Markus Joutsela: “Packaging is an underutilized medium, user interface, and experiential element”

What is your research about?

"I study the user experience of packaging – how people encounter, experience, and interpret packaging in their everyday lives. Packaging is an important point of contact between the consumer and the product: first impressions often determine the purchase decision, while the user experience determines whether the same product will be purchased again.

Traditionally, design has been guided by the requirements of production, logistics, and marketing, with user experiences taking a back seat. In my dissertation, I examine the experience from the perspective of both the user and the designer – from the first encounter to the moment of purchase, opening, use, and finally disposal. The aim is to understand what is important in the experience and how it affects the product and brand experience.

When experientiality is incorporated into packaging design, the end result is more meaningful and appealing to consumers – and it is the consumer who ultimately decides which products are successful.”

What is the most important or new aspect of this?

“I have developed a new tool for examining user experience, the Packaging User Experience (PUX) framework. It applies user experience thinking to the physical, multisensory world of packaging and helps us understand what kind of experiences packaging evokes – and how they can be leveraged to build a better brand and product experience.

The framework combines user experience, multisensory design, visual communication design and branding into a single entity. It helps to verbalize the experience and find a common understanding of what kind of goals should be set for the design.

In my research, I also discuss the effects of experience on willingness to pay – how investing in experience affects consumer behavior, and its economic value. Packaging should be seen as an investment in better product functionality, desirability, and experiential value rather than a cost. Experience can significantly increase the value of a product. Companies need evidence and tools to achieve this.”

Why is this topic relevant right now?

“Packaging design is undergoing a transformation. There are many demands placed on packaging – it should be efficient, responsible, logistical and attractive, all at the same time. However, most of its impact only occurs when the consumer encounters it. How does the packaging appeal to the consumer, does it convey responsibility, and does it correspond to the consumer's values?

The user experience can also be used to support sustainable behavior – to guide consumers to act in the desired way. Packaging can be designed for reuse or disposal, but also to evoke positive feelings and surprises.

In my opinion, many industrial actors underutilize packaging and its impact in terms of how it could support the value that consumers experience from the product itself.” 

Packaging production is often based on existing standards that are simply embellished. But if we ask ourselves what packaging could be and do more, we need a new design approach. We must move from product-centric design to experiential design, which can also be responsible and ecological.

We must dare to question familiar practices in order to create new, impressive, and experiential packaging. For example, new materials can be used to develop solutions that open up new customer relationships and international markets for SMEs.”

Markus Joutsela's doctoral thesis Towards Experiential Packaging – Understanding and Designing for Packaging User Experience (PUX) was publicly defended at Aalto University 24 October, 2025.