The Dumbest User Interface of 2016 | Hacker News Reader

The Dumbest User Interface of 2016

eagereyes.org

5 pointsthanatosmin10 comments

> The package wouldn’t be complete without the entire process being much slower than the old card swipe. What took a second or two before now seems to take millennia.

Now that I recalled, most of my chipped POS transactions have been indeed a few seconds slower than swipes. I wonder if that's caused by the data encryption/decryption? Embedded hardwares are very capable theses days, I am surprised to see that's the case though. Can someone with expertise on this issue explain?

Before, swipe to approved was 2-3 seconds at most. The chip takes 15-30 seconds with no indication of the breakdown of time (e.g. connecting, transmitting, encrypting, etc). I'd like to know what takes the bulk of the time.

It takes considerably more time than simply swiping because chip payment transactions ivolve much more communications between the card the POS terminal, the bank entity, payment provider, etc...

Encyption/Decription times are neglible.

Yeah I found this description of the process: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-how-chip-cards-wor...

Do the systems in Europe take the same amount of time, and have the same amount of communication? I can't imagine passing a JSON object back and forth could take that long.

I was referring to how the system works here in Europe. I suppose there is no much of a difference in the US.

On each step in the chain (credit card, POS, bank entity, etc.) you have lots of verification and error control each one adding more and more overheadeing.

And let's not forget times regarding the user - pin request, payment type which the user has to select if it is necessary.

The USA is definitely slower than everywhere that's been using the system for more than a decade now. No idea why though as some of the slowest connections I've experienced have been in LA.

In the UK transactions typically take less than 5 seconds with more than 10 seconds usually prompting a response from the owner that it's "playing up today". In New Zealand it's quicker still, and contactless payments seem to get processed slightly quicker as well, although that could just be psychological because it removes the whole insert-wait-enter pin part.

Right. And if I remember correctly, a swipe is almost exactly the same as typing in the numbers on the card. Not sure if it's still the case but years ago I had a job where we had some "swipe" devices which hooked up to a standard PS/2 keyboard port (to give an idea of when I'm talking about). If you opened Notepad on a PC and swiped a card it just typed out the relevant digits as if you'd keyed them in.

But now with tap-enabled cards it's back to a couple seconds.

I noticed the punishing error sound that these devices emit when the transaction is successful and it's time to remove the card. I thought I was alone in noticing and being annoyed by it. Why not make two sounds - one for successful transaction -> remove card and the other for unsuccessful transaction -> remove card ???

Another seemingly unsolvable problem for about 15 years with these machines is choosing whether to use credit or debit. In order to use credit, you have to press "Cancel" when it asks for the pin. Obtaining the answer to this very simple question has and continues to be beyond the technical ability of these imbeciles for nearly a generation.

I have actually started carrying cash again because of these things. That 2 minutes of standing around at a check out line when you just want a damn pack of gum is infuriating. Not to mention when the chip stops working and you get to stand there trying it over and over again while everyone else in line is groaning and the machine is beeping at you loudly. What an awful technology.

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