SAMANTHA BENNETT

CHILD-RESISTANT CLOSURES

With child-resistant mechanisms remaining stagnant for decades and a growing elderly

population, our team was tasked with making a better mouse trap. Our goal was to make

child-resistant mechanisms that includes people with added difficulties while increasing

child resistant effectiveness. We met with elderly, arthritis, people with disabilities, and

parents alongside their children to observe and understand their behaviors, perceptions,

and challenges when interacting with child-resistant packages.

Team: 

Design Strategy Manager

Industrial Designer

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Biggest Challenge:

Reigning in children's wild tendencies and observing users struggle to open packages,

but not help them

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Favorite Part of Project:

Having over half of the elderly/arthritis group hug me after our sessions - when did hugging strangers become socially unacceptable?!

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My Role: 

I conducted and planned all aspects of this project.

My strategy manager was great to bounce ideas if needed

and to review plans and deliverables as I completed them, 

plus take amazing notes during interviews.

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Research & Activities:

Secondary Research - to use as baseline to differentiate our research

Usability Study - to understand people's challenges with CR packages

Task Analysis & Rating - to assess perceived pain and effort of packages

Contextual Inquiry - in-context field research to understand parent's behaviors

Ideation Activity - to understand what motions are perceived as easy, yet CR

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THE DETAILS

cpsc protocol.

WHAT WE LEARNED

Adult CPCS testing omits an important group of users by excluding people with "overt disabilities," people who are unable to follow written instructions, and anyone over the age of 70 y/o. These people are more likely to need medications thus requiring them to interact with CR closures more frequently. These are the people who struggle with closures the most, yet

they aren't included in testing. On the

other hand, children testing only

includes children up to 4.25 years.

WHAT WE DID

We specifically included people with "overt disabilities" like cerebral palsy, arthritis, and stroke victims as well as older children so we could design a better closure for everyone. 

ADULT

CHILDREN

external research takeaways.

WHAT WE LEARNED

Looking at external research studies we found that the strength of children and older adults overlap. This shows that hand strength is not a good opportunity for design as some adults would be incapable of opening if the strength eliminated all children. Although hand strength is not an opportunity, the size of children's hands vs adults rarely overlaps making it a viable opportunity to explore.

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WHAT WE DID

Moving forward in developing our research

we focused on usability testing and gauging user's feelings toward difference packages and problems.

user's perceptions.

From previous internal research on

child-resistant packages, we had

a good baseline of general user perceptions on existing packages. Due to this existing knowledge, usability testing and generating ideas with participants was priority.

Extreme sizes make it  

more difficult to open  

If "easy" to open, most people think  

 children would be able to as well  

Requiring a lot of force causes most  

 people to dislike the package  

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One-handed use, clear directions, and  

 audible feedback are clear bonuses  

research plan overview.

PARTICIPANTS

ACTIVITY

We developed tasks for the groups of participants that allowed us to observe how they go about opening packages,  gauge their pain, effort and preference, and understand their ideal

child-resistant package.

usability packages.

To decide which packages to move forward into the usability study I met with people in the office with a large number of options. I had them open and rate each package to help narrow down which ones to carry into elder and child participants. We chose to narrow down based on including a variety of motions, commonality vs rare, and difficulty of opening.

common hand problems.

Recruiting posed particularly difficult as there were not many elderly and people with disabilities in our database.

We reached out to local

senior living communities and partnered with SWIRCA to reach our target consumer. These people represent

the many people around

the world who struggle with child-resistant closures

on a daily basis. 

elderly persona & journey map.

We found that elderly people, especially with arthritis, struggle to open child-resistant packages. They view it as "something you just have to live with." Many people experience shooting pain, stiff hands, or lack of sensitivity. While people within this group mostly are able to open these packages, it is a painful struggle.

disabled persona & journey map.

Living with disabilities requires

many tasks to be done differently. People within this group often got creative when needing to open

their child-resistant packages. These methods can often result in them spilling the medication or

even causing bodily irritation from biting or rubbing against their arm.

key observations.

After synthesizing the observations from research, I broke the data up into each different motion observed and intuition. These observations allowed us to identify which types

of motions we should pursue in ideation, and which ones to avoid. 

example video.

I find videos to be one of the most important takeaways for stakeholders. Although they weren't there during the interviews, they are able to witness key moments that occurred. For each category of observations, I create a corresponding video using Premiere Pro.

This video talks about one-handed use >

We focused on the time it took to open each package and the rate in which each package was opened.

Overall packages that required a lot of force, whether familiar or not, were most difficult to open. 1-CLIC was the top runner among both preference and open-ability.

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usability overview.

One of my favorite challenges is presenting complex data in a digestible form. This graph shows the outcome for each group included in the effort and pain rating task. While overall pinch & turn scored highest, in the end the high achiever was 1-CLIC as it was the most difficult for children.

usability effort & pain rating.

Most CR features require

physical force to manipulate.

Elderly people and people with disabilities

have weakened or non-functioning hands

which makes it very difficult or impossible

to apply the appropriate amount of force.

CR mechanisms need to avoid

the use of force for opening.

parent persona.

While the usability testing focused on children, we spoke to their parent's about their experiences and precautions with child-resistant packages. While many parents automatically baby-proof their homes, others don't think about it until their children get into potentially dangerous products. 

Watching children attempt to open packages was a wonder. With child age ranges from 37- 71 months (about 3-6 years) we saw the stark differences in children's abilities.

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Overall most children attempted motions at random.

With enough force, some were able to bypass CR mechanisms unintentionally.

While younger children gave up quickly, older children were more determined and had more patience.

Out of all the packages,

1-CLIC was least opened.

key observations.

Between observing children and

talking to parents, we were able to

identify types of motions children aren't

able to conduct. We used these as a

reference when conducting ideation.

observed child capabilities.

usability overview.

Push wall was the most frequently opened by children, while 1-CLIC was the least. Children seemingly overlooked tabs that seemed obvious to adults. Ironically, children who were able to read did not attempt until told to do so, then afterwards were able to open.

If a package isn't opening, children naturally apply more

force or tighten their grip on the motion they are attempting.

Even if that motion is incorrect for opening, they sometimes apply force in the right way and open the package. This is worrisome and stressful for parents because children can be persistent and strong enough to accidentally open CR packages. 

CR mechanisms need to prevent actuation

through the use of secondary forces.

After conducting usability testing with both the elder group and children's group I was able to take a step back and see how they coordinate - one of the best parts of seeing how data comes together! The key winner was 1-CLIC as it was both easy for adults, but difficult 

HOW MIGHT WE...

concept refinement.

While my primary role in this project is design research, I not only participate in ideation, but I serve a key role in decision making as concepts move further along the development process. As of today this project is still in the refinement phase, but is soon to be narrowed down for possible production runs.