On the costs and benefits of using triangles in packaging design. (December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhao, Hui; Qi, Yuxuan; Spence, Charles; Wan, Xiaoang
• Is Part Of: Food quality and preference. Volume 78(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-12
• Subjects: Visual search -- Design -- Label -- Triangle -- Packaging; Food preferences -- Periodicals; Food -- Quality -- Periodicals; Food industry and trade -- Quality control -- Periodicals; Préférences alimentaires -- Périodiques; Aliments -- Qualité -- Périodiques; Aliments -- Industrie et commerce -- Qualité -- Contrôle -- Périodiques; Food industry and trade -- Quality control; Food preferences; Food -- Quality; Periodicals; 664
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2019.103719
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0950-3293

Abstract

Highlights: Factors influencing visual search for packaging with triangular labels were examined. Searching for a downward-pointing triangle was faster for trapezoidal-shaped bottles. No such effect was documented for inverted trapezoidal- or rectangular-shaped bottles. Incongruence between label and bottle silhouette may influence visual search performance. Survey confirmed the perceived label incongruence for trapezoidal-shaped bottles. Abstract: We investigate the factors that influence the visual search for bottles displaying a triangular label whose orientation differs from that of background distractors, using shampoo bottles as stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 2, the participants had to find a bottle having a triangular label in a different orientation from the others displayed as rapidly as possible. The results consistently demonstrated that searching for a trapezoidal-shaped bottle with a downward-pointing triangular label was faster than searching for the same bottle with an upward-pointing triangular label instead. In Experiment 3, participants rated the valence and bottle-label congruency for all of the packaging exemplars used in Experiments 1 and 2. The results revealed that the participants rated a downward-pointing triangular-shaped label as being more incongruent with trapezoidal-shaped bottles than an upward-pointing label. Our findings reveal that the downward-pointing triangle superiority (DPTS) effect elicited by the triangular-shaped label is also influenced by the silhouette of the bottle (which presumably provides a reference frame). Such interactions between label and silhouette have direct implications for packaging design.