Heinz UK have brought out a new variety of ketchup bottle that stands on its top rather than its base. The driver for this design innovation in sauce delivery systems will be quickly realised by any fan of the spicy red condiment. Simply, the traditional sauce bottle has the sauce at the bottom and the hole is at the top. When inverted, unless the bottle is perfectly full, a finite time will elapse between this inversion and the consequent exit of ketchup from the bottle. And, when your bacon sandwich awaits, this finite time can appear infinite.

Clearly something had to be done and the Heinz solution is pictured here, but it is fatally flawed. The flaw is simple and obvious once spotted - although the bottle is designed to be placed cap-down, it may also be placed cap-up. If placed latterly, the benefit of the design disappears and the old problem of the long wait re-emerges.

But why would anyone place it the ‘wrong’ way up? Simple. because they can. My recent post The Design of Everyday Toilets noted that form was used by the designer to determine use. A button was placed such that to reveal it an action had to be taken. The designer of the bottle might have used this to good effect by making the bottle not able to stand the ‘wrong’ way up. If he/she had done this, it would always have been placed the ‘right’ way up because it was the only way up and form would have determined and preserved the correct function.

Perhaps the designer thought that the massive orientation cue on the label would do this job. If the bottle is the ‘right’ way up, then so is the label. But things can mitigate against these cues as they depend on cognitive attention which may not always be given. For example your audience might be children, typically huge ketchup fans. The childen may value physical cues like form over cognitive cues like letter orientation because of their developmental stage. (In fact this phenomenon was noticed in the company of chidren who just kept putting the ketchup back the ‘wrong’ way up even though they understood the bottle as it had been talked about). But there is another cue that leads to the wrong orientation and that is the familiarity of the bottle with the top at the top. Most bottles orient this way, its the way the world is. In fact in many circumstances, notably with wine or beer, it would be poor practice or impossible to balance a bottle on its top. Indeed, this is because its form determines that you cannot!

The strongest clue to correct orientation in this case is physical form, not cognitivist clues that fight for correct orientation (label) or against it (familiarity). Shame Heinz didn’t go all the way, but a good try nevertheless.

(Thanks to my friend Paul Miller for pointing this one out!)

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