The Future of Documents

Despite the Paperless Office promises, one of the reasons paper is still around is its affordances – UI, look and feel, and ease of navigation and manipulation.

None of the attempts at making “virtual copies” of documents in virtual worlds have been very successful so far. Although the information that could be provided could be nearly as good or even augmented from a physical document or book, the interaction remained relatively poor.

But User Interfaces are getting much “richer” – think about multi-touch on your iPod or Tablet PC, or even better take a look at that video:

With such rich interfaces and the “quality” and real-life feeling (not to mention augmented capabilities) that can be delivered in current 3D worlds, I would not be surprised if Virtual Documents and Books could become very usable in a few years.

As we know, the “Less Paper Office“ is mainly about printing less, but does include some exceptions or “micro trends”. Printing higher-quality, personalized, color documents is one of those -as it allows maximum impact for your printed document. This includes brochures, transpromo statements, leaflets, or cards. These documents however require more preparation, and generate more defects, as the final document, once printed, often does not quite match the electronic version - wrong colors, poor assembly, or other unpleasant side-effects, which make the final document unusable – and waste paper and money.

Xerox’s Research Centre Webster is working on a number of technologies to address these problems. One “cool” technology is 3-D Document Visualisation, which lets the user “preview” the final print result in 3-D, allowing her to test various finishing options, such as folds, gloss, binding, texture, and many other parameters.

(For those of you who cannot see the video embedded here, please follow this link)

This should expedite the review and approval process for quality color prints. This process, according to InfoTrends, can be six times more expensive than the actual printing of the document. Not to mention, of course, the “green” and sustainability consequences: achieving the desired look and feel for the final document are a great step towards one more step towards the Less Paper Office.