Look at the sugar sticks above. Look again. Ok now that’s too much looking; ’cause anyway, these sugar sticks have nothing special (well, ok it says fair trade on them, but design-wise, nothing special). You’ve seen these sugar sticks again and again in your local coffee shop, so you’re wondering why I insist so much on you having a good look at these.

And here is why: ’cause I bet you an espresso (short please) that you have never opened a sugar stick correctly.

“Oh come on Antony! What now? You really think I am that stupid?! You just need to tear the tip off and voilà!” you reply.

Well, my dear reader, you owe me an espresso. But let me first tell you something: I should have been more specific. What you do every morning is that you open the sugar stick incorrectly as per what the designer that created them intended you to do.

So, first of all, we need to look at the “history” of sugar sachets. The problem with your regular sugar sachet (the squared one), is that there is a little air in it. With air comes humidity, and with humidity comes sticky sugar. So that’s why the old sugar sachet that you eventually find one day, behind your fridge, the day you move out of your little student apartment, is all “sugar compact”.

So, some genius guy wanted to fix the issue and created the sugar sticks. They contain no air (the sugar is compressed in the stick) and thus, there is no way your sugar powder will become a block. There is a catch though: to open it the right way, you must tear it from the middle. Yes, like that:

I told you, you don’t open your sugar stick correctly!

Doing so, all the sugar falls out smoothly, and you don’t have to mess with the mini tip that you tear off and then eventually find in your right pocket.

Fortunately for you, you’re not the only one opening the sugar sticks incorrectly. Actually, it is so common that the urban legend says the inventor of the sugar sticks commited suicide after he saw nobody understood how to use his invention. (I did some research and I think it’s really a legend, not a real fact. Sorry for your ego).

In any case, there is a good lesson to learn from all of this: you should always design with the final user in mind (user-centred design). What is obvious for you, won’t necessarily be for your user.

The reference (to me) in terms of user-centred design is this excellent book:

Donald Norman explains in details the 6 principles of good design; and if you compare them to our sugar sticks, you’ll see why there was no chance for them to be used correctly:

Visibility: What are the available options for me to interact with?

For our sugar sticks, as stated above, there is no visual clue except for the tip. So, no visibility.

2. Feedback: What is the reaction to the action?

Here, the sugar sticks once again give the wrong clue: the sugar falls out anyway if you open the stick incorrectly, which reinforces the wrong behavior.

3. Affordance: How important is it for the user to understand quickly how it works?

Sugar sticks are supposed to be intuitive; you don’t want to read a manual to open it. So all wrong again.

4. Mapping: the relationship between control and effect

Sugar sticks are totally not mapped correctly (remember, the thin tip). So all wrong again.

5. Constraints: is there anything that prevents you from using the product the wrong way?

Sugar sticks do exactly the contrary, since they entice you to use the product incorrectly.

6. Consistency: same reaction, every time.

Once again, this is all wrong in the sugar stick. If you open it right, the result will be consistent. But since it’s impossible to understand it, instead, you’ll open it the wrong way, and splash sugar all over the table.

Given all of the above, the designer of the sugar sticks, for instance, should have thought that by having a thin tip at the end of the sticks, people would tear that off first (since thin tip is usually a cue for “tear here”). If he wanted us to open the stick from the middle, he should have added some clues in the middle of the stick to help us understand it. No need to be super fancy: if the tech allowed, just by having a thin middle would have definitely enticed everyone to tear it.

This problem is, unfortunately, too common in my field (videogames on mobile devices), and the usual reply from the designers “People are so dumb! My design is perfect!” is sadly the wrong one. If your user does not intuitively understand your design, then your design is bad. Period. Don’t try to add a tutorial pop-up or anything. Go back to the drawing board, check the 6 design principles above, and come back with a solution that really works.

If you have 5mn, check how Miyamoto created the perfect user-centred experience in level 1–1 of Mario Bros. You will see everything Don Norman explained in his book, concentrated on the very first second of gameplay. Simply genius!

Maybe someone should ask Miyamoto to re-design the sugar sticks?

Hey! Thanks so much for reading me! I’m so lucky to have you! If you can leave a comment or even just like the post, that would mean the world to me :) Thanks!