Innovating in packaging design: DIU

Design is the creation of a plan, method or mutual agreement for the construction of an object, system or measurable human interaction. It appears that today’s design community still doesn’t use all the  opportunities to improve the quality of life for many as far as packaging is concerned. Projecting key elements of packaging thinking onto the world of design may be a valuable solution for both disciplines. This is called Design for Intended Use (DIU). It brings benefits in food, pharma, e-commerce and many other areas of future interest.

Design for Intended Use (DIU) is a packaging design process and outcome that unambiguously identifies and ensures the intended use of the packaged product by the intended user.

Basic to DIU is the definition of packaging as coined by NVC in the 1990’s. Packaging is the activity of temporarily integrating an external function and a product to enable the use of the product. The world does this at least 100,000 times per second. Inherent to packaging is the unpacking of the product by the user and the creation of the emptied pack. The central goal is clearly the appropriate use of the packaged product by the user. Ideally, the packaging should also prevent the ab-use (wrong use of the contents by the intended user) or the mis-use (the ‘right’ use of the contents, however by somebody else than the intended user).