Tasty juice-box packaging

1/22/2006

While browsing YayHooray, a forum that is a bit rough around the edges, I came across a skinny thread with this hidden treasure:



This Japanese packaging is functional and well-designed. Without knowing the product, you can simply observe that it is a banana juice beverage. I anticipate, and hope, that this company will extend this theme to other fruits like oranges, apples, and strawberries where the packaging would have to be differentiated on color and texture.

Even if the average consumer can vaguely understand what you are trying to sell without having any product knowledge or experience, indirect marketing becomes easier. Interactive designers should try and create user interfaces allow users make instantaneous connections with the product, such as a web site. When I visit a site like Friendster or MySpace, the user interface does not convince me that I am in a social network. Instead, I feel like child back in 1996 with a Geocities page (/Area51/Zone/2307/ was my virtual domicile or origin) surfing a community web ring. While that may make money for investors and advertisers, both sites are incredibly ugly, inefficient, and unfriendly. Does any large people-oriented site create a great experience?