Exploring Sustainable Design with Reusable Paper

This paper explores the need for sustainable design with paper: how people really print and how we can take advantage of novel, reusable paper technology. We conducted two studies to investigate user's printing behavior. A key finding of the first study was that users often need an intermediate state between the electronic and physical forms of their documents. The second study examined users' predictions of which types of documents required this intermediate state. We formulate these findings into design guidelines that take into account: examination phase, transitions, cognitive and emotional reasons, and task- and event-relevant documents. Finally, we discuss how the different physical characteristics of reusable paper affect the user interface and could effectively support sustainable design.