Dairy Crest, JUGIT™ and overdesign

Dairy Crest in the UK has just announced the relaunch of their redesigned JUGIT™.

As a Canadian in a marketplace that has used milk bags for many years, this seems like a bit of overdesign to me.

At our house we place the bag in either a plastic or ceramic jug, grab a pair of scissors and snip the corner off one end, then pour. When the bag is empty, we take it out and throw it away, recycle it or clean it and reuse it for sandwiches. Every so often we clean the jug itself, but not everytime because the inside only gets wet really when there is a factory-created leak. Nothing ever touches the milk itself.





This JUGIT™, on the otherhand, has a lot of pieces. And the spout needs to be washed whenever a bag is emptied and a new one put in. Is all this design necessary?

When designing something, you have to consider what the needs of the client or customer are and how they fit into the bigger picture - cost, safety, ease of function and overall satisfaction. Sometimes you have to fight the "Not Invented Here" syndrome where someone does not want to do it a certain way simply because that is the way someone else did it!

3 questions about the British consumer and British marketplace come to my mind when I see this JUGIT™ design:
1. Are people worried about milk taking on odours of other foods in the fridge?
2. Aseptically packaged milk (more prevalent in UK than Canada), has a longer shelf life while waiting to be opened. Is the consumer looking for a way to extend the shelf-life after the bag is opened?
3. Are people concerned with lack of space in the fridge and therefore want to be able to put product on top of the jug when it is on the shelf at home?

I love using a bag vs using a jug. Glass bottles are cool but with kids comes the worry of breakage.

I know I haven't touched much on overdesign. It is very easy to get carried away when designing a new product or simply a remedy to an existing problem. Just remember, Keep It Simple, Sweetie! Don't ignore a solution that is right in front of you because someone else came up with it. But, hardest of all, let go. Don't stick with an idea when something new comes along, just because the old idea is what is you are familiar with. Maybe this new design IS better!
(Sainsbury is selling this new JUGIT™.)