Tactile Bottle Markers for Shampoo and Conditioner

Packaging Product Design Industrial Design

Overview

In the shower, identical bottles force blind/low-vision users into workarounds. Herbal Essences standardized tactile markers: raised lines/dots on every bottle to differentiate shampoo vs conditioner (brand page). The company also notes the markers can help people whose first language isn’t English (same source). Quote from Sam Latif: “It’s just a little thing…but…made such a big difference in my life” (interview coverage). Lesson: tactile patterns outperform text-only labeling for broad accessibility.

Why it matters

When packaging is designed only for sighted reading, people with vision impairment lose independence in private spaces and spend time on avoidable “micro-frictions.” Tactile cues reduce mistakes (and stress) during routine care, and can help multilingual households where text labels are less reliable. The call to action for product teams: build a consistent tactile language across product lines, then test placement in real contexts (wet hands, low light) so the feature is usable when it matters most.