In this short blog post, I would like to share my personal experience as an end-user about a product redesign in the packaging in the food industry.

Sustainability is the future and it’s a huge responsibility for all of us. We should always think about how we can contribute more. It requires a lot of changes in our lifestyle and the products we use. We usually think it is always a trade-off and by changing to a more sustainable style we must scarify other things like Profitability or Usability. However, usually, there can be another creative way of solving the problem which can provide both.

Recently I noticed a change in the package design of a well-known cookie brand in Germany. First, I was surprised and so excited when I saw that they have replaced the commonly known plastic packaging with a new recyclable package. However, after a few days of using it realized that the new packaging is a failure.

As you can see in the images above, they punched the package from the bottom to hold the cookies and prevent them to smash each other. However, if you want to eat a few of them and keep the rest for your next tea it would be challenging.

Whenever you pull the package to grab another cookie, there would be a lot of tiny cookie pieces spread over your table from the holes at the bottom.

Alternatives

I don’t have any experience in package design so I can’t tell what can be a better alternative to this packaging. However, I am sure that the solution can be found with several iterative design thinking sessions and customer feedback sessions.

I think even using a simple box without any separator can be much better than the current design. Even though it can cause a crash between cookies during transportation.