News

Past predictions for what the world would be like today have included flying cars, holidays on the moon and paperless offices. None of these has quite come to fruition yet. While the internet has revolutionised the way we communicate and research information, people still use paper, and still buy physical books and magazines in their millions.

Perhaps the reason for this is all down the senses. We have at least five senses, and marketers, the entertainment industry and teachers are all keen to stimulate more than one at a time. It has been the dream of filmmakers, for years, to create movies that we can feel and smell, as well as see and hear.

The 1932 futurist book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley describes a cinema where the arm rests of the seats give tactile stimulation and the films are known as ‘feelies’. Supermarket designers know that the smell of baking bread will do more to encourage us to buy than sight alone, while teachers are advised to make their lessons multisensory to enable students to absorb more information. However, computers and other devices are moving things the other way, creating electronic images we can see but not touch.

Ebook readers, such as the one launched by Sony, have been touted as heralding the end of paper books. Dr Patrick Dixon, author of Futurewise and recently ranked one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive today (in the ‘Thinkers 50 2005’ survey), argues that while reference books will struggle over the next decade to make adequate returns in the face of fierce competition from online, “the fact is, other books remain immensely popular. There is a great pleasure in picking up a physical product and entering into a long story that is not gained from an electronic screen.”

Broadcaster and journalist Andrew Marr, a self-confessed bibliophile, envisages himself as an old man “creeping round secondhand bookshops, sniffing the produce, snuffling with pleasure.” He recently tested out an ebook reader for The Guardian and his suggestions for the manufacturers included: “make it smell – just a little musty. Or dank.”

UPM has introduced a new paper selection tool, known as the paper sommelier, to help customers select papers based not only on production values, but harder to define emotional and physical values, such as touch and feel. The sommelier is based on a study, conducted at UPM’s research centre, to develop qualitative testing methods to measure these properties in paper grades.

“The study confirms that age, gender, nationality and occupation affect consumer preferences as well as the synergy effect between sense-based properties. Therefore, new tools will help publishers to select the paper that best suits their target audience,” says UPM senior researcher Matti Ristolainen.

Research conducted by professor Göte Nyman, head of the psychology department at the University of Helsinki, supports the need to match the paper used to its target audience. His research found that the quality of paper used in magazines is a key issue when it comes to reader and advertising perceptions. “Some magazines are a badge of quality, but publishers never seem to talk about this,” says Nyman.

Aspirational magazines, in particular, benefit from being able to present the luxurious clothes, fast cars or slick gadgets on a paper that is smooth and silky to the touch. And while many have been predicting a meteoric rise in online-only magazines, especially following the success of online lads’ mag Monkey, last month the National Magazine Company closed its internet-only title Jellyfish, saying the business model was “unsustainable”.

Fedrigoni’s UK marketing coordinator Daniela Oberti believes that markets where paper is still strong are totally different sectors to those in which the internet is posing a real challenge. “When designers are looking for an unusual paper to give a product an exclusive feel, they wouldn’t even think of doing it on the web,” she argues. Fedrigoni’s ranges of felt marked and embossed papers continue to be popular for business stationery, covers of brochures, greetings cards and packaging. “People come to us when they want something that feels different to the touch,” adds Oberti.

Yet even paper manufacturers have to make use of the internet. Fedrigoni itself launched a new website,
www.paperideas.it, earlier this year. But Oberti says that customers use the new site to order samples, in order to be able to feel the paper.

Curtis Fine Papers brand manager Karen Batley agrees, insisting that although “increasingly websites provide visual impressions of paper colour and texture, there is no substitute for feeling real samples.” Physical samples are still essential when it comes to paper choice, she adds, pointing out that Curtis Fine Papers offers a dummy making service – in addition to its samples – to enable customers to really get a feel for the finished product.

Another non-visual quality that has been driving paper choice in recent years has been environmental concerns, with recycled grades and FSC-certified papers growing in popularity. The internet is often promoted as a way of saving trees. Yet Oberti believes it is ease of use rather than environmental worries that drives most people to the internet.

Tangible message
Batley says that the use of an eco paper reinforces a company’s commitment to the environment on a level that is not possible with online communication. She adds: “As a tangible item, printed materials allow customers to feel close to a company’s products and services.” For some creative applications, a recycled or environmental paper with an ‘earthy’ quality is deliberately chosen to convey sensuously, and almost subconsciously, the recycled credentials of a paper to the customer. This enables two messages to be communicated simultaneously, one through sight and one through touch.

Speed of reading is also a consideration in choosing the medium in which to convey information. “As every executive knows, it is 10 times faster to skim a large printed document than to try to read it on even the highest res screen,” says Dixon. The same goes for browsing at leisure – research by credit information provider Experian found that 80% of home shoppers preferred to find a product in a printed catalogue and then go online to make a purchase.

Where there is a tangible benefit to having a physical product over an electronic one, be it speed or pleasure of reading, the ability to scribble in the margins or handle a 3D object, it will continue to appear in printed form. Of course, computer technology is advancing at a rate of knots and it may only be a matter of time before we can touch and even smell things through our computer screens. And who knows, we may yet get holidays on the moon and flying cars as well as paperless offices.

---

WHAT IS IT? HAPTIC
Computers are becoming increasingly complex and, as a result, there is a risk of information overload, where so much data is presented visually that it becomes difficult to absorb all the necessary information.

Presenting information in other sensory modes has the potential to lessen this problem. Haptic technology, which uses the sense of touch, allows users to ‘feel’ their computer desktops and has the potential to radically change the way we use computers in the future, bringing computers a step closer to 3D interfaces.

Many computer games consoles already employ a basic level of haptic technology, in the form of joysticks and controllers that rebound in simulation of impacts. And haptic devices are already used to train pilots and to allow doctors to practise through computer simulations rather than on real people, giving imitations of the pressure and resistance they would feel. This also raises the possibility of remote operation. A doctor could manipulate electronic hands remotely in order to operate on a patient many miles away.

The GRAB project (Computer Graphics access for Blind people) has developed a haptic audio-virtual environment (HAVE), consisting of a two-finger touch-sensitive interface to enable a user to feel a computer workspace in 3D rather than seeing it.