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Abstract
Most of food product packaging is unsuitable for elderly and visually impaired people. Food information, such as ingredients, nutritional values, allergens and date of use are printed in small letter size and illegible. Due to reduced motor skills, visually impaired people often have problems with handling packaging, i.e. opening and closing products. In this paper, we propose a redesign of the packaging of food products in order to make it easier to use (ergonomically adapted) and to make the typography, color and contrast, more noticeable (visually adapted). For the purposes of this study, we conducted a survey on elderly and visually impaired people in the city of Zagreb: in the "Vinko Bek" Center for Education, several homes for the elderly and one visually impaired person’s household. Thirteen visually impaired people participated in the study. Based on the obtained results, the font type had the least impact, while the contrast between the color of the letters and the background had the greatest impact on readability. The most noticeable colors were red, yellow and magenta. It is important that packaging materials are unbreakable, like plastic or cardboard, and it is preferable that they are colored (for better visibility).
Recommended Citation
Plečko, Marina; Brozović, Maja; and Kovačević, Dorotea
(2023)
"Food product packaging adapted for visually impaired and elderly people,"
Journal of Applied Packaging Research: Vol. 15:
No.
1, Article 1.
Available at:
https://repository.rit.edu/japr/vol15/iss1/1