![\"\"](\"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/screwfix-self-check-in-1024x995.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nA designer has put a lot of thought into this simple interface. They've split the form into 12 input boxes, rendered in a space-separated 4-4-4 format, the first one locked to contain \"A\" to help the user identify which number they need to enter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It's beautiful, but this effort is undermined by the piece of code that constructs the SMS notification....<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 12 character code is displayed with no separators! It's frustrating as I am stood in the shop, switching my eyes from screen to phone to screen, I lose my place multiple times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are myriad examples of making long numbers easier to read: telephone numbers, sort codes, post codes, your NHS number. Different companies build systems to support these and we all follow formatting conventions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would love to just get my grubby hands on 2 bits of code in Screwfix. First, I'd break up the number in the text message to be in a hyphen-separated 4-4-4 format. Why hyphens and not spaces you ask? So it doesn't break over multiple lines on a small screen. See, I've thought about this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Next I would put the same hyphens between the groups of boxes on the self check-in interface. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would probably also sweep through the code that generates the collection note paperwork, mobile app and the screwfix.com website as well to make the display format consistent...<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would bet a Freddo Caramel that this change would fly through usability testing as a proven improvement. I reckon tradies regularly scribble order numbers on bits of paper or send screenshots when asking a mate to pickup an order. If the customer isn't reading it, the staff member on the desk is; someone's being made to think slightly harder than necessary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I wonder if I can get this idea seen by someone with influence ? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Screwfix’s systems are undeniably slick, but if there was 1 small improvement I could make it would be a text formatting tweak in both their self check-in interface and the SMS message notification. User journey When my order is ready I get a notification to my phone, travel to the shop and use the self […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-1409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-software","tag-ux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1409"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1468,"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions\/1468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ScrewFix-SMS-1024x776.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSolution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screwfix-order-history-page.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n