Revisions of Design Guidelines for the Elderly-Friendly Package

Abstract

This article is part of the completed research and aims to 1) evaluate the guidelines to design package opening indications for the elderly and 2) revise the design guidelines. The research procedure followed the design process. Twelve designers used the tool to identify design requirements for opening indications of two package samples which are difficult for the elderly to understand. Thirty-six volunteer elderly participants opened the redesigned 3D printing packages, compared them to the original packages, and ranked all these packages by easiness or difficulty to understand the opening. The researcher interviewed the participants about the reasons behind it. The evaluation result showed that one out of the two redesigned packages was easier to understand than the original package. The data analysis provided further in-depth and additional design guidelines titled by the cognitive process while opening packages as follows. 1) “Notice, identify, and read indications” relates to the use of 3D indications such as lid forms and textures around the lid to reduce the difficulty of identifying small 2D indications such as words and symbols. 2) “Understanding the opening” involves the use of 3D indications according to the “form follows function” principle. If packaging forms are simple, 2D indications such as an arrow should be added to clarify the opening methods. 3) “Actual acts of opening” refers to (a) limitations of the elderly hand functions, (b) the elderly behaviors of using goods and their packages, and (c) mechanics of opening packages.