As a frequent user of ATMs since 1986 it has always amazed me how terrible, I mean horrible the interface designs are. I mean most seem like they are designed by a four-year-old. But saying something like that isn’t fair to most four-year-olds.

This doesn’t make much sense to me on several different levels. One, if people can handle basic transactions at the ATM that lower the overhead of using a teller. Two, generally speaking different fees are charged for different transaction, so the more transaction the more revenue.

Well Holger Struppek at Physical Interface gives us a pretty detailed and interesting overview with a ton of visuals of process Wells Fargo used to design their new interface.

Wells Fargo hired Pentagram in the fall of 2005 to begin work on a new user interface for their ATMs. Wells Fargo was in the process of upgrading their ATMs with touchscreen monitors. This was a relatively slow process, since there are about 7,000 ATMs in the field, and any upgrades are expensive. But with the vast majority to be converted during 2007, this was the perfect time to create a fresh UI that would fully utilize the touchscreen capability.

Now this is an interface I wish my bank used (can you hear me Bank of America and Citi?). It almost looks like it would be fun to play with.