• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Jeffrey J Davis Photography

Fine Art Photography From Seabrook Island and Beyond

  • Photography
    • Print Surface / Format Options
    • Full Collection, Chronological By Location
      • 2022
        • 2022 Seabrook Island
        • 202204 Destin, Florida
        • 202205 Letchworth Falls
        • 202205 Spanish Wells , Bahamas
        • 202206 Wesley Hill Nature Preserve
        • 202208 Buffalo Silo City
        • 202211 Frankfurt
      • 2021
        • 202103 Florida Keys
        • 202106 Estero Island
        • 202112 Turks & Caicos
        • 2021 Seabrook Island
      • 2020
        • 202001 Seabrook Island
        • 202001 Okaloosa Island
        • 202003 Oahu
        • 202007 Seabrook Island
        • 202011 Seabrook Island
        • 2020 Destin
      • 2019
        • 201904 Turks and Caicos
        • 201905 Seabrook Island
        • 201906 Estero Island, Florida
        • 201906 Exuma
        • 20191109 Dinosaur Jr / Kurt Vile Live
        • 201908 Colorado
        • 201910 Avon Lake Backwash
        • 201912 Turks and Caicos
        • 2019 Destin
      • 2018
        • 201812 Breckenridge
        • 201811 Birmingham / Phoenix
        • 201810 Florida vs LSU
        • 201809 Napa Valley
        • 201809 Lake Tahoe
        • 201807 Seabrook Island
        • 201806 Estero Island, Florida
        • 201805 Elko Expo
        • 201805 BVI’s Split Second
        • 201804 Dubai and Hummingbirds
      • 2017
        • 201712 Breckenridge
        • 201706 Palm Island
      • 2016
        • 201611 Austin Lost Pines Seabrook Island
        • 201611 Ibis Hotel
        • 201607 Estero Island , Turks and Caicos
        • 201602 Phoenix / Utah
      • 2015
        • 201511 Keys Destin
        • 201509 Napa
        • 201507 Montana
        • 201505 Yellowstone / Mustique
      • 2014
        • 201412 Houston Zoo / Destin
        • 201403 BVI’s Sailing Trip
      • 2013
        • 201311 Napa Valley
        • 201305 Abaco
        • 201304 Seabrook Island
      • 2012
        • 201209 Biltmore
        • 201207 Seabrook Island
        • 201206 Estero Island
    • Life On Seabrook
    • Sun Meets Horizon
    • Mother Ocean
    • As Far As The Eye Can See
    • Where The Wild Things Are
    • Man Made
    • Search Photos By Tag
  • About
    • About Jeffrey J Davis
    • Experience
      • Creating New Business Models
      • Growth Through Global Expansion
      • Innovative New Products
      • New Strategies For Sustainable Competitive Advantage
      • What Others Say About Jeff
      • Jeffrey J Davis’s Resume
    • Blog
    • Contact
You are here: Home / Blog / Innovation / Good User-Centered Design Starts From A Foundation Of Utility

Good User-Centered Design Starts From A Foundation Of Utility

July 9, 2009 by Jeff Leave a Comment

I first came upon the Target ClearRx concept from a post from Matt May’s excellent In Pursuit Of Elegance blog.  A sucker for innovative, user based clean design I did a little research on this story.  Though it dates back to 2005, it’s a great story of how Necessity Really Is the Mother Of Innovation. Designed by Deborah Adler while still a student at the School Of Visual Arts, this step change reset to the traditional pharmacy pill bottle emerged out of an incident where her Grandmother took her Grandfather’s medicine by mistake sending her to the hospital.  Thinking through the problems with the traditional incumbent design, she identified several opportunities:

  • Labelling was inconsistent from pharmacy to pharmacy
  • Typically the biggest font on the label was the brand of the pharmacy
  • Numbers frequently added to confusion rather than clarified it (3: 3 pills or 3 times per day?)
  • No flat surface means that the bottle has to be rotated to read the entire label
Target ClearRx Package
Target ClearRx Package

After rapid prototyping (Remember: Fail Fast Forward), she settled on a solution set which offers a number of clear improvements to the historical pill bottle concept:

  • The Name and Dose of the drug are the most prominent text, largest font, first row of the bottle
  • She utilized a clear and consistent information hierarchy by separating the label into two halves separated by a line.  Name , Dose and Instructions are above the line.  Required but less important info (qty, expiration date, Doctor, Pharmacy phone number) are below the line in smaller type.
  • Color coded rubber rings attached to the neck of the bottle ensure that, just like with a communal electric toothbrush, you never put something in your mouth which was intended for somebody else in your family.
  • A detailed card with more specific information (side effects, interactions etc) is tucked into a slot behind the label, as opposed to being stapled on the outside of the bag (and quickly thrown away.)

Deborah shopped her design, but it was quickly snagged up by Target, who bought the IP and rolled the concept out across their chain.  The concept is consistent with Target’s overall brand image and has been an unqualified success.  You can learn more about the design and innovation process for ClearRX at Peter Merholz’s Experience Matters blog and in the article  “The Perfect Prescription” from New York Magazine.

Personally, I find it to be a great example of how a dominant industry format can be re-engineered from the bottom up by thinking thoughtfully about the way users interact with the product and trying to streamline and improve the user experience via human factors study.  Just because a design format is time tested and well entrenched, it doesn’t mean it is immune to innovation.

You May Also Enjoy:

  • November 3, 2009 12 of the World’s Coolest Packaging Designs (0)
  • December 8, 2010 Hierarchy of Visual Understanding (0)
  • July 19, 2009 Delivering Bad News To Your Team (9)
  • September 14, 2009 Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule (0)
  • August 18, 2009 US Job Market Competition Spectrum (5)

Filed Under: Innovation Tagged With: design, ethnographics, human factors, user experience

© 2023 · Jeffrey J Davis Photography · Powered by Imagely