Ricoh Innovations deployed two color multifunction printers and three color printers (two Ricoh and one Xerox). We worked closely with the IT department to get all the devices up and running on the University wireless network.

Each device included a poster to advertise the free WiFi printer, and included complete instructions on how to use it. We intentionally didn't advertise the printer or the driver to the student population.

We took this approach because we wanted to see what would happen if a printer were just placed in the field, with only written instructions on how to use it. By positioning our prototype this way, we could get a much better understanding how people responded to this new way of printing.

Integration

The five devices remained in the field for two months. During this time, Ricoh Innovations kept track of how many students successfully used the devices, as well as the volume from each machine. Over this time period, 250 students used our devices and 1800 print jobs were completed, which worked out to approximately 31,000 printed pages and 12,000 photocopied pages.

Growth moved steadily upward, with printing usage tripling in one month from 400 to 1200. Ricoh Innovations surveyed and interviewed a wide range of students during this phase of the project, both those who used the wireless printer driver and those who didn't. Of the adopters, two-thirds reported that it was either fairly or very easy to download and install the driver. Once installed, 68 percent reported that it was very easy for them to print.