elfs | Is it okay to dislike a grocery chain for its design decisions?

Most of you have probably already seen the automated checkout lines in many grocery stores. The one down the block from my house has one, and I used to like it. I used to because it was actually very simple and once you got to know it, easy to get through. They updated it a couple of months ago and, while I still use it, I have developed a deep, abiding loathing for the damn machines.

Because they chose that font you see above.

Chainlink (that's not actually chainlink there, but a free knockoff that's pretty close) is one of those "decorative" fonts that implies butchness, connectivity, technocracy. It has all of those design elements, and many designers I know fall for its trick at first. But the infatuation quickly wears off: chainlink is so graceless at being a decorative semiserif font with masculine lines that you quickly go from being infatuated with it to being sick of it. It's not even like Comic Sans; it's not a matter of overexposure. Chainlink is just one of those fonts that is so clearly and obviously bad eyecandy that you get an ache the second or third time you see it.

The auto-checkouts at the QFC down the street have chosen to use three different typefaces: A decorative font I couldn't name for the display page (including the store's logo), Helvetica for almost everything (the price and quantity display, most of the touchscreen buttons, and the close-captioning on the left for those who can't hear the bright chirpy voice), and Chainlink for... well, it's hard to say what for. Some buttons (including the red (why the frack red?) [PAY NOW] button), the "Thank you for shopping with us" notice (which always makes me want to say "Fuck you very much too," mostly because of the font), and a few other seemingly random places.

The new design is awful all around. The new "Do you have any coupons?" page has yes/no buttons that are opposite the "pay now" and the "pay with a card" buttons, so for 90% of their customers that hand has to seek back and forth on the screen, slowing them down. The "No barcode" sequence has added a new page between the button and the touchpad for entry so you can choose to search the database by category: putting the search button on the touchpad screen, which has plenty of real estate, would have been much nicer.

But mostly it's that font. That godawful, testosterony, "I'm young and stupid and a programmer not a designer and I think this font looks manly and great and I'll sneak it in where I can" font.