Field Audit: One Machine, One Transaction

A first-person walkthrough of one specific machine and one specific transaction, diagnosed against the course's opening concepts

Due: 19 March 2027 · Weight: 20%

The brief#

Walk one stranger through one machine, in the order it actually happened, then diagnose the moment it stopped being obvious.

Pick a single transaction on a single machine — not a category of machine, one you can name and, ideally, one you can go and use again while you write this. The walkthrough comes first and stays purely descriptive: what the machine displayed, what you pressed, where you paused. Diagnosis comes after, and has to reach for a specific concept from the first three weeks rather than a general complaint about bad design.

What you submit#

One document, in three clearly labelled parts:

1. The machine and the transaction — one sentence naming both, specific enough that a reader could go find the same machine themselves.
2. The walkthrough (roughly 800–1200 words) — what happened, in the order it happened. No diagnosis yet: what the interface displayed, what you pressed, and exactly where you paused or guessed.
3. The diagnosis — the moment from part 2 where you hesitated, explained using one named concept from weeks 1–3 by name, not a general complaint about bad design.

Attach at least one photo of the machine’s interface at the point you hesitated, with a caption saying what it shows. If the machine won’t let you photograph it — some ATMs and secure kiosks won’t — a photo of the queue, the signage, or the receipt is an acceptable substitute; say why in the caption.