Exercise 2: Field Observations and Data collection of Self-Checkout Systems. Field notes and summary of observation

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1 Page 1 Exercise 2: Field Observations and Data collection of Self-Checkout Systems In an attempt to make in-store shopping a more personalized experience, supermarkets such as Walmart, Target, and many others, are now installing self-checkout systems that provides customers the unique opportunity of checking out their selected items themselves, with little or no assistance from store employees. As a frequent shopper, and one who is new to the self-checkout systems, I have observed that despite having this other, possibly faster option for purchasing items, a lot of customers including myself, often shy away from engaging with this technology, possibly for fear of it being too intimidating to use. In order to understand the system better, my team and I have chosen to conduct a field study on: the self-checkout systems used in Walmart. Date of observation: Sunday, 25 th Oct Time: between 2:45 3:30pm. Field notes and summary of observation Location: Walmart Super Center, 1200 marketplace Dr, Rochester, NY Physical Environment Walmart is located in a densely populated industrial area, which has several businesses and retail stores, notably of which are Lasertron, Savers and Sam s etc. which can be seen to the west of the building(if standing opposite the main entrance). It has ample parking space that could comfortably fit about 250 cars and store space that could fit at least 800 people. It has two main entrances (home & pharmacy entrance and market entrance) either of which would lead you to the main shopping area (Figure 1). Inside the store, there are 12 main checkout aisles with 2 counters each (24 total), and 2 self-checkout aisles with 4 counters each (8 total) as seen in Figure 1. The self-checkout counters are set closer to the market entrance, with subway fast foods, Deli bakery and the fruit and produce section seen right across from it. Just in front of it is a computer store called MYTECH USA, and a nail salon and spa called Regal nail salon. Cultural Environment The store is filled with a lot of Halloween decorations, as it is the season. The noise level is on an average level as the store is not full to capacity. The main sources of noise are heard from the movement of shopping carts, customers interacting with employees and each other, the audio sounds from the self-checkout machines, and the scanning and bagging areas of the checkout spots. Customers of different age ranges, abilities and disabilities are seen coming in and out of the store at a frequent rate, i.e. as a customer leaves, one or more comes in almost immediately.

2 Page 2 Observations at the Self-checkout counters The self-checkout machines occupied the 13 th and 14 th aisle of the checkout area, with 4 machines on each side total of 8 (Figure 1). These two aisles are spaced farther apart from each other than most of the regular counters. An extra counter is set just before the 8 counters and positioned in-between both aisles (Figure 1), where a store employee stands to monitor shopping activities and provide assistance when needed. The machine itself had multiple components: the user interface (touch screen), where the main interaction takes place, a barcode scanner for scanning items, bagging area placed to the right of the machine, and a payment area for making payments (which also has multiple parts), (Figure 2). The self-checkout section seem to have less number of customers (about 3 4 people) as compared to the regular checkout sections. Customers are both male and female of different nationalities, and all fall under college level age to older adults (above 18). This may have been because the machines are limited to making payments by debit/credit cards only. For making purchases, customers scan items one after the other, put the items in bags, and swiped their cards to pay for items, after which, the machine then prints out a receipt. Summary These observations were carried out at the Walmart super center in marketplace drive in Rochester NY, on the 25 th of October 2015, between 2:45pm to 3:30 pm. The self-checkout counters were the particular focus of the observation, as I sort to understand how easily and effectively the systems could be used. In general, the self-checking out process seemed straight forward from an observer s perspective, as all observed customers seem to finish the task quickly, and with little or no assistance from the attendant. This may also have been because they all checked out few items(less than 10). On the other hand, the low number of customers using the systems and the intricate components of the system itself led me to come up with the following research questions: Are self-checkout systems first use intuitive? I.e. would they be easily understood, and used properly by novice users. Do customers require a certain level of skill in order to be able to use the self-checkout system? How do these self-checkout systems make provision for error handling, when the user makes a mistake? Can self-checkout systems possibly eliminate the need for cash register employees in the future?

3 Page 3 Layout of the Store Main Shopping Area Self Check-Out Counters Main Check-Out Counters A 13 A 14 A 1 A 2 A 3 A 4 A 5 A 6 A 7 A 8 A 9 A 10 A 11 A Subway Deli Fruits & Produce Section E E X I T {{{{{{ KEY Customer Service REGAL NAIL SALON Figure 1: Layout of Walmart super center MYTECH USA E X I T E A 1-14 Assistance counter(for employees) Aisles 1-24 Number of main checkout counters 1-8 Number of self check-out counters

4 Page 4 User Interface Credit/debit card in Barcode Scanner Cash in Bagging Area Cash out Other mode of payment Figure 2: Self-checkout machine

5 Page 5 Research Questions and interview questions The main purpose of conducting the study was to try to understand how the self-checkout system works (from the scanning process to making payments process), in order to identify if the system is designed to enable users of all backgrounds and skill level, understand how to operate it effectively, and with little or no external help. Also, we sort to examine how the system handles error by trying to analyze problems the users might have with the system. For these reasons, the following research questions were thus chosen, from the list of questions formulated by the group. Research questions (RQ): 1. Are self-checkout systems first- use intuitive? I.e. would they be easily understood, and used properly by novice users. 2. How does the self-checkout system make provision for error handling mechanism to help users resolve errors on their own, without the need for additional assistance from some personnel? The following interview questions were formed to enable us collect data that would help address the above research questions. List of Interview questions: 1. Is this your first time using a self-checkout system? If not, how frequently do you use it? 2. Why did/do you choose to use a self-checkout system over the regular billing counters? 3. Does the number of items to be billed influence your decision to use a self-checkout system? 4. Does the system limit the number of items that you can bill using a self-checkout system? 5. Are you able to clearly understand and follow the user interface of the system to successfully complete your checkout? 6. Aside from the text written on the screen, does the system provide any other means of enabling the user understand how it works? 7. Have you ever encountered any problems while using the self-checkout system? If yes, what kind? 8. Does the system help you understand how to resolve these problems on your own? 9. Who do you seek for help when you are not able to resolve a problem on your own? 10. What happens when you accidentally get billed more than once for a single item? 11. Does the system make provision for you to delete/remove an already scanned item? 12. How do you bill items that do not have a barcode on them, such as unpacked or open fruits and vegetables? 13. How do you read the barcode of an item that is too cumbersome to be placed before the barcode scanner? 14. Can you bill high-risk items such as lighters, cigarettes or alcohol using the self-checkout system? 15. Which method of payment (cash/card) do you prefer while using the self-checkout system? Why?

6 Page Have you ever experienced a problem while making a payment using a card? 17. How does the system handle cash payments? 18. How do you think the self-checkout system can be improved to better help novice users? Interview summary and list of problems a. Interview Section: The participant interviewed was male, between the ages of years, and of African descent. He is a current graduate student at RIT, and has used the self-checkout system once or twice, but in a supermarket in the UK. The interview was conducted on Sunday the 1 st of November 2015, at about 2:15pm. Observations were made at the selfcheckout counters in the Walmart super center in Rochester, as the participant was using the system. Notes and pictures (with permission) were taken, as he scanned items, and also asked the questions in the process. The entire interview took about 20 minutes. The questions included some open-ended questions to allow users to expand on a particular topic, and also to allow for follow up questions. Question 1: Is this your first time using a self-checkout system? If not, how frequently do you use it? In order to determine if the self-checkout system was designed to be assessable to all users, this question was posed. We hoped to get a sense of if experience with the system would determine ability to use. The participant indicated that he had only used the self-checkout one or twice, but not in the US. No, but I have only used it once or twice when I was at a supermarket in the UK, 2 years ago (Participant 1) Question 2: Why did/do you choose to use a self-checkout system over the regular billing counters? To evaluate why a user might choose the self-checkout over the traditional method, we hoped to determine if the reason(s) were linked to usefulness of the system. Participant indicated several reasons such as: it saves time when I am in a hurry and when I don t want to wait on the long queues in the main checkout counters. With these, we could hypothetically say that if the system saves time, it might have been because it was easy to use.

7 Page 7 Question 3: Does the number of items to be billed influence your decision to use a self-checkout system? From our observations, we saw that a lot of the customers checked out few items (less than 10). We assumed this was a trend and sort to find out if our observations were accurate. Participant reported that the number of items does not inform his decision (as he was checking out more than 20 items), and that he mostly preferred it because it saves time. Question 4: Does the system limit the number of items that you can bill using a self-checkout system We intended to inquire if the self-checkout system might have limitations that may draw people away from using it (like novice users who might not have an idea of this functionality). The participant indicated that the system has no such limitations, thus indicating to us that the system was capable of handling a larger amount of items without breaking down. Question 5: Are you able to clearly understand and follow the user interface of the system to successfully complete your checkout? To understand if the system puts measures in place to help novice users understand how to use the system, this question was asked. Participant reported that the large text and tutorial videos on the interface, made it easy to understand how it works. Question 6: Aside from the text written on the screen, does the system provide any other means of enabling the user understand how it works? To also help answer our research question 1, participant indicated that the system included video tutorials and audio instructions, along with the text on the interface. Question 7: Have you ever encountered any problems while using the self-checkout system? If yes, what kind? We wanted to inquire the potential problems users might face with the system, and understand if the problems were the fault of the user or the system not providing enough information. Yes, not understanding how to handle items like tomatoes and fruits etc correctly, and takes time to find some items because they are not under the correct section in the look up menu. Explained in more detail in the problems section. Question 8 & 9: Does the system help you understand how to resolve these problems on your own? Who do you seek for help when you are not able to resolve a problem on your own? These questions were asked in order to gather information that would help us answer our research question 2. The participant indicated that the system wasn t very helpful, it just told me to look up items without telling me to weigh the item first, and I needed to call on the assistance of the store employee. More details in the list of problems section.

8 Page 8 Question 10 &11: What happens when you accidentally get billed more than once for a single item? Does the system make provision for you to delete/remove an already scanned item? During our study, we sort to understand the error handling capabilities of the selfcheckout system, and how these capabilities were put in place to help novice users know what to do if faced with these specific situation. The participant reported to have faced this problem after the final payment was made. More details in problem section. Question 12 & 13: How do you bill items that do not have a barcode on them, such as unpacked or open fruits and vegetables? How do you read the barcode of an item that is too cumbersome to be placed before the barcode scanner? These questions were chosen to understand if the self-checkout system was capable of being used for billing all ranges of products and not just the ones with barcodes. Participant gave clear insights. You can look up products on the items menu, or type in the type in the product key if the product is too large to be scanned. Question 14: Can you bill high-risk items such as lighters, cigarettes or alcohol using the selfcheckout system? In order to evaluate how the system restricts the purchase of these high risk items by under aged customers, the participant provided useful insights. Yes you can, when I tried to buy alcohol, the system paused/stopped my process and asked me to call an attendant to check for my identification Question 15, 16 & 17: Which method of payment (cash/card) do you prefer while using the selfcheckout system? Why? Have you ever experienced a problem while making a payment using a card? How does the system handle cash payments? These questions were chosen to understand how the self-checkout system handles different forms of payments like cash, coupons, food stamps, card etc. although the Self-checkout machines used in walmart accepted cards only, the participant pointed out that it had different ways of accepting payments as seen in (Figure 2), and for cash payments, the system has an opening at the bottom that brings out the correct change. Question 18: How do you think the self-checkout system can be improved to better help novice users? This question was formulated to test the first-use intuitiveness of the self-checkout system. Participant suggested that the there should also be a tutorial on how to handle weighing of produce, and also, after scanning is complete, there should be a preview of the items scanned or

9 Page 9 something, so that incase I change my mind about buying a particular product, I can cancel it at the end before making payment b. Task Walk Through Section: On first interaction with the system, a tutorial video can be seen on the screen, which tries to explain how the system works (Figure 3). To begin, the participant clicks the start button on the screen, and was immediately informed that only the card payment option was allowed and to click yes or no if he wished to continue. Yes option was clicked and the participant commenced the scanning of his items. In total, there were about 20 items scanned, containing different range of products, from groceries to clothing items. The barcode scanner gives 2 feedback indicators when an item has been successfully scanned; one was a beep noise and the other, green lights just above it changes to red. For items that did not have bar codes on them (like potatoes, tomatoes etc.), participant calls the attention of the attendant to help explain how to carry out the task. The employee explains that the system had a scale where you place the item. After placing items on this scale, the system alerts the user to look up the particular item from the lists of items on the interface (Figure 4). When item is found, selection is made and the system then calculates the price based on the appropriate weight. After all the items were scanned, there was a button with finish and pay written boldly on it (Figure 5), which the participant clicks and was immediately redirected to the payment page. After the card type is selected (Figure 6), the card is inserted in the card slot and the pin is entered. The receipt is then printed out after payments are successful. Figure 3: Start page Figure 4: look up items in the menu page

10 Page 10 Figure 5: finish and pay page Figure 6: select card type page c. List Of Problems Section: During the task walk through process, the following problems were observed: 1. No clear instructions on how to weigh items. For products that did not have barcodes on them such as consumer produce like potatoes and tomatoes, there were no clear instructions on how to handle them, i.e. no tutorial video or written text instructions. Participant had to call on the assistance of the store employee, who told him to simply place the item on the scale. After the item was placed on the scale, the weight of the item(s) appeared, but this still wasn t a clear indication of whether the process was complete. It turned out that it was actually a 3 step process: first- place item on scale, second- look up item on the list, third-select item from the list. The system provided audio instructions for the last 2 steps, but only after the item(s) had been placed on the scale. Including a written text or tutorial video for this purpose, would have been a better way to indicate this function to the participant, and to all users in general. 2. No clear explanation of what pop-up message meant. When scanning a bar of soap, and a box of spaghetti, a pop-up message stating I don t want to bag this item, kept appearing on the screen after each scan and this option must be clicked in order to continue with the process (Figure 7).

11 Page 11 The participant misinterpreted the message to mean I do not want to scan this item, and kept re-scanning the same item over again, until the message stopped appearing. This was a major problem because that same item was billed multiple times unknowingly to the user. Perhaps, if this text was rephrased in a better way, or if a reason was given for why the system might not want to bag the item, the misinterpretation would not have occurred. Since the user did not notice the error until after payments were made, he had to go to customer service, where they checked the number of items and the receipt and refunded the money charged on the extra items. Figure 7: unexplained error message 3. No indication of the quantity of each items scanned After every scan, the screen shows the name of item and the price, and does not indicate the quantity of each item. Participant had 2 boxes of spaghetti, and due to problem 2 stated above, had the both of them scanned twice (total of 4), and billed separately for each (Figure 8). The system had a cancel items button, at the bottom of the interface, but because there was no indication of the quantity, the participant assumed that the items were scanned correctly, and thus didn t see the need to use the cancel button. Even though, this may have been due to diverted attention of the participant, including the quantity of each item maybe in a final preview at the end, just before final payments are made, would have given users the opportunity to cancel any extra items scanned.

12 Page 12 Figure 8: page showing scanned products without the quantity scanned 4. Confusing arrangement of items in the look-up menu The participant expressed a high level of frustration when looking up items on the items menu. This was because when he was trying to find potatoes, he went to the P section and it wasn t there, so he had to scan through other pages to find them, which took a longer time. He then suggested that having proper arrangements of the product would have made the process more pleasant.