Gas Station — Fuel Dispenser: UX Case Study

Fuel for thought: bringing standardization to fuel dispensers

Gif from Starz

I hate gas stations! I feel so stressed on the days when I have to fill fuel. More than once, I have mentally calculated the odds that I can make it home when the fuel light comes on. Have you experienced the same? What is the reason?

Gas Station Steps

1. You check your fuel tank and the constantly flashing signal that you need to fill gas.
2. You look for ( your regular )gas station
3. You look for an empty pump
4. You think which side is your fuel tank and pull in.

These things might be smooth for users who are driving for a long time, but for newbies like me, we have to follow a series of things.

Therefore, to make the process seamless, I decided to wear my UX hat to figure out a potential solution.

A problem statement would be “How might we improve the gas station experience for users?”

Observe and Discover: I have met many people like me struggling at the gas station figuring out the machine. I decided to do an informal study to determine why they hate gas stations so much. They reported questions following frustrates them:

• Too many questions
• Confusing instructions
• Error: card not detected
• Push button to select the type of fuel grade
• Incorrect placement of buttons

After answering all the above questions, your finger no longer functioning because the buttons on the machine don’t function properly.

Shell gas dispenser machine

Taking the Shell gas station’s example, I have seen different machines in different locations. Some machines are updated than the others. A couple of errors I have noticed at these dispensers such as —

• Chip malfunction
• Confusing placement of buttons on the right side
• Multiple instructions and differently worded instructions at different locations.
• Keypad placement is far away from the screen
• Confusion between diesel and gas nosels

Potential solution

Have a touch screen — tablet/iPad instead in the fuel dispenser machine. A touch screen makes it user-friendly, usable, and easy to select the options and reduces the time in looking for keypad and card insertion slots.

Instead of buttons on the side of the screen, why not introduce a touch screen where they directly select the options.

Instead of looking for the keypad on the entire dispenser, the keypad must be on the same screen as other instructions — is my proposed solution.

Through this working prototype below, I am showing the start-to-end process of the gas station. I hope this was a smooth one!

I want to end this on a funny note! All the gas stations must bring some uniformity in their machines and language :)

Gif from Giphy

Please let me know your struggles and the challenges you encountered at a gas station and if my proposed solution would help. Thank you for reading!

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