Final report for SD5520 Concept Workshop. The concept is about the sustainable reading behavior. Talking about sustainable disposal ways for free newspaper in Hong Kong.

1. SUSTAINABLE READING
THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF DESIGN
XU SHIJIE, (11510238G) ZHOU YUE (11537299G)
30-03-2012

2. >BACKGROUND
Nowadays, reading has been changed a son because of the rapid life pace and games. If people want to gain some valu- expertise enough for every book and field.
lot since the computer is more and more heavy working pressure in cities. able feedback or just enjoy the time, read-
popular. The digital one steadily replaces ing should be focused rather than as a Therefore, we want to make deep research
the traditional printed books and reading On the other hand, people’s reading ex- multi-tasking behavior. on the reading behavior nowadays. The
materials. With e-reader like Kindle and perience is also altered by this context. In sustainable point from invention to dispos-
iPad’s increasing share of market, people’s Hong Kong, free morning newspapers are What’s more, everyone can be creator of al goes beyond the media, reading space
reading habit is also gradually changed. sent everywhere, for white-collars to read books or even microblogs through Inter- into a united experience. We want people
They prefer more casual way to read, like on their way to work. Children usually play net. The expanding amount of information could learn more from reading, and help
to spend more separated time on fast- with iPad in their spare time rather than and books make readers easily got lost, create a more social way to build a sustain-
reading, and have less time to make long tangible books or physical toys. And the and waste a lot of time finding what is really able reading community.
review or deep thinking. This phenomenon reading behavior is easily distracted by good and valuable for them. Even expert
also has some cultural and economic rea- other applications on the device or digital reviewers cannot be always responsible or
>RESEARCH
-OBSERVATION
We make observation on how people read involves in people’s daily
life. Try to find their reading habit difference the current situation of
books and other publications. There are some photos taken in dif-
ferent places and scenarios for people’s reading activity.
From the photos, we can see that people’s reading behavior is more
and more diverse. According to different purpose, they may shift
their space and tool for read. E-books and Paper-books has coex-
isted for a long time. And people have gradually used E-reader like
iPad and Kindle in their work and study.
Another observation is on the content supplier. In Hong Kong, there
are public information pushers everywhere. In MRT station, public
space, public residential area, there are always free magazines and
newspaper all of advertisements.

3. -Secondary Research (3) Reading Experience - traditional way vs. modern way
People’s reading habits, tools and even content have changed a lot with the emergency
of Internet and mobile devices, which causes their experience shifted into a modern Today’s white-collar worker spends more time reading than eating, drinking, grooming,
experience. Our research tries to find the overall situation for this. traveling, socializing or on general entertainment and sport - that is, five to eight hours of
each working day. The computer and Internet? Both are reading revolutions.
(1) Arising debate on printing books or E-books
Yet reading embraces so much more than work or web. What music is to the spirit, read-
ing is to the mind. Reading challenges, em powers, bewitches, enriches. We perceive
little black marks on white paper or a PC screen and they move us to tears, open up our
lives to new insights and understandings, inspire us, organize our existences and con-
nect us with all creation.
A History of Reading, 2003, Steven Roger Fisher, Reaktion Books
(4) How iPad change people reading behavior?
Yellow part is the time distribution on reading on Computer, and grey part is for iPad. We
can see people like use iPad to read more frequently in their daily life.
Stephen Abram, PBooks vs. EBooks: Are there Educational Issues?
(2) iPads and Kindles causes E-book lending at libraries explodes
http://readitlaterlist.com/blog/2011/01/ SOCIAL
is-mobile-affecting-when-we-read/
(5) Concept of sustainability
John Paul Titlow, Thanks to iPads and Kindles, E-Book Lending at Libraries Explodes BearableE quitable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustain- SUSTAINABILITY
ability
ENVIRON ECONO
Viable -MIC
-MENT

4. >INSIGHTS
1. Expanding resources for books makes 4. Kindle (special e-book reader) using 6. The high-pacing society makes people 8. In Hong Kong, reading free newspapers
people hard to review and trust to read. digital ink may be less energy-cost, eco- fast-reading, less time on long time read- becomes a trend, but there haven’t a for-
- How to build social network and trustful logical and sustainable in a way. ing and have less access to public reading mal way to treat the newspapers that have
recommendation system? space and private reading room. been read.
5. Different purpose for reading (study, lei- - Causes resource waste.
2. Almost every one can easily be the crea- sure, work) may cause the space, time and 7. Children uses digital device for reading
tor of books. focus shifting. too early which may causes some negative
- Here comes that digtial reading media effects on cognition.
3. Digital reading behavior create the in- causes more deep reading behavior than - If creating lifelong readers is the goal,
crease for tangible one in return. before. then every tool is needed. (Kindles for
Kids)
>FURTHER STUDY
According to previous research, we choose Free Newspaper in Hong Kong as our further Newspaper publisher creates platform to spread this media, while advertiser provides
design topic. money to broadcast their brand and support the publications. This business model caus-
es some problems to the content receiver - reader. And causes some unsustainable
There are 5 free newspaper suppliers in Hong Kong, creating 3 million copies per day. points arises.
The newspaper is free and distributed around the MTR station and public space. The
content are full of advertisement and only 1/8 of them are pure news. (2) Problems
- Information overflow; Resource Waste
- White-collar people use that for instant news - Paper used per day equal to >8300 trees and 3.5 sizes of Victoria Park
- Old people gather a lot of that for selling to recycler
- Parents worry child could get some unhealthy information from newspapers. The newspaper suppliers make less effort to take value of the wasted newspaper.
- Paper wasting through huge publications and less recycling.
The survey from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong
investigated 1531 citizens for free newspaper. It shows that 70% of reader would actually
(1) The Relationship in Newspaper Business
open the newspaper and around 20% read. Others just throw them away next corner.
The paper resource is wasted severely. Around 50% of the newspaper throws them into
Provides Infor.
Publisher Requires Infor. Reader normal dustbin; less people put them into the recycling box.
Needs Money - Hong Kong has no paper-recycle factory, so all the wasted paper is exporting
aboard for disposal.
Advertiser Spreads Product Reader The paper-making and recycling factories are high polluted to local environment. The
Needs Platform wasting paper will also cause negative effects on other places.

5. >PROPOSAL
Our proposal is provide a whole system for sustainable reading newspaper. According (1) Environmental - Recycling the paper resource
to research, the concept of sustainability is consisting of environmental, social and eco-
nomical solutions. Therefore, our system will be included these three parts: - Set up recycling boxes in public space to collect the wasting newspapers
Recycling the paper resource (environmental), increasing the awareness of society The free newspaper is only used on people’s way to work or breakfast time. People sel-
(social) and switching the economic profit (economical). dom keep these easily-obtained papers. The free newspaper should not be once-only
used, and the newspaper supplier shall help build these devices for people to reuse and
reread the newspaper.
Acorrding to the research, we found that people always spreading and reading these
newspaper while waiting in the vehicle, so we set up the recycle points near the MTR /
Bus station.
SOCIAL
Awareness
Free Newspaper
Bearable Equitable
Recycling Box
SUSTAINABILITY
ENVIRON ECONO
Viable -MIC
-MENT
RecyclingS witching

6. (2) Social - Arise people’s Awareness
- Hold activity in PolyU linking the paper wasting with plants disappearing
What if PolyU has no green plants and trees? The grey campus would lose its original
fresh energy. People’s environmental-protecting and resource recycling awareness would
be aroused if they know some change from their surrounding environment. We want to
hold connect people’s daily reading activity with the sustainable outcomes directly.
The figure above is showing how it works.
(3) Economical - Switching the profit
The traditional way to create profit from free newspaper is one cause for the unsustain-
able outcome. As more and more Hong Kong people use mobile devices to read and
communicate, we should shift a paper-less way for people to get quick news and less
distracted by newspaper. And find the way to gain profits for newspaper provider.
(A) Combing the paper and digital media for free newspaper can be a win-win situ-
ation.
Our proposal is to combine the QR code into the newspaper. Multi-media news informa-
tion like recording voice, short video and images can be browsed when people use their
mobile to scan the QR code on tangible newspapers. The advertisement can be digital
attached to online news, rather than printed full color and full paper. The role of media is
changing from producing paper and profit-earning tools into information provider. This
shall be more suitable for modern Hong Kong and sustainable way to take value of digital
media.

7. (B) Switching the business model
Publisher Infor.
The figure below shows the traditional mode of the free newspaper in HK. From the pic-
ture, we can find that the publisher are creating a paper media platform to the public.
And this paper platform is the one that cause the harm of environment.
LED
Advertiser Money Tickers
Reader
News
Publisher Creates Platform
Digital platform
HK MTR
Infor.
+N ewspaper Reader
Ad.
The original idea is that we can tide the advertisement together with news. For
Advertiser instance,you can see this news out of the windows when the train is moving fast.
Provides Money
So what if let the publisher switch their business mode to only producing information? Nestlé tells you:
Nowadays we can see so many advertisements in MTR station with LED Tickers, we Iraq warns of Syria 'proxy war'
think it is a good way to add the news title to this equipments.
30-03-2012