Inspired: MKBHD
If you have watched MKBHD’s videos on YouTube, you would know how talented this guy is in the field of reviewing techs.
If you don’t know him yet, which is not quite possible if you watch YouTube often, go watch some MKBHDs now.
Recently, MKBHD answered one of his follower’s question:
What objectify terrible products do you regularly use either; because of necessity or because you love them despite their flaws?
This is an extremely sensitive question to me being a product designer.
MKBHD’s answer was ‘printers’.
I personally had 5 printers and 4 of them was broken and fixed and broken for several times. The only one that is still working is the Canon one I bought 4 months ago, and have only used 5 or 6 times.
Made Confusing
How strange that one of the simplest, oldest technology human invented is still confusing to use today.
We’ve had printing technology for more than a thousand year.
Years ago, when I was still using printers regularly, I never figured out why the printer won’t print or why it stopped half way, because all it would say were ‘no paper’ or ‘paper jammed’. After re-refilling the papers and seeing it jammed 10 more times, I would just go to a printing store to print my stuff.
I’ve had some good brands: Epson, HP, and now Canon.
I remember those mechanical typewriters back in the days that you would type on the keys and each of those metal keys would print graphite on the paper as you press down, is inefficient, yet satisfying (if you ignore how often they brakes).
These things get broken so quickly.
Today the new printers are featured with touch screens and AirPrint which makes the process easier and the information more transparent. Now I don’t use printers that often, but I can finally get my job done without much frustration.
The one I’m currently having. Can’t remember the name of the model, like every other ones.
Now if I want to print something, the steps would seem quite simple.
Open document(on phone or desktop)
Turn on the printer
Connect the printer to the source
Print
Even though these steps still confused my mom, which is a terrible problem. But the real problems are with the printers since the beginning.
The Real Problems
First, the printers are not space efficient. Printers are usually half the size of a microwave, sometimes even bigger. This cause a problem that a printer is taking much more area than anything else on the desk. Because of the scanning feature, no printer can ever be made smaller than a letter size paper. So we have to find a way around ensuring that it takes less space while still being larger than a letter size paper.
Papers are also too easy to get jammed in printers, and that’s a mechanical issue which is not my expertise. It has to have something to do with how the stack of papers is placed/aligned, and how the rollers consume each paper.
My final problem with printers is that they are too rational. They are designed to get the job done, not to be loved. This degree of satisfaction was ignored during the design process of printers.
I love my iPhone.
I love my Coconut Lounge Chair.
These products were designed in a way that I just can’t help appreciate their existence. Printers were not.
When I think of printers, I think of “work”, “frustration”, “complication”, and “stupidity”. The difficult task is to turn these words into “beautiful”, “satisfying”, “simple”, and “enjoyable”.
We live in an era that spiritual experience matters too much. A product that works well isn’t sufficient for being a “good product”. Maybe one day there will be one printer that just “feels great” in a way that we could’ve never imagined, like every other pieces of tech.