The DocuColor 2000 series is Xerox's latest production color print engine. The product has multiple print server offerings to choose from, and this particular server is targeted at users with very little printing knowledge.

Myself and a colleague led the user interface design effort on the project with a 3rd party vendor who developed the software exclusively for Xerox. One of the biggest challenges was collaborating with a development team that spread between France, Rochester, NY, and Sunnyvale, CA. Together we created an application that is served from a Linux web server and is used through a standard web browser.

The visual design of the UI is meant to harmonize with the hardware design so that the product looks and feels like an integrated hardware/software solution. The tab-based navigation provides a simple, partitioned work flow that addresses the tasks that 3 different user classes might perform using this server. A static HTML framework was used for the navigation and areas that are not dynamically database driven. Areas of high interaction that require quick response times, like the job queues, and the printer status monitor, were created with java applets.

Usability testing revealed first-time users could easily navigate the system, and be proficient with its function. The biggest drawback of a web application is that some users are uncomfortable using a web browser to do real work. This will change though, as more and more web sites change from purely informational browsing experiences to applications that help people perform tasks.