Why do People Need to Print?
I was polled on a request for ongoing printing needs of documents in a Notes application. Documents to be printed off at regular intervals and copied and bound for certain sets of users. These are all documents easily available to view in a Notes application. So that got me to wondering WHY a user would want them printed.
Several reasons occurred to me, some with easy solutions and some not. What do you think? What are your solutions?
Here are my thoughts…
Reason #1) Users go “offline” and don’t realize that the Notes app can go offline with them. They mistakenly believe if they are off to the airport, or in a cab, that the Notes app is unavailable to them, so they want a printout of materials for review.
Solution #1) This one is easy. Introduce the user to local replicas and location docs.
Reason #2) Habit. They are just used to having stuff printed off and continue to request new materials in the old way.
Solution #2) Retrain the users. This one is a little tougher to implement, although some of it is the same solution as #1. It can be difficult to teach an old dog new tricks.
Reason #3) Bad design. Maybe the UI is so bad that users either can’t find what they are looking for, or can’t read it once they find it.
Solution #3) Redesign the UI bits that people are printing. Make sure your users can find stuff and read it on screen. Take into account your user’s screens. How are they typically accessing the documents? Big screens, little screens? Web? Blackberry? Email? A view?
Reason #4) ?? Maybe they really hate trees.
So what am I missing? Why do users cling to hardcopies?