Several years ago, we developed a new way of designing medicine labels. At the time we thought that we were only helping to improve the instructions on GSK’s Panadol label, however, since its implementation our approach has been repeatedly mimicked by pharmaceutical companies, so much so that our design approach (developed for the CRI) has become somewhat of a design standard for medicine labels.

We created a list of tasks that would lead a consumer to to identify, select and use the medicine appropriately. We tested the old label to see whether it could be used for these tasks and used the evidence from testing to redesign the label. The results showed us the way a consumer needed the information presented to them, basically in the form of a long list, and the order that this list needed to be. It seems like an obvious approach, but at the time it wasn’t.

Since implementation most companies have adopted a similar approach to these highly usable and successful label instructions. This redesign was also the winner of the inaugural Quality Use of Medicines Award.

Before doing any design work we tested the old labels with customers to see if they could use them effectively.

We found that the key information on the front of the labels was obscured by cluttering graphic elements such as starbursts and the busy logo. Important product information was missed by customers because it was divided across two panels, while the use of red type on a yellow background made the text difficult to read. The instructions were hard to read because they ‘disappeared’ around the circumference of the bottle. In response to these findings we made a number of significant changes.

As well as reducing the clutter on the front panel by removing elements and cleaning up the logo, we did away with the tired old convention of placing the ‘front panel’ in the middle of the label. Instead, we moved this panel to the left hand side of the label. This layout change allowed the instructions and product information to flow uninterrupted as a list. We also rotated the instructional text sideways so that it did not disappear around the bottle’s circumference. This was a radical departure from what had been produced previously.

Finally, we changed the order of the information in the instructions to reflect the order that a consumer would follow when making a choice, or when using the product.

When we tested the new label design the usability problems had vanished. Nature’s Own have adopted these labels and successfully implemented the design across their entire range. The design received the annual Quality Use of Medicines award for label innovation in 2005.