Last night I ate a Hershey’s chocolate bar.
I used my teeth to open it, just like always. I open all my candybars that way (Top 5 – Take Five, Watchamacallit, Snickers, Twix, Kit Kat). In fact, pretty much anything with a wrapper is going to be unwrapped by my thumb-indexfinger-teeth combination.
I’m drooling.
As I ate that candybar, I was reminded of a video that someone (Gene?) posted on the Facebook page a long time ago. In the video, Kelley Styring examines the reality that we are indeed living in a one-handed world. All of us are. Even people with two hands are always holding something, right? A phone, a bag, a latte, a baby…it could be anything. And yet, consumer products are not created to be used with only one hand.
In the video, Kelley (who works as a Consumer Strategist for InsightFarm.com) goes to the One Arm Dove Hunt in Olney, Texas (the 41st annual just happend this last weekend!) to interview those with one hand and to see them interact with certain consumer products. There are some fantastic tips in the video, so make sure you watch it!
Personally, I don’t think much about how I use certain products, but the idea is intriguing. And empowering. I love that Kelley is looking to limb-different people for their insight and help, not necessarily how to make things easier for them. We can impact, on a global scale, how consumer products are created and packaged to make them easier for everyone to use. That’s pretty cool.
So, watch the video and then share your experiences. What are some of the hardest items for you or your child to open/use? What are some of the easiest? And this is for everybody, regardless of how many hands you have!
(Join the LOH Facebook community and follow on Twitter, too!)
Love this! Thanks for sharing.
I love the flip top lid on my vitamin bottle. I think they are Sundown Naturals brand. I wish you could buy all pills in this packaging. I know they aren’t child safe, but they are LOH friendly. Why not advil in a pez dispenser? Now THAT I would buy!.
On the other side of the coin is dayquil blister packs. What tazmanian devil were these designed for? I feel like my teeth are going to rip out when I open them. My 2 handed wife has a hard time also. I’ve taken to using scissors, right down the middle between the gel caps, and so has my wife. 🙂
For some reason this made me laugh super hard. I think it was the Tazmanian Devil line. hehe Thanks, Tyson!
Some bags of chips… seriously. It’s as if they were never intended to be opened by humans. Good news is, even when I hand food packaging of some sort to a two-handed friend to open, I usually watch them struggle with it for a while as well… because it’s only the really tricky ones that I can’t get myself.
Well, it may be a one handed world for a two handed person carrying a cell phone. But how many hands does a one handed person have when we are carrying a cell phone.
But believe me, one hand, no hands whatever, if you want the chips bad enough you’ll figure out a way to open that bag, or cut the steak (you may even just go barbarian)
But I haven’t really noticed a trend towards one handed consumer products on the shelves of my local Walmart, we all just adapt and overcome.
make everything one-handed