I have a different reaction to the wrap-around approach. My reaction is that if my credit card was wrapped into a piece of paper then that must be the important piece, because the credit card is the thing I’m going to look for first when the waiter comes back. My first reaction then is to unwrap it. (It doesn’t work for me to wrap things around my card, because that’s not how I put things in my wallet.)

Like someone else above noted, I tend to look for “Merchant Copy” and sign there, but indeed, that is often missing, and in any case, we shouldn’t have to be looking for this info so carefully. I agree that it’s silly to have a signature line on customer copies and those should be eliminated when possible.

“Also, if your date is ‘tapping-her-foot” impatient, then just sign whatever is put in front of you and head for your place :-)!!”

Actually, she could be tapping her foot, because she’s had it with the evening and just wants to go home. Granted, in Aza’s case that’s probably not so likely.:)

A good test is when you’re out for sushi and have had 3 bottles of Nigori. So far so good, I wake up the following morning with a receipt wrapped around my credit card. It works!

Now we need a tip and total validator… cause I have no clue what happens to the other copy. (:

But Chip + Pin have their own problems.

A lot of customers still have difficulty putting their cards in the correct way!

Secondly in smaller shops where the amount isn’t automatically placed on the Chip + Pin reader, the assistant has to enter the amount in manually. This can obviously cause the odd error.

Also certain machines require customers to press an Enter button to confirm the price before entering their Pin. The problem with this? People hate entering their pins and seem to zone out when they have to do it, therefore ignoring the assistant telling them to press the Enter button. This then results in four error tones which customers don’t seem to understand.

Not a problem with chip + pin though, as the customer never needs to touch the merchant receipt (if one is generated, which it often isn’t).

Personally I’ve never been too confused by this. I usually just sign the top copy. I can’t remember a time when that was a problem. Works whether it’s computer printed or carbon paper.

But anyways, I do agree that wrapping them around your card is a good way to eliminate any confusion.

Another example of “real life usability”:

A lot of coffee shops have metal stirring spoons alongside the milk and cream. Usually there are two cups: one for clean spoons, and one for dirty ones. But this requires a label, which is often faded or covered up.

One coffee shop I go to has a good solution to this. They have two different types of containers. Clean spoons are in a cup with their handles facing upwards — an obvious affordance for grabbing one. Dirty spoons go into a long and flat container, so they are lying down and out of sight. Much harder to grab one accidentally this way.

Was the “Resturant Reciepts” title intended? :-)

Also, if your date is ‘tapping-her-foot” impatient, then just sign whatever is put in front of you and head for your place :-)!!

Cheers,

- Bill