Insight

Because Ricoh had carefully monitored student printing volume over the two–month period, Santa Clara University's IT staff gained insight into the location and time where printing was heaviest so they could locate new printers to address the students' needs. In addition, Ricoh's interviews and surveys of SCU students provided the IT department with specifics on the unmet printing needs of the student population. For example, students responded quite favorably to color printing and the ability to print duplex (double-sided), neither of which was currently offered by Santa Clara University. Based on the Ricoh data, Santa Clara understood that duplex printing was highly desirable for a reason the IT department had not considered—the weight of lugging paper. Students preferred duplex printing mainly because it was lighter to carry.

Providing a single "print anywhere driver" solution might begin to bridge the gap mobile users had around installing and using print drivers. But what about the students who didn't adopt? Of 8000 students, 250, or just 3 percent, tried the Ricoh solution over two months. After surveying the students that didn't adopt the printers, it was found that they 1) didn't notice them, 2) assumed they weren't able to print from them, or 3) decided they didn't even want to try to print from them.

Of these reasons for not adopting, the most challenging one was the third. In this case, even if these students saw the poster informing them that they could use this unfamiliar printer, and read the instructions on how to do it, they didn't try, reasoning that it was not worth the trouble and frustration of attempting.

It turned out that much of this aversion was based on prior experiences students had over the years that had resulted in failure. The students would try once or twice to use a new printing device and if it didn't work, they would give up. This influenced their decisions later on, so that at a certain point some wouldn't even try using a new device, and would rely instead on one they knew would work.

Santa Clara University learned that a segment of their students' base was highly motivated to try new print devices and could be counted on to continue providing valuable feedback. However, this did not address another type of behavior that a sizeable number of Santa Clara University's students had exhibitedm—those who avoided new technology solutions altogether.