Feb 01, 2026
Simple Water, Complex Flow
A small everyday moment that didn’t feel quite right. At an international airport, I stopped by a vending machine that sells bottled water. It looked simple enough: just one type of water, lined up in rows behind a glass panel. The payment area, however, was placed quite high on the top-right of the machine. There was also a paper sign taped below it, roughly at eye level, to explain where to tap a card. The problem was that the sign looked almost like a QR code or a typical tap symbol. The arrow on the sign was very small, and the large illustration in the middle looked like the actual place to touch. Naturally, I tried tapping on the printed symbol first. Nothing happened. Only after staring at the machine for a while did I notice a faint, real touch area slightly above the sign. When I tapped there, the machine finally accepted my payment. The overall flow was also unclear. You were supposed to: 1. Choose a number from a grid of small buttons, even though all bottles were the same water. 2. Tap your card in the hidden touch area. 3. Wait several seconds with no clear feedback. 4. Watch the bottle appear from an unexpected place. The first time I went through this, each step felt a bit like solving a small puzzle rather than simply buying water. Later, I came back to buy another bottle and saw an older man doing exactly what I had done: tapping directly on the printed illustration, then staring at the machine, unsure if anything was happening. I showed him where to tap, how to enter the number, and then we waited together until the machine finally started moving. I could clearly see the same uncertainty I had felt on his face. The machine worked. But the amount of guessing, waiting, and double-checking felt much higher than it needed to be for something as basic as buying a bottle of water.
- #ux clinic
- #vending machine
- #signage & feedback
- #feedback & status
