

It separates ideas or concepts into two separate components. Our new device works in an opposite manner. 3D glasses combine two separate projections into one solid image. We have to see differently through an imaginary device with two lenses. The hunter sees the rabbit, the bird watcher the bird, and too many tourists see only the motels and gas stations." Carter, Professor of Geography, Johns Hopkins University, wrote in the Baltimore Sun in 1963: "It is axiomatic that the eye sees only what the mind prepares it to see.


What is a printer promising, if promising anything? What are customers actually paying for? The printing or the print? What are the underlying promises? Let's have a closer look, shall we? But before that, let's keep in mind what George F. Seeing the problem is the precondition to fixing it in design. Addressing a complaint may make for good customer service but it is better to fix it in design. The point here is the staff did not even see a problem. We don't fussy over how much sauce or cheese a pizza has do we? So why cry over a few thousand particles of ink? And the staff did offer to reprint the copies that fell short, didn't they? However, that is not the point of telling this story. If there is only a slight variation in the quality of some of the copies, is the customer being finicky? The copies are printed, aren't they? There is no major defect or error. The offerings and options, the pricing and the payment, the store environment, and the staff were prompt and polite. 'Yeah, that happens with many large jobs as the ink levels in the toner cartridges falls.' Everything else about the service was good.

Hmm, why? The staff quite simply shrug it off with the following explanation. The first few look fantastic but then further on several copies have a lower quality of finish with the colours not as rich. Next day, while picking up the finished product the customers casually inspects the copies. It would be a costlier affair but the buyer finds it attractive and agrees to pay. They print a sample to show how much better the quality could be. The standard option is reasonably inexpensive but then the staff point to another option based on high-end HP printers and premium paper. He hands over a PDF document of roughly 40 pages and asks for 25 copies to be printed and bound into book form, by the following morning. Not a coffee shop, a FedEx Office print shop. So, this guy walks into a shop in Las Vegas.
