Two Most Critical Aspects:

• make the choices on the initial screen clearer
• encourage more people to use it

Make the choices on the initial screen clearer:

Many people go to the post office just to purchase stamps. The picture below show the first screen that a user encounters. One user commented that he was confused by the options. What is the difference between the first and second options, "mail a letter or package" and "buy stamps'? Does the first option mean you already have the postage? Or will it step you through calculating the postage and printing the label for you?

Current design	Proposed redesign

While this proposed change has not been tested, it is more clear on the difference between the first two choices. Also, a "help or other" option has been added, which would allow the user to search for common tasks.

Encourage more people to use it:

Those who used the machine to get their errands done thought it was easy-to-use. Everyone else either was afraid of the technology or didn't notice it. Even though there was a postal worker whose job it was to encourage and help people use the machine, are there other ways to further increase its use? I would want to talk to a manager or someone who is aware of the plans for the APC in the future. Here are some suggestions:

• Place APCs in locations such as supermarkets. A study would need to be done to see whether or not users would use it. As it stands now, it seems that the APC is only used as a last resort when the line is too long or if you are a part of a small group of "lead users" who already knows the technology. If ATMs are placed in places that aren't banks, maybe APCs can be placed in the same way.
• Looking at this picture shows that the APC blends in with its environment. It follows the hint of blue around the post office. Making it a bright, noticeable, but aesthetically pleasing color could make it useful. Also, to the hurried customer, it also looks like an ATM.

  Is there a way to make it not look like an ATM so people won't ignore it?

  Placing it in the line of sight of the customer as they stand in line may be more effective than just a sign. If and when other customers (successfully) use the APC, perhaps the people in line will be more enticed. Currently, the customer may or may not see the APC when they walk in. In blue is the current location and in orange is the new location:

Other concerns or suggestions:

Credit/debit card danger:

As stated by some of the users and the postal worker, there is a danger about allowing more transactions after the credit/debit card is swiped. An improvement to that would be to have the customer swipe only after he or she has completed the one or more transactions. After the information is swiped, the transaction should close immediately.

Denomination of customized stamps & arbitrary number of stamps:

Another expressed improvement was to allow custom-amount stamps to be less than a $1 (which is restricted as of now) and also not to restrict the number of stamps by booklet increments.

Cash:

Many of the users stated it would be convenient to be able to use cash for the APC transactions. The postal worker said, however, that it would require more upkeep for the machine. I think this is an improvement for preferences versus making the experience more usable. Allowing cash transactions, in my opinion wouldn't increase the use of the APC.