Applied Research: Sustainable Package Design based on Cognition Theory

摘要

Since the advent of the new century, consumer demands have kept on changing, which inevitably shortens life cycle of commodities. As a result, sustainable package design with customer psychological cognition at the core has become an irresistible development trend of the package industry. In order to deepen analysis of applications of cognition theory to sustainable package design in China, this paper first reviews cognition theory and theories related to sustainable package design as well; then expounds the major impact of cognition theory on sustainable package design; and finally proposes sustainable package design approaches based on cognition theory. Research results suggest: (1) Feeling and perception differ greatly from each other in terms of processing direction, features and cause, and are mainly reflected through sense, attention and consciousness. Thus, cognition theory can provide important references for development of the future service industry; (2) Sustainable package design, after getting rid of limitations of traditional package design, can lengthen lifespan of package using more concise design and external concept, thus having promising development prospects; (3) Application of cognition theory to sustainable package design can strengthen consumers’ understanding and recognition of sustainable package, and further optimize sustainable package design approaches; (4) It is necessary to improve sustainable package design via reasonable use of perception principles; consider consumer emotions while selecting sustainable package colors, patterns and materials; cater to diversified consumer intentions and design extended functions of sustainable package; optimize sustainable package shape and structure according to consumers’ requirements of convenience; and promote application of cognition theory to sustainable package design. To sum up, research findings of this paper can both theoretically and practically benefit exploration of sustainable package design thinking, and promote sustainable development of package enterprises.