Considering some of the more recent objects with which I've interacted, I'm going to pick on a couple different bottles this week. Each is a bottle with a different kind of cap.This one is my daily vitamin bottle:
Honestly I didn't think much of it until recently. It has a "push and turn" type lid, which normally isn't a problem at all. However, about two weeks ago I was in a car accident. I received some pretty good impact from the seat belt, leaving my sternum very, very sore. I never knew how many everyday actions require those thin chest muscles... including motions like pressing something together... like a push and turn lid. That first day, I didn't think I was going to be able to take my vitamins at all, and I started to hate this type of lid. Of course, we all know the reason they make the lids this way - so youngsters find it harder to get into the bottles. But here's a bottle with a much easier design for adult fingers:
This was some medication I was given to manage my pain after the accident. Instead of having to push down the entire lid, all I had to do was press the little plastic "lever" with my thumb. It took far less strength overall, didn't create a horrible grinding noise if I wasn't pressing hard enough, and it still served it's purpose of being "hard" for youngster fingers to open.
Now that I am being more intentional about really looking at design as a whole, I'm starting to compare things like these - the design of which I never actually paid attention to before. It's making me realize that one can't be flippant about design. Everything has to be thought through.

