PrintMarmoset: Redesigning the Print Button for Sustainability

Summary:

Jun Xiao and Jian Fan from HP Laboratories conducted a study aimed at reducing the amount of wasted paper that results from web printing. Their browser add-on, named PrintMarmoset, allows users to remove web content before printing. Their field of interest is Sustainable Interaction Design (SID). SID focuses on creating sustainable and evolving products and technologies. Where most design is interested in how one person uses a system, SID is interested in how everyone can use a system with the smallest impact on the environment or resources. With that in mind, the authors studied the printing behaviour of computer users. They mention that 50 TRILLION pages were printed in 2007 to show that SID has could and should be applied. By conducting interviews, the authors found that people print things to signify their importance, and because it's faster than transferring data electronically (their example is a map versus programming GPS).





To combat the excessive waste associated with printing things online, the authors developed PrintMarmoset. They tried to make their add-on as simple to use as possible, thereby minimizing the chance that people wouldn't use it because it frustrates them. This also promotes SID, by incorporating it in an unobtrusive way. Users simply select parts of the website that they do not want to print, and then whatever is left will be printed. PrintMarmoset is a WYSIWYG tool, and as such users in the study preferred it to current printing methods.

You should definitely click the image.

Discussion:
Have you ever printed an email and a second page comes out with just an address on it? Or pages are covered with ads that, even though you click 'Print Selection', you end up having pages and pages of? PrintMarmoset seems like a tool that was needed years ago. So why didn't anyone think of it? I think the authors are right when they say that people think paper is plentiful. It seems like everyone has this mindset that you can print things a thousand times at maximum size and spacing, and therefore wouldn't need a tool to reduce waste. Just think about Reed... that recycle bin is filled with crap that people didn't want to print. I hope that the authors will push for their add-on to be available in all browsers.