That design is money! A better ATM experience from Wells Fargo
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 replacing their ATMs with newer models with touchscreen monitors. This was a relatively slow process, since there are about 7,000 ATMs in the field, and replacements are expensive. The design efforts were to improve the user experience and satisfaction. Wells Fargo sought a more graceful presentation flow rather than a choppy screen-to-screen feel, and an overall more elegant appearance for the UI.
Previously, the UI had to run on touchscreens as well as machines with buttons afforded by the hardware. This meant that screen buttons always had to be placed on the left and right sides of the screen in order to line up with the tactile buttons. The decision to decouple the new screen layout from the old “buttons-on-the-side” hardware was one of the most important design decisions for the product…
