When shopping for groceries, consumers are often frustrated by hard-to-open product packaging on the everyday products they buy, and this can affect what products they choose to buy. Older people and those living with arthritis are particularly affected but most people struggle with “clamshell” wrapping, vacuum sealed jars and toy packaging.
This being said, Arthritis Australia has predicted that seven million Australians will suffer from arthritis by 2050. Currently nearly four million live with the disease and half of those are of working age. Australia’s population is also ageing, with projections that 14.6 million, or 44 per cent, will be over 50 by the middle of this century.
Therefore packaging should take a turn towards being more arthritic friendly for easy access. Arthritis sufferers do make up a large portion of our society, and we should make the change that benefits those in the long run. This is particularly the case with medicinal products aimed at treating arthritis.
Ibuprofen is a common painkiller for arthritis sufferers, as it is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). It works by reducing hormones that cause inflammation and pain in the body, and is taken in doses of 1-2 tablets, 2-3 times a day depending on how bad the pain is. It isn’t a treatment for arthritis, but more of “Band-Aid fix”. Ibuprofen is most commonly it is found in “child-proof” jars, which prove difficult for those to open if they suffer from pain in their hand joints. It is also found in the regular cardboard box, packaged inside plastic with an aluminium sheet to be “popped” out upon consumption. Neither of these packaging techniques is suitable for arthritic patients, so there needs to be a redesigning of this to address the problem.
This is where my packaging design comes in. It features an easy round gripped back, along with a larger lid with a slight overhang. Together they prove to make medicine easier to access and dispense. The lid is a bright blue, providing contrast to the white base for elderly people, thus suggesting it is where the container should be “split”. The hole that dispenses the Fioprofen tablets is round, so the oblong tablets can be shaken out with ease, and there is no need for the tablet to be in a specific angle to be tipped out.
