The Experience of Product Packaging

Sometimes it's obvious when a company hasn't invested the time and resources to validate a package design with its potential users. I spent some time at my sister's house looking through her bathroom cabinets and much like a beauty supply shop, there were all different products for hair and skin, each contained in a unique bottle or can. Looking at most of them was a positive experience. What I can confirm is that companies appear to spend a lot of time designing visually appealing packaging. At no time did I think, "this is particularly ugly". However, in practical application, some designs failed while others succeeded. I attribute practical home testing to this difference, but I can't say for sure. I've never worked for any of these companies.

I've decided to present three examples of packaging that fails and two examples of designs that succeed. In all of these cases, I tried the products *before* realizing I wanted to analyze the design. My opinion was fairly unbiased as well as I had never seen or used these products before.

Biore Face Cleanser - FAIL
The Biore Face Cleanser looks like most any face cleanser that comes in a pump. It's an oval shaped bottle that fits nicely in the hand. At first, this would seem like a good design. Visually, it represents the Biore brand and while the white text is hard to read from a distance, up close, it was actually just fine. What fails is the extra-lage pump top. Pressing that pump dispenses about 2 to 3 times the necessary amount of product to wash a face. I could have washed several faces. Perhaps Biore was thinking this would work as a body wash, but I'm not fond of pump products in a shower. The other thought I had was that they've slyly decided to force customers to use more product so they will have to replace it more often. What this did for me is wonder if I can just replace the pump with a generic from the store, or perhaps use a different product alltogether. It took far too long to rinse my face after all that soap.

Biore Face Wash

Artec Kiwi Shine Serum - FAIL
This bottle of shine serum only fails after you've applied the product. The top twists open with ease. The problem is that shine serum is like oil. Once on your fingers, it takes some effort to get it off. That makes it very difficult to close the bottle until your hands are all clean. That said, perhaps it's the product that fails. If you've ever used a hair serum, you know it often takes more than one washing to get it off your hands.

Artec Kiwi Shine Serum

Herbal Essences Shampoo - PASS
Two things work with this shampoo bottle. First, it's clear, so you always know how much product remains and you can have an idea of how much time is left before you need a new bottle. Second, the top closes flat. This means that as the product gets low, you can store it upside down and it won't tip over. I love this.

Herbal Essences Shampoo

Barbasol Pure Silk Shave Cream - PASS
The can is pretty typical for women's shaving cream, but what makes the Barbasol can work better than others is that it doesn't rust if you leave it in the shower. What's even better is that the company thought to mention this pretty boldly on the back (not shown). I have always hated that I never remember to take the shaving cream out of the shower and find rust circles everywhere. Those circles are difficult to remove so I would definitely choose a product that didn't rust over one that did, even if it cost more.

Barbasol Shave Cream