Epson's Female Printer

zmcnulty writes "I finished translating the K-Tai Watch (Japanese) article about a new printer in the Colorio line from Epson. It's not only being marketed at women, it was completely designed by 'Team8' - an all-female project team created within Epson specifically for making a printer 'easy for women to use.' Here is the original Japanese press release." Apparently they've been reading these studies.

Comments

carry a printer?

[garcia]

The "Colorio me:" is an inkjet printer designed by Epson's "Team8," an all-woman project team formed specifically for the purpose of creating a "printer easy for women to use." It has a handle on the round-style case for transporting.

IANAW but I really don't see a need to make this thing look a) like a kitchen appliance b) have a handle and c) support tons more stuff than 99% of people use.

Adding a handle is not going to make ANYONE more likely to carry it around nevermind ladies (the only people that get to carry computer equipment are men -- at least in my experience)

Having 1000 options for importing data is also confusing. KISS.

That's my opinion.

Re:carry a printer?

[clifyt]

"Adding a handle is not going to make ANYONE more likely to carry it around nevermind ladies"

I don't know.

My G4 has a handle (actually 4) and I've only moved it a few times in the last few years. *BUT* the few times I've had to move it, its been much nicer to grab and carry with my one good hand (I've got rhumatory arthritus in my dominant hand) and it wasn't a problem. My PC, on the other hand, is about the same size and to pick it up is a two handed exercise, with having to shift back and forth to open doors and otherwise.

But of course, thats manly to struggle with something, ain't it. And its manly to have big pieces of equipment that has no aestetic flair. I could care less about the looks, but its nice when folks come into my studio and see it as it is almost proof that I am an artist -- at least to the folks that don't know me any better -- and feel if I'm willing to buy something that looks good in my office, I'm more than likely going to give them something back that has a little more style than the guy down the road...then again, in my day job -- they don't give a fuck about that and just want my program on their desk by 9AM tommorow morning. Different markets.

As for 1000 options to import data, you might be right, but using my digital camera as well as several bluetooth products, its also nice that I can just drop the card into the sucker, it pulls up the photo and prints a nice proof without having to deal with the computer. If I had a camera phone, which I still think is an abomination (ever try to find a bluetooth phone without one...I was happy to find the T608 didn't have one), and used it, I think it would be great just to press the phones menu and get the stuff out without going through 5 extra steps.

IMHO, that is KISS. Keeping it simple means different things to different people. The device might be complex, but the end user doesn't have to think about how to get data into it because there are a dozen routes that all work the same because technically, all the device wasn't is the data and the extra conduits do not add up to any more complexity internally.

It looks like a purse!

[IO ERROR]

Why does a printer need a carrying handle? How often do you move a printer? All the rest of the features look really cool, though...

It's pretty obvious this is going to sell pretty well to women, it's just the handle strikes me as useless.

Me no speaky the japanee

[stratjakt]

What exactly is "easier for women to use"?

You put paper in one end, and it comes out the other end with words and pictures on it. Maybe japanese women are exceptionally stupid, I dont know. Does it come preloaded with paper and ink, and you throw it out rather than having to figure out how to put paper in?

Besides crafting it in pink plastic, or some other aesthetic nonsense, whats different?

The "designed for women!" thing is a great marketting gimmick. I mean, how many households buy two packs of razors, one for him, one for her. The only difference being that hers are pink.

Designed by Mothers?

[ferralis]

I'd go for this if the equipment were designed by mothers, not just women in general. The reason is simple: I have kids, and kids get into things, even the computer room you've worked very hard to be sure they stay OUT of. Perhapse I should say especially the room you've worked very hard to be sure they stay out of.

I would shell out some serious bucks for a printer that had a super-easy-to-clean paper path, that was liquid resistant (ever try to get orange juice or peanut butter out of a laser printer?!!) with liquid resistant ink.

Hrm... also maybe retractable cords, bluetooth to the computer, anything else that can keep kids from getting tangled in the wire jungle at the back of a PC.

...and I'm just a 30ish male geek. Imagine what a few moms could come up with! :)

Re:Designed by Mothers?

[Frobnicator]

I'd say 'designed by parents', instead, since I'm in the same boat.

For example, I need to mod my computers to put a locking plexiglass cover in front of it -- to keep the little one away from the power, reset, and CD buttons.

The printer has ONE button, and when my 1-year-old discovered it, we had a pile of blank pages and "Printer Information" sheets on the floor.

I keep a spray-bottle of water and paper towels next to the monitor, since it will be covered with fingerprints every time I use the machine.

I would like an optical mouse that really isn't, so my kids can just pick it up and play with the lights, while I use the real one.

On Windows 98, I wrote a screen-saver program that put in a giant font on the screen whatever keys are hit. There was a message on the bottom saying "please type 'unlock' to unlock this computer". My (currently 4-year-old) daughter used to sit down with it, and say "look dad, I'm typing like you." I now keep it on her little computer so her little sister won't mess it up too badly. Unfortunately, I can't get WinXP to trap several key sequences, so it doesn't work there.

There is a market for that type of thing, and it isn't being tapped.

I think I understand

[Nanite]

I don't think I have to mention how mental the Japanese are over cameras. Well, most (female) Japanese also like the photobooths that give you little stickers with your photo on them. I think this printer is designed for the average japanese schoolgirl who wants to take pictures with her friends and then print them out immediately, hence the handle to carry it with you. It doesn't even look like it prints on regular 8.5x11 paper, just 35mm print size photo paper. Add in the fact that it can print from a camera phone and you've got a device that would be a hit with ganguro girls everywhere.

BTW, check out the pic of the girls of team 8, HOT! :)

You know what ...

[Sonic McTails]

I can remember target marketing directly at women as far back as the 70s. Lionel released it's "Lady Lionel" which had simpiler instructions, all pink and blue cars, and is now a very valuable collectors item. However, at the time, the Lady Lionel compeletely flopped and it did more harm them good to the Lionel train company.

That, ADMIRAL to you, punk!

[Thud457]

"The first people to get involved in computers were men."

WHAT THE FUCK are you talking about, you young whelp?!!!!

Re:Completely misses the point!

[beeplet]

I think that Slashdot suffers from exactly the problem that the OP was pointing out... Women perceive that Slashdot is male-oriented, or that they are being viewed differently here, and find it annoying. And then they leave, perpetuating the problem.

The solution is not to create a simplified, pink-themed version of slashot; I think the solution involves changing the assumption that women are inherently less technical, and making the technical community seem more accepting of them rather than less so.

Some features seem kind of useful

[SuperKendall]

Some of the features everyone seems off about strike me as kind of useful.

To start with, the handle. I could actually see a lot of use for this myself - I am not printing often, and it would be nice to make the printer easier to tuck out of the way. Also, I have a laptop and it would be nice to sit out on the porch with a printer at times. The actual device looks about twice as big as I would like for such use though (if that's an 8x11 sheet of paper in the press photo).

The second thing I kind of like is the video. It's nice to have a last minute visual confirmation of exactly what the printer is about to do. I didn't read the whole thing but it would be even better if it auto-detected paper sizes loaded to provide a helpful warning it was going to crop.

The single ink cartridge is still a bad idea though, even though it's simpler... I don't know. I think more people would have a problem with the cost than figuring out which ink cart needs to go I know, you could hit a button and it would print out a slip telling you exactly what ink carts to buy so you could take it to a store and hand it to a clerk. That would be useful anyway, as even with one cart it can be tricky knowing which thing to buy when you get to the store. I always forgot which exact model of Epson Stylus Photo I had (was it the 700 or 750?) which was kin dof annoying, and I was trying to be careful.

I do agree though that the idea of a "Womens Printer" is pretty stupid, just make a printer that's easier for everyone to use and you will have a lot of happy customers.

Re:This is ghey...

[donscarletti]

Although I largly agree with your point, I think your examples are fairly facile. For a start these are products, marketed towards women wholly to make money rather than to solve social injustices and the like. For a start, special-K (the cereal type) tastes great despite the fact that it is not engineered for my male nutiritional needs (although it is not like my standard breakfast of froot loops is either). T.v. for "women" is a type of broadcasting that networks do because it is cheap and its pulpy sap is soaked up by the 80% of female kind who cannot destinguish bad television, this is much like the 80% of males that thought "the fast and the furious" was a good movie. I see no problem with the Rogain ad either. Pattern baldness in women is like breast cancer in men, rare, but when one has it, it is awkward.

I agree with you, post feminist gender roles are nothing but an il-defined, inconsistant, paradoxical mess. But one cannot progress from the old ideal of giving women protection but no power to the new ideal of giving them power but no protection without an intermediate step of pure chaos where they seem to be granted whatever the hell they want. But these are just consumer products and what do you care if some corperate executypes want to cash in on the fact that women buy stuff?

YOU completely miss the point!

[instarx]

You want just the specs, nothing else and certainly no marketing aimed specifically at a you. That's pretty funny and self-centered because products sold that way ARE using marketing aimed at a technical sub-group. Those bullet-pointed spec sheets are written specifically for your market segment and what is more, they clearly work because you prefer them.

Re:Completely misses the point!

[instarx]

Thank you for taking the time to explain things to these people who just assume that the issue is within the women, when it is really within their perception of women. Unfortunatly you have very little chance of changing their male 20-something minds because they are convinced that their view of the world is the only valid one.

I would like to add that the stereotype of the non-technical woman is likely perpetuated by women themselves out of shear frustration. As I get older I find that sales people have started talking down to me because as an "old guy" (50) I must not know anything about computers (or HDTV or you name it). I usually just let them insult me because it isn't worth my time to smack them between the eyes. This assumption by sales people that I am a moron is a recent pheomenon with me so I can't even imagine what it must be like for women who have been talked down to for their entire lives.