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: rows of almost identical water bottles behind a glass panel. But I could not tell what I was supposed to do first.
I found a calculator-like keypad with the numbers 0 to 9, along with * and # and several other buttons. I tried entering a product number. Nothing lit up or responded. From that lack of response, I guessed that perhaps I had to pay first.
I started looking for somewhere to tap my card. Around eye level, there was a square area that looked like a possible tap point, so I tried it. Nothing happened.
Nearby, there was a paper sign with an illustration that looked very similar to a real card or QR-style tap target. I thought that might be the reader and tried tapping it too. Again, nothing happened.
Only when I looked at the sign more carefully did I notice a small arrow. Following it led me farther upward, to the real card reader near the top-right of the machine.
After paying, I had to choose one of roughly twenty or thirty numbered positions, even though the rows appeared to contain the same bottled water. I entered a number and then discovered that I also needed to press a separate confirmation button.
For several seconds after that, there was no visible movement or continuing feedback. I could not tell whether the input had worked. Then the machine suddenly started moving and delivered the bottle to a small, dark opening near the lower-right side. I had to look around before I found it.
Later, I came back to buy another bottle and saw a man going through much the same uncertainty. He also tried the wrong tap area and could not tell what to do next.
I showed him where the real card reader was and helped him through the remaining steps. Then we waited together through the same silent pause until the machine finally began moving.
The machine worked. But the interaction required me to keep forming a hypothesis, trying something, getting no response, and forming another hypothesis. Buying a bottle of water felt more like solving a small puzzle than completing a simple purchase.
