View from the Labs
Another Labs test, and another tree had to die. Why are we still so hooked on paper?
We don’t cut corners with testing at PC Pro, and in this Labs I’ve burned my way through about three reams of paper. I’ve reused as much as possible and I’ll recycle it all, but as I look at the piles of prints and copies, I’m struck by the thought that it’s just a microcosm of all the offices and homes around the world: together we buy a lot of printers and they use a lot of paper.
Why are we still so hooked on the stuff? In the age of cheap screens, Retina displays and information everywhere, what is it about the white page that makes black text so much easier to absorb? In the past, flickery CRT monitors could make screen reading tiring, but these days even my £200 Chromebook looks marvellous. Yet, I still found myself proofing this Labs on paper.
A 2013 study compared reading effort on three different media: paper, a tablet and an e-reader with an E Ink screen, studying eye movement, brain activity and reading speed. It found no evidence that it was easier to read from paper – but everyone said they preferred to. Another 2013 study found that Norwegian students who read texts on paper had better comprehension of them than those who read the same text on a computer screen. The theory is that the tactile sensation of turning pages makes it easier to remember their content.
It’s also easy to dismiss paper as relatively harmless. Of all the environmental challenges facing us, printer paper barely merits a mention. Most non-recycled paper comes from sustainable forests, it’s easy to reuse and recycle, and if all else fails you can compost or burn it. Even so, paper, ink and printer production clearly has an impact. Doesn’t it seem reasonable to minimise it?
There’s a limit to the impact I can make. My insurers, mortgage company, council and pension provider all have my email address and my permission to use it, yet still they send printed policies, summaries and bills in the post. My first step? Take out the staples, load them in the MFP and scan them to Google Drive. Lately that’s been the default response to paper in our house, as we try to archive our way up to date with a decade of correspondence. It helps that I’ve got access to fast document scanners, a shredder and a big communal recycling bin, but surely there’s a better way of doing this.
My bank has been using downloadable PDF statements for nearly two decades. Now that it’s 2019 we’ve got secure messaging services such as WhatsApp and equally secure cloud storage, along with devices that plug into them, so there’s no excuse for companies stuck in the past.
Customer-facing businesses should realise that their legacy workflows extend beyond their offices and into our homes. Old processes based on old tech waste everyone’s time and resources – we should bring them into the 21st century.
“Customer-facing businesses should realise that their legacy workflows extend beyond their offices and into our homes”