Short Story on How Design Impacts Everyday Decisions

Have you ever had a moment where design got in the way or saved the day?
I recently had an experience at a fuel pump that showed me how much design affects our daily interactions.

After filling up, I went to pay with my card. While typing my PIN, I accidentally mistyped the last digit. I needed to delete it, and the POS machine gave me three options:

🟡 A yellow button with a back arrow
🔴 A red button with a close icon
🟢 A green button (I can’t remember the icon since it was obvious).

Feeling a bit rushed with people waiting behind me, I instinctively hit the red button with the close icon. Why? Because I’m so used to the close icon doubling as a backspace when I’m typing on my phone.

Unfortunately, instead of just deleting the last digit, it canceled the entire transaction, and I had to start over.

Here’s what I realized:

👉 Familiar patterns matter: On my phone, the close icon feels intuitive as a backspace. The POS machine unintentionally borrowed this pattern but used it for a completely different function.

👉 Color cues should match context: A red button often signals “stop” or “cancel,” but under pressure, I interpreted it as a keyboard function because it was next to the keypad.

👉 Small changes make a big impact: If the delete button matched the keypad’s color and maybe labeled more clearly, it would’ve felt like part of the keyboard, not the transaction process.

This experience reminded me how important it is for design to align with user expectations and familiar behaviors. Even small design choices can lead to confusion if they don’t match what users intuitively expect.