Squeeze Me - User Experience Design

OK, I didn’t just crawl out of a cave somewhere, but I was recently struck by an awakening to an emerging trend in food packaging that… well… would be pretty cool if it were used in the right places.

Squeeze bottles for food products have been around for quite a long time, so this is nothing new in and of itself. I remember as a very young child in my grandmother’s corner store/restaurant playing with the red and yellow plastic bottles that she refilled each night with ketchup (spell it how you want… that’s how I spell it) and mustard. Those bottles were so much easier and faster than the glass Heinz bottles… just squeeze the middle and “Voila!” you had a decorated hot dog (or shirt, depending on how hard you squeeze).

But fast forward to 2005 and it seems that everything edible is being packaged in squeezable plastic bottles. What’s the deal with this?

I mean, some things make sense, but it’s getting a little out of hand. At a recent family get-together, I reached for the relish to finish making my hot-dog, and noticed it was in a squeeze-bottle. “Huh…” I thought to myself (profound, no?). And then I turned it over and gave it a squeeze. Out came… pickle juice. No relish. The relish was stuck inside the bottle, and the juice was turning my bun into a squishy mess.

Another day, I am in the grocery store looking for peanut butter, and wouldn’t you know it? Some idiot or prankster packed a squeeze bottle with peanut butter and is marketing it. That stuff is hard enough to try and carve out of a jar with a butter knife, and they expect folks to pop an artery in their forehead to get their product out? I don’t think so.

There is such thing as too much of a good thing. Now, I like the idea of squeezable ketchup, mustard, jelly, Miracle Whip, and other things that are typically smooth enough to squeeze out of a bottle, but enough is enough.

Now, where is my hot-dog?