[Usability] Re: Usability Digest, Vol 20, Issue 26

[michael chang <thenewme91 gmail com>]

On 12/14/05, usability-request gnome org <usability-request gnome org> wrote:

> > What about a "manual duplex wizard" instead of/in addition to odd/even?
> > With pictures, like one sometimes finds in Windows printer drivers.
>
> Do people really still bother with manual duplex printing that
> much these days when many printers come with duplex support
> already?

Yes.  Look at the consumer printer market.  Not to mention who knows
how many people are still using their older inkjet printers from 1997.

> Supporting manual duplexing right requires a knowledge of how
> the pages come out (face up or face down), but I suspect this
> behavior would be best implemented by providing a duplex option
> in the dialog and triggering a special two-job submission mode in
> the GUI rather than requiring the user to say "print the front
> sides" and "print the back sides".

If this wizard is implemented in a higher level and there is a
configuration option, you could configure this once with a few test
pages (e.g. print like A, B on various pages and ask how they come out
of the printer, e.g. orientation and ordering, then repeat with C, D
on the same pages reinserted into the printer...) and then have it
automatic as an option in programs.  However, this would have to be a
per-printer setting...

That said, the coding would be irritation for such a thing, I'd say. 
It would take a while to plan such an application, and then a while
longer to write it out.  Not to mention figuring out interoperability
with other things... *sigh*

Asking the user to print only the fronts or only the backs may be
useful if he recieves a unique document.  I believe OpenOffice.org
does this too, even in things like Windows - but I'm not sure if
that's lazyness or something, or if that was an intentional part of
the design.

--
~Mike
 - Just the crazy copy cat.