Swingline Staplers: Design Should Promote Function not New Fangled Fancy Form

When you buy a drill, you don't really want a drill. You want holes. When you buy a stapler, you don't really want a stapler. You wanted properly stapled papers.

At Autodesk, we really don't use that much paper. Most everything is done electronically; however, every once in a while I do need to print something. So I was dismayed this summer when I went to our copy room and found a new Swingline stapler.

This stapler is a pain to use. Its design is such that when you staple something, it's hard to see exactly where the staple will be positioned.

I prefer the original Swingline design. At home, I even have a red one.

In 2002, I bought a bunch of the red staplers and gave them out to my direct reports as Christmas gifts along with a copy of the Office Space DVD.

I love that movie and my stapler. Since the staple is positioned very need the end of the arm, it's easy to align to the edge of the paper. I am not sure what the staple designers were thinking when they changed the design.

Stapling is alive in the lab.