Smart Packaging — Sustainable Ibuprofen Packaging

Project facts

Role: Research, packaging and structural design, information design, technical drawings
Course: Advanced Design Studio
Context: M.Sc. in Product & Service Design, Sapienza University of Rome, a.y. 2024/2025
Teaching: Prof. Loredana Di Lucchio, with Mariel Dominguez, Teodora Ivkov and Matteo Orsini
Deliverables: Poster, booklet, concept sheet, stakeholder journey, technical drawings, 3D renders, video
Year: 2025

Overview

This project explores the redesign of standard ibuprofen packaging to enhance sustainability, portability and user experience. The proposed solution is a compact carton box with modular blister strips that can be separated into halves, making it easier to carry medication in smaller quantities.

Research

The work started with a visual literature review and a diagrammatic map of medical packaging innovations, sorted into four fields: sustainability and biodegradability, smart and interactive packaging, innovative structural design, and waste reduction and circular economy.

A stakeholder journey then followed the pack through every pair of hands it passes — logistics and storage, pharmaceutical wholesale, retail, pharmacy staff, the patient, relatives and caregivers, and finally the recycling system. Each of them turned out to want something different from the same box.

Concept

The concept sheet holds three columns together: morphology, technology and functionality. The new blister shape gives more options in stability and for the secondary packaging. The most important information is printed inside the secondary packaging with a QR code for the detail, so no separate information sheet is needed. And an origami-inspired system lets the information sheet work as packaging in its own right.

The result is smaller packaging, pill strips that are easy to use and to carry, and the option of talking to a chatbot through the QR code.