Your pack is your voice. Speak to include.

Our design choices affect who we speak to and, most importantly, who we exclude.

I drink cider. There, I’ve admitted it! And I like my cider traditional, I live in Somerset. To any cider brand planning to put pink kawaii rabbits on its bottles, I’m telling you now that this design won’t speak to me at the supermarket shelf.

A brand owner might say, “Well, sod off Joe. We don’t want your sort  anyway.” That’s up to them; through their pack design choices, they’ll have decided to exclude me.

Now you’re in a supermarket aisle behind a person with severe sight loss. Suddenly, the store manager scuttles across the floor and shouts, “Oi! Blind person, sod off, we don’t want your sort here”.  Most, if not all of us, would be like, “What the very fk?”

But take a step back and look down the aisle. How many brands and products have pack designs or shelf comms that are accessible? Few.

From eye-tracking to shopalongs, I’ve done enough research on packaging, wobblers, strips, fins, and gondolas to know that it is possible to deliver effective comms in store if we choose to. But, so very often, our design choices mean we have chosen to exclude.

We have been the ones telling people with greater access needs to sod off. WTVF.

Choose to include.

At Untapped Opinions we're the inclusive insights people who close the gap between organisations and people with a disability; we help organisations take inclusive actions through having a better understanding of needs and experience.