One of the nice things about working for a technology company is that not only do we get to review lots of cool gear, but sometimes that gear is so useful it becomes part of our everyday workflow. Take, for example, the Sony DPT-RP1 Digital Paper System, which, after some initial in-house testing, found a permanent home in our UX department. I followed the UX design team around for a while to see how they use the Digital Paper System to help bring B&H’s ideas to life.
For UX, the first stage of the design process is all about gathering information. Here, the Digital Paper System comes in handy because it allows the team members to take notes and draw ideas at the same time. For this project, our UX team was tasked with creating a page to help customers choose a laptop. During the meeting, team members took notes about the assignment and jotted down ideas and rough drawings about how they might proceed. After the meeting, they could share their ideas with other team members using the Digital Paper’s various connectivity options, which include both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Once a general outline of how the page should function was agreed upon, UX started coming up with possible design ideas. Again, they used the Digital Paper to sketch out different ideas that could be shared quickly and easily, thanks to the Digital Paper’s wireless connectivity options. Recipients were immediately able to mark up the drawings—with notes, questions, or drawings of their own—then send them right back for updates and implementation. The quick, back-and-forth between team members really highlighted the Digital Paper’s value as a collaborative tool.
A couple of rounds of sketches and notes, and the team was well on its way. The members came up with multiple design ideas that went through several rounds of edits and revisions. One convenient aspect of the Digital Paper System is that, thanks to its 16GB of internal storage, all their notes, ideas, and drawings were stored in one place. So, when someone on the team wanted to look back at an earlier idea and discuss it in the meeting, they could quickly pull it up on their Digital Paper and share it with the others.
After the layout and design were finalized, UX began its work bringing those designs to the Web. Here, again, the Digital Paper’s organizational tools were a boon because they allowed team members to access the drawings and notes to be implemented in page layout quickly. If something didn’t work out as well as when they drew it up, team members could annotate drawings and then send them around again using the Digital Paper.
When asked about the Digital Paper System, our UX team responded that the reason they find it so useful is that it gives them an all-in-one resource for taking notes and jotting down ideas—ideas that can be shared and organized easily, thanks to the Paper’s connectivity and storage features. In other words, they like it because it makes their challenging, often-hectic jobs a little easier.
The Sony Digital Paper System isn’t just for design teams. Professionals from all walks of life find it useful in their everyday workflow. Let us know in the Comments section, below, if you use the Digital Paper System at your office or place of employment.
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