I've seen where businesses try to limit printing usage by limiting users from printing more than 100 or so pages per month with an application like this:
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
However, this seems extremely counterintuitive to me. The purpose of the limit was to prevent a handful of people who print a lot of paper from wasting paper and ink. However, the dialog gives the impression that you can print 100 pages, encouraging people who wouldn't have printed as much as before to print in excess thinking that they need to use up all of their printing credits before they expire (like vacation days).
I've heard people claim that stores add limits so people buy the maximum (haven't verified this at all but it seems reasonable) and it seems like the same effect is acting here.
If you don't show a dialog, then it's hard for the excess users to pace themselves. What is an effective way to do this?
- The goal would be to configure warnings so as to reduce (rather than encourage) printer waste.
- This is for a non-paid application (e.g. office environment)