Being able to open a bottle of aspirin while battling a searing headache can be a challenge. But that same package can't be accessible to chubby toddler fingers. The bottom line is that consumers, retailers, and the environment pay the price to restrict access while the product lives at the store. Once it leaves the store, the rest of us have to deal with the unpleasant task of extracting our new music CD, camping gadget, or pediatric thermometer. Access for the right person at the right time is one of many design challenges.

There's a frontier of possibilities when it comes to ideas that can be designed to give easy access to the right person. As a prototypical example, the blister lock provides a new way to look at the safety seal of a package.

Where will your package make itself useful? What tools will surround it and what purpose will they serve? These questions get to the context of use and create an ability to see the larger, slightly pixilated picture of the consumer situation. The design can then create a new value for the consumer by increasing the convenience of the product while adding positive attributes to the brand.

Due to the ever-increasing frantic pace of life for most people—go there, find this, do that, and get back as soon as possible—packages need to fit in and make a contribution. By understanding how your package melds with consumers' lives and integrates convenience, the package can contribute. Closures and convenience factors can be large contributors to this growing consumer demand.