I’m Convinced All Product Designers Are in Their 20s With Perfect Vision

September 14th, 2015

Huge rant on the way. Buckle up.

A couple weeks ago I turned 50 and as a sort of gag gift/serious gift, my sister Marlene gave me a magnifying glass.

Har har. You’re old and blind as a bat. But you know what? I am and the gift is extremely helpful. I used it twice at work the following week and then again today.

Why?

Because people who design product packaging all have perfect vision and I’m fed up with how hard it is to read anything.

Ingredients on food, instructions on medicine bottles, expiration dates and product codes. How is anyone over my age supposed to read important information without a magnifying glass?

By the way, isn’t it pretty?

I used it last week to get serial numbers from the backs of computers and today to read an expiration date on a cup of yogurt.

Why on God’s green earth is it helpful to make everything tiny? On the Dell computer product label, they save, what? One one-hundredth of a cent on ink and making the label smaller?

On the yogurt label, the designers print the expiration date in blue on purple background. Black on white, people. Black on white.

I want to be invited to a focus group on how to make packaging easier on the eyes of older people. But nobody cares about us. No one thinks how they can develop and produce things with universal design in mind so that everyone can use a product or device, disability or not, with ease. What’s the harm in doing so?

The reason I had to determine whether my yogurt was expired was because I opened the container and it was all liquidy and weird.

Next time, if I can’t read the label, I’ll just eat it anyway, get sick and wind up in the ER, where I’ll be given prescriptions when I leave that I also won’t be able to read. How do the elderly get their meds straight if they have to read them? OMG!!!!! Someone fix the problem!!

[/rant over] Carry on.

Stumble it!

16 Responses to “I’m Convinced All Product Designers Are in Their 20s With Perfect Vision”

Melissa Kulesza Says:
September 14th, 2015 at 6:04 pm

Kathy,

I am 11 yrs younger than you and have on more than one occasion used the camera on my cellphone to zoom in on small print items to actually read them. This includes the information on the back of my health insurance card, like REALLY does it need to be so tiny, how can you call a number you can’t read? Having worked in customer service call centers we used to wish they would forget to print the number on package for “comments or questions” but making important information so tiny is just wrong!

Babs Says:
September 14th, 2015 at 6:28 pm

My eldest sister (Leeta) has to have her meds sorted into daily compartments, by the pharmacist, because not only is the writing too small to read, but several of her pills are the same colour and shape! left to read the labels herself, she could actually kill herself!

Karen and Gerard Says:
September 14th, 2015 at 6:29 pm

Oh yeah, magnifying glasses are very useful. My dad had a very cool one that was long and skinny for reading entire lines on a printed page like a book or newspaper. I had to use mine to read the Direct TV serial number when I called for service. I also agree with you that if people want something read, it should be black & white. The colorful posters that come with my Sunday School class curriculum are so crazy even the kids have a hard time reading it!
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Sam Says:
September 14th, 2015 at 6:44 pm

Yep. /end comment

Kathy Says:
September 14th, 2015 at 6:57 pm

Melissa — Ah, yes, the phone numbers. I’m at least glad the number on my prescription bottle is boldfaced and decently-sized. But an elderly person with worse vision would almost have to have another person call them in. And then there’s the phone maze they’d have to go through. I really pity the elderly. They need the most help and get the least assistance with simple things. Ugh.

Babs — Right! I mean, there’s actually lives at risk here with those damn labels. I don’t understand why there’s not more of a movement to fix a problem that, to me, is easily fixable and would save so much aggravation and real risk.

Karen — My Dad had one of those long, skinny ones too for the newspaper until he moved onto reading news on the Internet, where we rigged a giant magnifying glass to the desk that he could easily draw down in front of his face. He also used techniques on the PC that would enlarge stuff on-the-fly. If kids have a hard time reading something, then it’s worse than I thought.

Sam — Yep indeed.

Lin Says:
September 14th, 2015 at 7:59 pm

I just miss my young eyeballs that worked. I wish I never took them for granted.

Grace Says:
September 14th, 2015 at 9:18 pm

Oddly enough my near vision has improved with age – at 12-14 inches away I can read even the tiniest print – closer than tiny letters start to run into each other, further than that everything starts to fuzz up so it’s a PITA at the grocery store, constantly taking my glasses (which I need for distance) off so I can read the labels.
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Kathy Says:
September 15th, 2015 at 4:14 am

Lin — Me too. We never appreciate anything until it goes south, do we?

Grace — That’s interesting. I’ve heard of that happening. I’m near-sighted too, except it still doesn’t help with things that are too small. I’m sick of taking my glasses on and off. Lately, I only wear my prescription sunglasses for driving and leave my regular glasses off for the most part. My doctor says it’s OK to do that. Weird, but OK.

Beth Ann Chiles Says:
September 15th, 2015 at 6:43 am

I am totally with you! Totally! I have a magnifying app on my iPhone because my eyes are horrible and the worst is trying to read a menu in a dimly lit restaurant. Come on—I don’t want to end up ordering cow’s bladder by mistake! The yogurt cups—been there. I have a feeling it is only going to get worse for me as well. Ugh.
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Vanessa Says:
September 15th, 2015 at 7:36 am

I do a lot of accounting work and find myself cursing small “6”s, “8”s, and “9”s.
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Kathy Says:
September 15th, 2015 at 5:40 pm

Beth Ann — “Cow’s bladder.” That made me laugh! But yes, thank God for smartphones. Not only can you zoom in, but it gives you extra light where you need it. We’re all doomed, you know.

Vanessa — I used to work in Lehigh’s accounting office for 15 years. I blame it for making me blind. How many printouts did I read in tiny print? OMG. Thankfully I worked there in my 20s and 30s when I still had decent eyesight. Enjoy it while it lasts, chickadee.

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