Design

Here’s a challenge. The next time you buy a packet of crisps, try to open it with one hand. It’s harder than you think. Difficulty opening packaging is often considered to be a fringe issue, affecting a minority group comprising older people and those with disabilities. However, there are nearly 12 million pensioners in the UK – almost one in five of the population – and the number of people aged over 65 is predicted to rise by more than 60% in the next 25 years.

Design Futures, the design consultancy based at Sheffield Hallam University, has conducted trials on the ‘openability’ of various types of packaging. One of the trials involved hundreds of members of the public opening a jar with a torque tester inside. “We thought we’d find that a small number of women over 50 would struggle, but in fact we found that 30% of women across all ages struggle to open a standard jam jar,” says Alaster Yoxall, head of human-centred engineering at the university.

“Many supermarket buyers don’t agree that there is a problem, even when they are shown a video of people having difficulty,” says Edward Goodwin, director of Goodwin Hartshorn. In 2002, Waitrose commissioned the industrial design consultancy to explore how to make its own-brand packaging easier to open. Goodwin Hartshorn proposed 30 different improvements, but not one was implemented.

“The main difficulty in implementing changes is that the supply chain is so complex,” says Goodwin, citing the number of companies that will be involved, from materials, through converting and filling, to get a product onto store shelves. “Suppliers get a contract to produce packaging for a supermarket, and unless the supermarket comes down on them there’s no incentive to make changes.”

Getting a grip
One of the changes Goodwin Hartshorn suggested was a can ringpull that was larger – to enable the customer to use two fingers – and required less metal to be broken in order to open the can, thus reducing the force needed. On standard can ringpulls, a section of metal on the rivet must be broken as well as piercing the edge of the can lip. The proposed change removed the need to break the metal around the rivet.

Another proposed change involved bacon packaging. The shape of a slice of bacon means there is a large empty space in the rectangular plastic packaging under the long thin bit of the bacon. “The tiny protrusion that is used to peal back the film is quite difficult to get hold of. We found that it could be made 200 times bigger and it wouldn’t affect the bacon,” says Goodwin.

Design Futures’ research has focused on jars. Yoxall has created a mathematical model for the torque required to open a jar relative to the lid diameter. He found the optimum diameter to be around 70mm. Any smaller and it becomes difficult to grip; any larger and people’s hands don’t fit around it. “We take photos of people’s hands when they are trying to open a jar and have created a computer model of a hand showing joint forces, stresses and the grip position. For larger diameter jars – around 85mm – women couldn’t open them at all.” This presents a significant problem for women, and particularly elderly women, living alone. Half of all people aged 75 and over live alone, presenting a serious risk for access to food.

Daily difficulties
Gordon Lishman, director general of charity Age Concern, adds: “Many household items are virtually impossible for older people to open. Insensitively designed packaging causes major problems for many older people on a daily basis and can prevent them from opening food, cleaning products or even medication. Many have resorted to opening packaging with implements such as sharp knives, and accident figures have reflected this.”

According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, in 2002 there were 2,973 accidents involving glass jars and 14,555 involving metal tins or cans. The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society’s helpline also receives countless calls from sufferers struggling to open packaging, in particular child-proof medication bottles.

Goodwin believes a lot of packaging that is hard to open is due to tamper-evidence devices. “Within one supermarket’s own-brand juice cartons there will be different methods. Supermarkets should choose the best one and implement it.”

Tetra Pak is trialling a new carton closure that can be opened in one movement. The Tetra Top Eifel 038 is larger than standard carton lids – at 38mm diameter – to make it easier to grip. There is no film or ringpull beneath the cap – instead there is a perforated circle that is broken when the cap is turned. Ian Williamson, product manager for the UK and Ireland, says the cap takes no extra effort to open and removes the need for fiddly films.

However, Williamson thinks the environmental debate may be overshadowing openability; brands are so keen to reduce the weight and number of components in their packs that openability may suffer. “For the first time people are asking: ‘Do we really need closures?’ The environment is such a big driver that an environmentally friendly box wins over an easy-open box.”

When developing any new closure, Williamson says it is important to understand how people open packs. “Do they rest it on a surface? How do they hold it?” Developers must create something that both looks right and functions correctly.

Peter Booth, director at design agency Tin Horse, agrees, adding that it is not sufficient to ask people, as they are likely to tell you what they think they should do rather than what they actually do. “You have to do observations,” he insists.

When Dulux asked Tin Horse to redesign its paint tins, Booth discovered that most people prised open the tin with a knife or screwdriver and then closed it with their foot. “It is beyond comprehension that people accept packaging that is difficult to open and close, simply because they have done for years,” says Booth. “Products shouldn’t be out there if they don’t open properly.”

Tin Horse designed a paint pot with a plastic screw-top lid. “Sometimes innovation has to be really simple for people to understand it. If it is complicated it can create more problems. If an innovation is so simple you wonder why nobody has done it before then you have probably cracked it,” he adds.

Tin Horse also conducts what it calls ‘extreme testing’, where designers wear special suits, gloves and goggles to experience restricted movement, physical handicap or visual impairment. However, Booth believes it shouldn’t be thought of as designing for older people, but inclusive design. If you can make something that older people or the arthritic can open then everyone will be able to open it.

Inclusive design
Rama Gheerawo, innovation leader at the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art, says: “Design should not be specifically for older people, but inclusive of them.” The centre’s team of designers, engineers, architects and anthropologists undertake practical research and projects looking at people-centred and socially inclusive design. He says marketers are very keen to talk about target audiences, but why limit a product to just one group? “If you aim for the target you just get the bullseye. We aim to get all the edges too.

“Aspiration doesn’t fade with age. Nobody wants to buy the old person’s jam jar, they just want to buy the nice jam and be able to open the jar.” He argues that particularly as the ‘baby boomer’ generation ages, older people will become less accepting of packaging that does not fulfil their needs. “That generation redefined what it was to be a teenager, they redefined the workplace and they will redefine being a pensioner.”

The challenge for designers, many of whom will be in their 20s and 30s, is to target the aspirations and abilities of people who may be 50 years older than them. For many, the difficulties faced by older people don’t become apparent until it affects them directly – whether themselves or through a relative.

Goodwin’s experience reflects this: “There were two guys at Waitrose who were really passionate about the project, but they retired and it fizzled out.”

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SQUEEZEOPEN
A one-handed closure
“It’s the Holy Grail of pack closures – easy to open and child resistant,” says British inventor Mark Sheahan, who developed and patented the Squeezeopen closure. He started work on Squeezeopen after his mother was diagnosed with arthritis.

The closure consists of a lid that presses rather than screws onto the container. It can then be opened with one hand, by squeezing the lid’s sides to ‘pop off’ and then releasing your grip. An inner symmetrical ramp guides and joins the components together when the lid is pressed onto the base (creating an air-tight seal), and helps to force the components apart when the lid sides are compressed.

The lid can be made using most plastics and Sheahan says that it offers time and cost savings in manufacture. “Because the lid is a bounce off rather than a thread closure, you can use a thinner lid as you don’t have to worry about sink marks. Anything that moves in the mould costs money and is more time consuming.”

He adds that compared with a threaded lid, which weighs on average 17g and has a cycle speed of 16 seconds, the Squeezeopen lid can weigh only 8g, with a cycle speed of nine seconds. This gives cost benefits, both in time saved and material reduction – which is also good for the environment.

Sheahan is working on a version that offers a liquid seal that is effective under pressure.

So far, there has been no interest from UK companies. However, he has signed agreements with a firm in Japan and one in the US, and more recently there has been interest from continental Europe.