Butterly beautiful

So appealing it makes you want to have breakfast in bed! With its smooth and functional form, this is inclusive food packaging design at its best. It's where several user needs come together to create intuitive use, universal design.

Far less fiddly

Awaited changes in production offered Tine the ideal opportunity to update the packaging for its various butters. The company wanted a more contemporary appearance, something that highlighted an appealing product on people’s tables. This included packaging that was not only easily recyclable, but far less fiddly to open than any previous packaging.

Tine's new packaging consists solely of one material, making recycling easy. Photo: Thomas Eckström

Packaging to make you melt

As a result, EGGS set out on an inclusive design quest to create a unique solution for Tine - one that incorporated numerous user benefits to outstrip any of the company’s rivals. Aside from setting our minds on creating something aesthetically striking, we also aimed for something highly functional. As part of the bottom-left corner of the lid we devised an ergonomic overspill - a tab playfully designed to look like butter melting. This allows any user to easily flip the lid off with just their thumb or index finger. In addition, the often tricky-to-open seal that's on most other types of butter packaging has a small hole in the corner flap for better grip, or for sticking something like a pen in to simplify peeling it off.

So that people with reduced motor skills can easily peel off the foil, attention to detail was key when designing the corner flap. Photo: Thomas Eckström

Effortless disposal

Tine’s butter packaging was previously made up of cardboard, plastic and aluminum foil, making it awkward for people to separate into the correct bins for recycling. Now the packaging consists solely of plastic, making disposal effortless. Together with an enhanced brand image of being eco-friendly, and universally user-friendly, Tine now has a flexible solution that it can apply to any future products or brands it wishes to introduce.

To gain maximum insight into people's needs, we tested existing packaging on a variety of users. For example, we invited a person with arthritis to open 90 different product packages, while we observed and asked questions.

Seducing millions of breakfasts

Owing to competition in the dairy sector being fiercer than ever, having a stand out product is vital for a company like Tine. Both butter and margarine provide a huge turnover in trade for supermarket chains and food stores, with over two billion varieties sold every year. Since Tine established this innovative product design, it's set a new standard within the packaging industry - one which others have tried to emulate, but so far have been unable to match. 10 million breakfast spreads can’t be wrong!