Packaging design testing

Overview

Packaging design testing helps you understand how a specific packaging design performs with real participants, before it goes to print or production. You can upload a digitally designed package or a photo of a physical one, digital designs tend to give the cleanest results, since the image quality is consistent and every element is clearly visible.

How to run this in Decode

Upload your packaging design as an image using a Media block, the same setup covered in Set up a media block. Enable Eye Tracking and Facial Coding to capture where attention goes on the pack itself, and how people respond emotionally while looking at it.

Mark specific elements as AOIs

Once your packaging image is uploaded, mark the individual elements you want to understand as separate AOIs, rather than only looking at the overall heatmap. For example, on a typical product package you might mark:

• The brand name or logo, to see whether it's actually being noticed
• The core product visual, such as the product itself or its main image
• Any key visual callouts, for example, an image representing a specific ingredient or feature the packaging is built around
• The price, if it's shown on the pack
• The tagline or headline text

Marking these separately tells you not just that people looked at the package, but specifically which elements actually got noticed, and which ones were missed entirely.

Comparing multiple designs

If you're comparing multiple packaging directions, use Group & Randomization to set up a monadic design, so each participant evaluates one design independently, see Sequential vs monadic design for guidance on choosing between monadic and sequential setups for this kind of comparison.

Add follow-up questions after the image, such as Likert Scale or Multiple Choice, to capture stated reactions (appeal, clarity, purchase intent) alongside the behavioural attention and emotion data.

What you'll learn from the results

For each AOI you've marked, you'll see Time to Discover and Earned Attention, alongside emotion data (engagement, attention, and specific emotions) tracked while participants viewed the package. This tells you, for example, whether your brand name is being missed entirely, whether a key visual is drawing attention away from the price, or whether a tagline is going unnoticed. See Pack heatmap interpretation for how to read this data in full.

What to do next

To test how this design performs once it's actually placed on a shelf, see Shelf visibility analysis.