How to group these HP LaserJet printers?

August 7, 2012 3:46 PM

Logical groupings for list of HP LaserJet printers?

As part of my work, my boss is asking me to overhaul our website. One of the pages has a huge unordered list of HP printers. I'd like to know what the logical groupings could be (i.e. series, family, etc.) for these printers, since I know next to nothing about the subject other than basic use.

The list follows:

3000
P3005
P3010
P3015
M3035MFP
CP3505
CP3525
CP3800
CM3530MFP
P4014
P4015
CP4025
M4345MFP
P4515
CP4525
M5035MFP
CP6015
CM6030
CM6040
P4510
CM8050MFP
CM8060MFP
M9040MFP
M9050MFP
2410
2420
2430
4240
4250
4345MFP
4350
4650
4700
CM4730MFP
5200
5550
9040
9040MFP
9050
9050MFP
9500MFP
2100
3300MFP
3320MFP
3330MFP
3700
4000
4050
4100
4100MFP
4200
4300
4550
4600
5000
5100
5500
8000
8000MFP
8100
8100MFP
8150
8150MFP
9000
9000MFP
9055MFP
9065MFP
9500
1100
1300
2100
2200
2300
2605
3300
P2050
P2055

posted by macsigler to computers & internet (6 answers total)

You don't mention why you have this list, do you sell printers? Is this a list of available devices for printing to in an organisation? The purpose of the page with the list will dictate what categories are useful.

To start though why not look at the HP website and see how they categorise their devices then copy a basic version of that?

Putting as much detail as you have about each model number into the form on this page will at least give you information you may not have about the devices.

For example: You might want to use device family as a category. Or print engine type, or colour vs mono, or PPM (pages per minute). Maybe connectivity: is it useful to know if the devices are networked, USB only, or have wireless?

It comes down to why someone would be looking at the list. What do they need from it?
posted by hjd at 4:10 PM on August 7, 2012

Use the first digit to group by series i.e. P3005 and 3300MFP in the same list, and sort them, possibly ignoring any leading letters so users can search by ascending number. That'll be the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 series from your list. This is what I've seen when others are listing loads of HP printers, and it makes for an easy search as an end-user of such services.
posted by NordyneDefenceDynamics at 4:14 PM on August 7, 2012

I suggest sorting your printers by type, following linked website's grouping.
posted by jmd82 at 7:10 PM on August 7, 2012

Oh man, I used to do a lot of work for several years creating training materials for HP's printer division, and it's damned confusing. I'd try to leg it out at HP.com. Their printers are usually separated first by inkjet and laser. Then within each of those categories, separated by brand (e.g. Photosmart, LaserJet, &c). Then they're separated by single function and multifunction. Within the laser category, you'd also want to differentiate color and b/w. Then, once you've gotten to that granular level, you'd want to order them by either MSRP or duty cycle. Take a look at this page and check out the selections under "Printers" and "Multifunctions and All-in-Ones" and that might give you a good starting point. Good luck!
posted by slogger at 8:32 PM on August 7, 2012

Here's how Apple organizes their list of supported HP printers in OS X.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:04 AM on August 8, 2012

I decided to do a mix of some of the answers I got, first grouping by type (i.e. Multifunction->Color, etc.) and then listing by ascending numbers, ignoring the leading letter. It looks much cleaner now. Thanks for the input!
posted by macsigler at 8:44 AM on August 8, 2012