Adopting a consumer perspective can help improve packaging, says expert

Involving consumers in the packaging design process can give brands a competitive advantage, a report by Design Perspectives has discovered. Material Advantage: How Packaging Can be Used to Make Products More Appealing to the Consumer, written by Design Perspectives co-director Steve Lillford, states that the typical consumer looks at packaging in a different way to a material scientist, focusing on attributes such as protective function, attractiveness, cost (what the packaging adds to the perceived value of the product) and communication, or how the packaging expresses the brand’s ethos. In addition, the report found consumers to be turned off by tough-to-open and excessive packaging, a repercussion of increased consumer awareness regarding green issues.

Lillford believes that traditional methods of consumer research like focus groups are unreliable. “Focus groups place participants in an unnatural environment, which makes people behave differently and can give misleading results,” he explains.

Instead the report suggests alternatives such as usability testing, in which consumers perform a series of relevant tasks while talking the moderators through what they are doing and why they are doing it, and consumer centred design, a method that includes consumer involvement throughout the design and development stages for continual improvement.