Helen Hamlyn Research Centre

small print: improving visual pack information for older consumers

A project to improve on-pack information for older supermarket shoppers, resulting in proposals which address an ethical conflict between mandatory and marketing elements in packaging design.

Supermarket packaging today contains more information in the 'small print' than ever before - not just list of ingredients, name of manufacturer, place of origin, net weight, nutritional values and instructions for use but also cautions on the environmental impact, GM content and allergies. For older consumers, mandatory information of this kind is especially important in the context of maintaining a balanced diet or taking medication. Yet back-of-pack 'small print' is given less design attention than front-of-pack brand imagery, and reproduced in sizes, formats and concealed locations that makes life very difficult for an ageing population.

This project isolated 'small print' solutions from their context to highlight their deficiencies. It looked at best practice in typography, but concluded that the whole issue is much more complex than simply adhering to new guidelines on legibility. Improving visual information for older people entails engaging in a moral debate about degrees of honesty and persuasion in pack design. The researcher redesigned milk and paracetamol supermarket packs to improve reading of information and tested his alternatives with a panel from the University of the Third Age. The results showed that only an integration of information design with brand strategy would win consumer trust.