience and associated delays and costs for everyone as human assistance is called to complete a basic task. At a minimum, getting management approval for a set of big stickers with the words “Bagging Area” would reduce support costs by a huge amount.
However, spending a few minutes watching how people shop and talking with them afterwards would have been the way to avoid this ludicrous message and the need for expensive continuous human assistance in the first place.
Ultan Ó Broin (dey/dem) is a user experience sustainability design professional from Ireland.
