Joutsela, Towards Experiential Packaging - Understanding and Designing for Packaging User Experience (PUX)

This doctoral dissertation explores Packaging User Experience (PUX) through the lens of human-packaging interaction across different stages of the consumer journey. Traditionally, packaging design has been driven by production and logistics, often overlooking the experiential dimension. This thesis introduces the PUX framework, which integrates user experience (UX) principles, multisensory design, visual communication, and experience-driven approaches into packaging design practice. The four peer-reviewed articles address methods for collecting consumer experience data, the role of recalled packaging experiences, integrating experiential goals into design, and measuring changes in willingness to pay as a result of packaging interaction. The research establishes packaging as a valid domain of experience design and provides practical tools to support user-centered, evidence-based decision-making across the packaging value chain.