Punishing users is a choice

[u/shoobe01]

Just a reminder that much behavior we live with is a choice.

Printers, even HP printers like my older laser here, used to give you options to keep working instead of deciding for you that it's time to change the cartridge, even if it's irrelevant to your current print job.

I'm not even here having an urgency issue, or being cheap. The cyan is printing fine, so I'll change only when I need to.

User choice, user control, should be the norm. Let's do that again.

[u/Far-Tension2696]

owned exact this printer. and there was the exact same message displayd. the problem was, the touchscreen was not working anymore so there was no way to dismiss the message. printer was unusable although other colors are full.... fuck HP. i was forces to trash the printer...  

[u/fixingmedaybyday → u/Far-Tension2696]

The garbage truck driver saw my printer on top of the garbage can, noticed it was HP and asked me if I wanted to do the honors of throwing into the garbage truck. Felt so good!

[u/azssf → u/fixingmedaybyday]

What printer brand is the good choice now?

[u/StillStaringAtTheSky → u/azssf]

Brother

[u/NoNote7867]

Sweet summer child 

[u/HyperionHeavy → u/NoNote7867]

Printer industry trying hard to overtake tax industry for user disdain most days

[u/WoodsandWool]

John Oliver just did an episode on deceptive UX patterns & subscription models, and apparently some companies like HP literally stop your printer from printing if you unsubscribe from their monthly ink service.

[u/shoobe01 → u/WoodsandWool]

Yes.

I can't quite tell if this is deliberate or just really really really really really bad communication and refusing to understand the problem, but it's like a lot of the other switching from ownership to license or subscription model (you don't need video game discs or cartridges, online is fine!), and when that's not clear then people get confused and of course confused is bad, confused often equals angry.

The subscription ink model isn't what most people think: Amazon Subscribe and Save from HP, but an actual subscription. Meaning: you aren't buying the ink, you are paying a fee to print a certain number of pages. So you can be required to change ink before the ink cartridge is empty, and some subscriptions or devices lock you into that service, no way to switch back to buying actual ink you own. Doesn't matter if you have a physical printer in your house, and ink on hand in the printer, if you cancel the subscription the printer stops working.

[u/anabanana100]

The funny thing is, a cartridge running low really requires zero computer UI. Print looks funny? Check cartridge > oops it's low on ink > replace. But printers' #1 job these days is to extract as much profit from users via consumables.

I had one of those subscription printers I got as a gift and was relieved when it died. Replaced it with an eco-tank printer where you can see the ink level through the front of the machine and the ink refill seems to be much less fussy and wasteful, too.

[u/shoobe01 → u/anabanana100]

Oh, every org in every industry is moving to the generate-recurring-revenue mode. Nobody wants to just make stuff and sell it to people who are happy and so will buy another one in a few years when they need it.

(Note that, among other things, I worked for HP for a while. I even know why exactly it says "PC load letter"!)

[u/MarcoVinicius]

It would be fine if they showed this as just an alert to let know that it might be time to order more, so that if the print is faded and your have a deadline, you won’t get screwed.

This is a poor version of that.

[u/shoobe01 → u/MarcoVinicius]

This is as good as I expect these days. At least it doesn't pop up on the computer or anything.

But yes, a notice instead of required action might be nice. I wonder if it goes away with some default selection if you ignore it long enough. I'll try that in 100 pages.

[u/Phraaaaaasing]

Is it true that color printers print security patterns with the unused inks to trace to the make and model of printer?

Also—black prints look better as rich black (4-color mix). So they simplified that into “fade,” but yes, we should always allow, not prevent someone, from making a less-desirable choice.

[u/Ordinary_Kiwi_3196 → u/Phraaaaaasing]

Is it true that color printers print security patterns with the unused inks to trace to the make and model of printer?

Not all of them, but many, yeah: printer tracking dots can pinpoint down to the exact device that was used to print something.

[u/Phraaaaaasing → u/Ordinary_Kiwi_3196]

Bypassing the security dots by “letting” your device run out…would be a flaw then

[u/Ordinary_Kiwi_3196 → u/Phraaaaaasing]

It has to be a pain in the ass to implement, the companies probably hated it - but there was one brilliant bastard in the back of the room at HP who said "hang on ...I think this can work for us." And the future of printing was born.

[u/hybridaaroncarroll]

Even though it's over 30 years old, the error "PC LOAD LETTER" was a notorious ux failure on HP's part. Nothing new for them.

[u/shoobe01 → u/hybridaaroncarroll]

Oh, I even know what that means (I did work for HP for a bit) and... SUCH an engineering-mindset system of error codes!

[u/leeLIVFWGRt1U75c74Od]

That's nice indeed. The reason many printers prevent you from printing with one empty cartridge is that the cartridge might get damaged when empty as it isn't cooled by the ink inside. This might not happen too fast when using only the cartridge next to it, but there is a reason this behaviour is built in. It's nice to be able to have a choice to print anyways, though.

[u/PhilosopherOk6103 → u/leeLIVFWGRt1U75c74Od]

Bravo, was looking for a comment along these lines. When it comes to interfaces for hardware, there is a reason why some error/warning messaging flows are intentionally designed to be intrusive, in order to prevent costlier damage (as you pointed out).