Wednesday, February 17, 2010

PrintMarmoset: Redesigning the Print Button for Sustainability

Written by: Jun Xiao, Jian Fan

The authors put together a program called PrintMarmoset. The purpose behind this program is to reduce the amount of wasted paper that comes from sloppy web printing. PrintMarmoset allows users to easily erase, blow up, and select data from a website and print while maintaining the ease of use as compared to HP Smart Web Printing. The purpose of the project was to implement Sustainable Interaction Design (SID); to design things taking the environment and waste into account. It turns out that their product was well received and easy to use, saving a large amount of paper compared to commercially available programs.

I feel that this paper sheds light on the computer scientist's obligation to design not only for a good product, but one using SID. I think that a better avenue, as stated in the paper, is to improve digital copies of reading so there is very little waste, but this paper is primarily used to enlighten people to a way of thinking. To expand on this paper's research for the future would probably see continued breakdowns of web pages so that there is virtually no waste in printing when it has to be done.


1 comment:

  1. It is interesting to see that we've actually increased the number of printouts as computers have become more prevalent, rather than decreased. This system could work since it takes into account the laziness of the average user.

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