Industrial designers often think of UX as taking part during the customers’ ongoing relationship with the product. Package designers, however, have to consider that UX must be factored in at the point of sale. A good example of this is a recently-reversed package design decision forced upon Hasbro.
The toy manufacturer had good intentions: In the name of sustainability, they began “phasing out plastic from new product packaging, [meaning] polybags, elastic bands, shrink wrap, window sheets and blister packs,” they wrote in an announcement. The new window-free packaging, which rolled out in 2022, looked like this:
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In contrast, the classic window-featuring packaging looked like this:
Any package designer who understands the customer, specifically the collectors who purchase Hasbro’s 6-inch action figures, could have told you this was a mistake; but as some of us know, in corporate ID, designers rarely get to call the shots.
The plan did backfire, and after less than a year of axing window boxes and blister packs, Hasbro has been forced to reverse their decision. (Unsurprisingly, there’s been no press release on this from the company; the news came to us via Plastics News.) As trade publication Toy Book reports:
“Since the move toward windowless boxes, sales have reportedly slid from collectors who view the package as part of the product but wish to see the toy inside. Additionally, the windowless boxes have led to increased issues with theft, the despicable act of ‘figure swapping’ (also a form of theft in which unscrupulous consumers swap less desirable parts into a new package and return the figure to the store for a refund), and the inability to spot quality control issues such as poor paint applications or broken pieces.”
To their credit, Hasbro is still trying to do the right thing, which in this case means providing transparent packaging to please customers while still pursuing sustainability. “The new windows and blisters will be made from bio PET or recycled PET,” the company said, “helping us achieve our priority of meeting our fans’ expectations for extraordinary packaging and superior design while still developing packaging that minimizes waste and the use of virgin plastic.”
Lastly, to credit the designers: I really do think Hasbro’s package designers did the best they could under the plastic-free restriction. To my eye the plastic-free package design above looks way more premium than the windowed version; it just isn’t what the customer wants.
Source: core77