Bad Designs - That's not a handle!

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That's not a handle!

The lids on oatmeal containers were recently redesigned. The new-style lid fits down into the top of the oatmeal container. There's a lip all the way around the inside of the lid (arrow). The lip, which looks like it could work as a handle, affords sliding one's fingers underneath to pick up the oatmeal container.

The other day I reached into the pantry to grab the oatmeal. I put my fingers under the lip of the lid using my thumb to hold the side of the container. I got just a few steps from the pantry before the lid came off dumping oatmeal all over the floor! The problem is that it looks like you can pick up the container by the lid, but you can't. Maybe the purpose of this new lid is to get people to buy more oatmeal, since half of it ends up on the floor!

(picture of old-style lid)

The old-style lid doesn't look like you could use it as a handle to pick up the oatmeal container, so people probably aren't inclined try it. People are probably more apt to use two hands to pick up containers with these old-style lids.

Design suggestion

The lid on the new-style container should not look like it could work as a "handle" to pick up the container. This might be done by:

Not making the center of the lid set down in the top of the container so deeply.
Removing the "handle" from the inside of the lid by curving the lip outward rather than inward.

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