In our previous article, Minimalist packaging: Bahlsen Hit cookies, we evaluated a traditional petit beurre package that had not kept up with the times. Today, we ran a similar package usability analysis on the current Oreo cookie package in the US market. The results are drastically different. The Oreo package not only surpasses Bahlsen type […]

This new recycling aid, separates coffee grinds from aluminum Nespresso casing for easy recyclability. It clearly is trying to address an increasingly positive consumer attitude towards recycling. Recycling is a lifestyle that is readily adopted by consumers, in many cases, only if it is convenient. The dedicated recycler may not need any encouragement, but today, […]

Concepts and Prototypes Conceptualization happens right after the ideation phase. Innovation professionals, typically consisting of designers (industrial and/or graphic), and model makers, usually go into bootcamp in a dedicated project room. The task on hand is to transform ideas into concepts.

Fast Company via Gizmodo is reporting that Yves Béhar spent three years designing a new shoebox. That claim certainly grabbed our attention as we are big proponents of swift package design projects that usually don’t take longer than six months. Despite our initial reaction, upon closer inspection, we found a lot to like.

What’s There To Write About Ideation? These days, it seems that there are so many people talking about innovation, doing innovation, and selling brainstorming as an innovation process, this topic seems a bit passé. However, these claims do not mean that ideation is being done right. We have seen our share of people doing it […]

Polarizing Designs vs. the Mundane It is not exactly breaking news that when car companies design cars, they need to segment their consumers, and produce designs that appeal to those segments. So, when BMW designs the 3-chassis, it targets younger professionals who want to have a sporty image. Naturally, older consumers and people beyond the […]

Wired magazine is reporting that scientists from Sunchon National University and Rice University have developed a printable RFID tag. The cost of the RFID tags were over $1/unit a decade ago. Back then, it was largely anticipated that in order for RFID to be fully deployed, the per unit cost needed to be at better […]

Grouping consumer insights into actionable sandboxes Once the ethnographic research concludes, the team brings back a host of insights. Then, in a cross-functional set-up, the team members can sit around the table, and decide which of the hundreds of consumer insights complement each other, and which are not pertinent. For example, years ago when we […]

Discovering consumer packaging needs and problems through ethnographic research A common misconception about innovation is that if a company innovates a more usable product, or a better looking product, or improves on some attribute of a product, then it is an innovative product, and therefore it should succeed. However, it often does not. The reason […]

Segmentation for Considered Purchases If you are buying a car, or an appliance, segmentation plays a very important part. For example, it would not be very surprising that BMW buyers are mostly men in their 40s. It would also be not so surprising to see that their income may be higher than average. As a […]