Packaging for People

Abstract

The case histories presented in this paper illustrate the various marketing, technological and human factors requirements which influence the design of a relatively simple everyday artifact, the consumer package. During the past twenty years, package design has grown from modest beginnings to become one of the major areas of industrial design activity. Concerned with the protection, distribution, sales and use of products, the designer of the package must accommodate a number of different human interfaces, placing strong emphasis on the satisfaction of emotional as well as physical needs. Some packaging requirements are amenable to rational design solutions and the application of established human engineering criteria, but despite the growing use of a variety of research techniques, packaging relies, more than most other areas of industrial design, on limited empirical findings and the designer's intuitive interpretation of requirements.