I write a lot of user-interface stuff at work. I'm not very good at it, but a long time ago someone had to do the user interface and it ended up being me, and since I've done it, I get to keep doing it. But if I had done something as bad as the supermarket self-checkout lane, I'd quit my job in disgrace.
I tried out the self-checkout lane last night. There's a big screen and a few little screens and buttons and slots here and there with no particular rhyme or reason. There's a mouse cursor on the big screen but no mouse. There is no indication of what you do to begin. I looked for an appropriate button to press on the screen. I pressed "credit" because I was going to use a credit card. (Actually I think you can just start scanning.)
"Please scan your first item," said a voice. So I scanned the first item and the voice said the price. "Two. Ninety-nine." I put it on the conveyor.
Next I had a bunch of bananas with no sticker so I pressed the "produce" button. A lot of pictures of fruit came up and I pressed the bananas. (So far so good.) I put the bananas on the scanner (it has a scale underneath) and the voice said "One. Thirty Four. Please place your bananas on the conveyor belt."
Actually it talked more like the computers in the Firesign Theatre album "I Think We're All Bozos on this Bus."
"Please."
"Place your."
"Bananas."
"On the conveyor belt."
I did. Then I scanned the eggs and it said "One. Ninety-Nine.". I didn't want them to get broken so instead of putting them on the belt I put them on the shelf.
I tried to scan the next thing and it said "Please. Place your. Last item. On the conveyor belt." Now you have to understand that when a machine talks to me I talk back so I said, "No. They're eggs. They'll break." No response. "OK, have it your way" I said and put the eggs on the moving belt.
The belt reversed direction (!) and the voice said "One. Ninety-Nine. Credit. If you wish to purchase. This item. Please scan it again." So I did, and this time like a good boy I put it on the belt. (And immediately took it off so the eggs wouldn't break.)
I scanned another two items and the voice said "The bagging area. Is full. Please bag your groceries." It wasn't particularly full but the machine refused to scan another item so I went to the other end and started to put my items into bags. Then the machine said "Come back here and scan your next item." I said "Give me a break! I haven't finished bagging these." and it said "If you have finished, please select your payment type."
So I went back and scanned more items, and fortunately one of the register clerks took pity on me and came over to do the bagging. There's no place to put the bags after you fill them; you just have to put them on the floor until your cart's empty so you can use it.
When I was done I selected my payment type -- credit -- again (that was what I did first, remember?). "Please pass your. Credit. Card through the reader." So I did. "Is that a. Credit. Card or a. Debit. Card." "I just told you, it's a credit card. Oh, you can't hear. Where's the button?" I pressed the credit button again. Bitch.
"Please. Take your. Receipt. Have a nice day. Please scan your first item."
I don't think the register clerks have to worry about losing their jobs.