Judith Robichaud

Consumer Reports featured an article on “hardest-to-open” packaging in their March 2006 edition. They offered “Oyster Awards” to the most difficult package challenges based on how long the packages took to open and the user experience. This article resonated with me as I often find it difficult to open the simplest things such as cereal packaging without rupturing the bag and spilling the precious contents all over the kitchen floor. Another bugaboo of mine is CD packaging: I don’t know how many broken fingernails I have gotten over the years trying to pierce the package in the ridge of the jewelcase and get through the layers of seal stickers. The worst offender of packaging are those hard-plastic clamshell cases which can include anything from a new phone to razor blades. These packages are so hard that even kitchen scissors, which can be used to cut lobster shells, cannot even cut this packaging without vigorously stabbing the container to create an opening to insert the scissors. Even so, the case is so hard and sharp you injuring yourself in the process. I often wonder how an elderly person, like my mother, could open something like this with her arthritic hands and lessening strength…

This all brings me to something I noticed recently with pedestrian consumer items such as candy from a vending machine. Much to my delight, I noticed instructions on a Hershey bar as to how to best open this tasty snack. This is user-centered design brought to its most basic level. Yeah, I am not risking injury while trying to open a candybar nor am I performing a crtical task which requires guidance. Even so, I appreciate the awareness that at the most basic level people don’t want to wrestle with packaging to get to the goods and they just simply want what’s inside.