Summary:
In this paper, HP Labs researchers Jun Xiao and Jian Fan predominantly discuss the concept of sustainable interaction design (SID) and the challenges presented by systems and users when attempting to introduce "green" behaviors. They tested and refined their observations by developing PrintMarmoset, a refinement of other "smart" printing technologies like "printer-friendly" versions of web pages and HP Smart Web Printing. The aim of PrintMarmoset was to address the problems presented by printing web content -- undesirable formatting, cut-off text, advertisements, and blank pages -- and reduce the amount of waste paper associated with those problems. All of this, of course, had to be implemented in a way that did not require developers to modify existing web sites nor users to change existing print flow, required near-zero user input effort, offered user flexibility and pre-defined templates, maintained a history of print activities for future reference, and preferable raise awareness of itself among users. Xiao and Fan achieved this by writing PrintMarmoset as a Firefox browser extension; when the user clicks the PrintMarmoset button, the main content of the page is selected by the plugin and is highlighted to the user. PrintMarmoset then allows the user to add to or remove from the content selection with one very simple mouse "stroke" gesture. Once the user is satisfied with the selection, he or she clicks the PrintMarmoset button again and a document containing the selected content is generated.
PrintMarmoset approximates desired content via analysis of a scaled-down screen image. Visual separators are identified and used to divide the page into blocks. Once these blocks are determined, content importance is evaluated by parsing text information from the HTML portion of the page. PrintMarmoset also utilizes a tool called PrintMark that stores the user's selection for that page and uses it as the default printing template for that website in any future printing attempts. These PrintMarks can then also be shared with other PrintMarmoset users to encourage a more "viral" and communicative method of promoting sustainability through saving printout paper. PrintMarmoset was tested and compared against other tools like HP Smart Web Printing. These tests favored PrintMarmoset's easy stroke selection and most users stated that the tool offered a natural WYSIWYG printing experience.
Discussion:
The difficulty with presenting sustainable technologies to users is the fact that most sustainable technologies are only effective on a long-term basis and there are few if any short-term benefits; users want results now with as little effort as possible. In this regard, PrintMarmoset is a very effective tool -- it requires little of its users besides the click of a button and a single mouse stroke, and it provides a paper-saving print method with clear short-term and long-term benefits. I personally don't print a whole lot of web content (hardly any, in fact) but for those who do, in offices or businesses or wherever, I can see this being a very useful, easy-to-integrate tool for getting the desired content on the page. The are only two readily apparent problems I see with PrintMarmoset: it is limited to the Firefox web browser (which is widespread but hardly ubiquitous) and therefore discounts a large audience of other browser users; and it is a browser extension, which by definition requires a user to find and install it. As discussed above, users will only exert the least possible amount of effort and they may not be convinced that an "alternate print button" is worth their time to install, or may not know how to install it at all.
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