According to the WHO organization, at least 2.2 billion people over the world have a vision impairment or blindness. That amounts to about 28% of the world population. In Canada alone, 1.5 million are visually impaired. Grocery shopping is a major barrier for people with visual impairments. They find it difficult to distinguish between products on the shelf and read tiny information on labels.
Information on food packagings like product name, nutritional value, health benefits, ingredients, net weight, expiry date, cooking, and safety instructions is crucial in making an informed purchase decision and for product use. Hence my research aims at exploring ways in which this information can be made accessible to people with visual impairments.
In 2014, the Government of British Columbia announced the “Building a Better B.C. for People with Disabilities” plan that aims at making British Columbia a truly inclusive province by 2024. According to the 2018 progress update, a part of the act aims at improving the consumer experience for people with disabilities.
While there have been several innovations in the area of accessible web design and medicine packaging, very little has been done in terms of food packaging. I see this as an opportunity to investigate an unexplored area. Even though my research will take into consideration global packaging trends and examples, I will be specifically studying Canadian food labeling requirements and policies.
Often accessible designs focus solely on functionality. For instance, public signs and navigation systems usually follow a functional Swiss Modern style. However, packaging design differs in many ways from navigation systems. Hence the same methods and aesthetics do not work well for food packaging. Food packaging aims to convey a brand story/value through the chosen aesthetics.
That has been a key consideration throughout my research. My goal is to focuses equally on aesthetics and functionality and develop packaging that is marketable in retail grocery stores.
The primary method used in this research is studio based prototyping. These prototypes will be informed by interviews and conversations with participants, experts and design professionals. Other methods like literature review, precedent study, surveys will also guide the prototyping.
The research is expected to result in a sample accessible grocery food packaging brand spanning across various formats and variants. The sample packaging will hopefully lay the foundation stone for designer and grocery food brands wanting to make their products more accessible to people with vision impairments.