Sil casually wanders towards a glass sphere perched atop a red pedestal in the back corner of a dusty auto-shop waiting room. Filling the orb are brightly colored gumballs in saturated hues of red, yellow, blue, green, pink, and white. Their hard candy shells reflect a sharp highlight from the overhead fluorescent lights, enticing him closer.

Hands idly in his pockets, Sil finds the unmistakable edge of a quarter. Instantly, he recognizes how perfectly the quarter would slot into the mechanism—₵25 clearly etched into the metal face-plate confirms his theory. Placing it flat against the chrome coin-slot, Sil’s thumb runs over the relief of George Washington’s face as he prepares to send ol’ George into the unknown; like he commanded that cold Christmas morning.

Craving a blue-raspberry flavored gumball, a sense of winning this small lottery compels him, and activates his salivary glands. Sil, now gripping the trapezoid crank affixed just below the coin slot, CRRR CHUNK, the quarter disappears, rotating in the same clockwise direction as the trapezoid knob. All at once the smooth candy stones drop — SHIOOK.

A moment later one is in the chute. Seeing it’s green, Sil’s heart drops. The gumball circumnavigates the pedestal six times rolling down a clear plastic spiral slide; Sil’s anticipation growing with each pass. Around and round, until finally — splink — the gumball makes contact with the trap door, briefly opening the gateway to the outside world. Now, bending down, Sil retrieves his pearlescent prize.

The gumball machine is a triumph of design and engineering. It’s impossible to separate the experience from the interface — the engineering from design. “Two sides of the same coin”.

The interaction customers have with the gumball machine goes beyond mere physicality, it evokes an emotional response. It starts by capturing your attention. Then, by offering a randomized reward, the machine plays on the customer’s desire to seek novelty. Each turn of the knob induces anticipation: Which color/flavor will appear next? Incidentally, this unknown increases the likelihood of returning to hunt for the most desirable gumball. The vibrant colors, sounds, and tactile nature of the product amplifies excitement and anticipation further.

thoughts→emotions→actions

Customers intuitively understand that the machine accepts quarters, thanks to the shape and size of the coin slot. Positioned at hand height, the quarter slot and the closely-coupled knob provide clear interaction cues. The trapezoid hand crank wouldn’t function without the underlying engineering or the visible affordances in the design.

At the end of the interaction the purchaser is rewarded for taking a relatively small action; their desire satisfied, they can move on to their next goal. The product’s internal workings set a limit to the options available, the speed of delivery, and ultimate reward. To provide an experience that safeguards the customer’s time, energy, and well-being, designers must have knowledge of the engineering beneath the interface.

This writing was part of my published work, Your Cup of Tea. It didn’t fit perfectly with the narrative there, so I'm sharing it here. If you liked this, you’ll love the work that it came from.