WOW. I always wanted to redesign ICICI and CITI BANK ATMs even though i think they are the better among the lot

In my opinion, the Kotak ATM has the best user experience of any ATM I've used in India.

:) Vista effect !!!

Loved the buttons. There is room for even descriptive labels on them or show a graphic in the background.

But I thought that the "Making a deposit" call out is cool in the previous design. But the justification can be, "You do not need the meta instructions if you are not going to deposit now - this is not the place to do persuasion towards depositing money". Brilliant!

And the worst designed are HDFC ATM user interfaces. The buttons and the on-screen labels don't align, so you never quite sure what your click will do.

Kickass ATM UI. I guess the SBI ATM screens come very close to these screenshots. They can use some design love.

In my view this is just a pretty UI and not particularly and more user friendly than SBI or ICICI.

This is pretty cool!

I work at a large-ish bank, and the larger problem with re-designing ATM UI's (as with websites) is that there is a tendency to not break away from the pack because so many users just mechanically plug in the card and start punching the keys without reading the onscreen instructions.

However, if you agree that the primary function of the ATM is to quickly dispense cash, then the two best that I've seen are:
1. ICICI - the quick cash option
2. HSBC ATMs offer 4 cash withdrawal denominations upfront as soon as you enter the PIN

I agree with the comments that Kotak has a fantastic graphical interface but its not the most functional if the primary aim is to dispense cash quickly. Kotak can afford the extra time though since their volumes are significantly lower.

HDFC, apart from having a lousy interface, actually has a pretty good process in place. But one look at the long lines outside HDFC ATMs (atleast in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune) will tell you that they would do well to learn from ICICI's quick cash option.

Interestingly, as user experiences go, HDFC allows you to choose your language BEFORE asking for a PIN, while almost every other major bank first instructs you IN ENGLISH to enter the PIN and then allows language selection.

ICICI's quick cash option is a nice touch.

I've always thought these ATMs could do with a subtle touch of personalisation. For instance, once I successfully enter my PIN, the ATM will still ask questions like savings account or checking account even if I have only a savings account.

Why not just make the assumption that I will be using my savings account? After all, there is only one account linked to my debit card?

Hrush,

You're right about this. Especially in cases where only 1 account is linked, this question is redundant (in true bank style though - if you get the answer wrong they still won't dispense cash!).

My understanding is that a lot of these machines suffer from legacy issues - particularly for those banks who operate in countries that offer seperate individual checkings and savings accounts, and almost all customers will have both.

If you're with an Indian bank and use your own bank's ATM network, you're unlikely to see these options. They most often come up when you use another bank's ATM network (for then the machine genuinely doesn't the accounts that you have linked, nor which one you wish to debit at that time) and in particular with international banks.

A lot of banks today offer the convenience of linking your primary savings account to your credit card, so you can use the credit card in the ATM machine to access your bank account, and continue to use your credit card account at point of sale to pay for purchases. This basically saves you the hassle of carrying around an extra plastic.

The ATMs currently dont offer customization is because, it will contact its server only once when you've keyed in all your data (ie PIN, account type, Amount) to minimize their data transfer. They have a link which is really legacy (its not even 33kbps i guess) When they start getting live internet connections, they will probably offer personalization and customization in much better way. (City bank offers online self service thr'o net I think)

Joe--not sure I understand. How do they authenticate my PIN without contacting the server? I'm sure they don't have that information stored locally, so how could they authenticate without going to the server?

Actually I'm not sure what Joe is referring to. Most modern ATMs have high-speed network connectivity through VSAT links or ISDN lines. And a lot of them are tied into their own banks' private networks, not the internet. Even if they do use the Internet for communications, it would be through a VPN over the network. Look for the tell-tale satellite dish near every standalone ATM.

Further, here is the normal flow that explains when the PIN is ACTUALLY authenticated with the network -

1. Insert Card
2. Select Language
3. Enter PIN (it could be correct or incorrect at this stage)
4. Choose Withdrawal or Balance Enquiry
5. Choose Current, Savings or Credit (see discussion above)
6. If Withdrawal, enter Amount.
7. NOW it connects to the network to authenticate PIN (and amount in the case of withdrawal)
8. Cash dispensed or Balance Displayed
9. Card released

This sequence is logical since PIN authentication is only required at the point of transaction and not before. This sequence above is usually the way any ATM would handle another bank's card. For their own bank's card as well, you can normally get to the menu options by entering even a wrong PIN - authentication only happens at the point of transaction.

Tip: You may see your name displayed on the first screen even before you've entered your PIN. This is because your name is encoded onto the magnetic strip on the card and the ATM does not need to contact any network to be able to read this and display it for you. However the PIN is NEVER encoded onto the magnetic strip, it is ALWAYS stored only on the network (obviously!).

@Dhruv
I would like to understand little more on, why would an ATM should even let anybody enter to the menu if the PIN is wrong.
Is there any other reason apart from, just it's not needed technically.
I personally didn't felt secured when I heard this.

Another issue may be, even if a correct person provide a wrong PIN, and continue doing transaction, when the error is encountered, and s/he provide the right PIN, s/he will be sent back to the main menu. Which might cause frustration IMHO.
Case might get worse when one is depositing Cheque or cash I believe.

@Suman,

The short and sweet answer is that it saves bandwidth and connectivity to not authorise the PIN twice - once to allow menu access and once at the time of transaction (this second authentication at the point of transaction is mandatory).

Since most genuine users can be expected to enter the PIN correctly, the system saves on transaction time and bandwidth usage (and precious IT resources) by showing you the menu. However no harm is done uptil this time because the machine is only showing you command options.

Then, if it comes to a balance enquiry or any other transaction, the PIN is authenticated over the network at that time.

So, instead of 2 authentications, its down to 1, and the 3-4 seconds saved in that are very valuable.

Imagine you walk up to an ICICI or HDFC ATM and there are 10 people waiting in line (and this is very common in many many towns and cities, including Mumbai and Delhi). Then, doing away with the second authentication means 40 seconds less waiting time for the 11th person.

Now scale this up to several thousand ATMs and several hundred thousand customers, and it truly adds up!