The noise (it can move about) and visibility of the spoon help people know it’s there even if they miss ‘spoon’ writing on the label you could use.

People can control the exact mix they want and get rid of one pot immediately if they pour all the crumble in so making it more transportable.

Take your comment for example. I asked at the bottom of this post what readers would do if they were in the designer’s situation. You’ve answered this by telling me what you’d do in the situtation of the consumer. So you weren’t really reading the instructions were you?

Now you’re asking us to believe that despite not reading the instructions for this debate that you’d read the instructions for a yogurt pot. I’m sorry to say it Nichole but I don’t believe you would.

since the spoon is already placed in first, and in view (which is helpful for sales) why not glue it there with a non-toxic or edible glue (like the glue they use on the paper around a ice cream cone)

this would help to insure that the spoon STAYs in view for purchasing. and that the spoon doesn’t fall into the yogurt. the user after completing “step 4″ would then see the spoon and un-stick it and enjoy.

1. Yogurt = big pot, Crumble = small pot.
I agree with the folks above that the crumble compartment should be smaller than the yogurt. It creates the proper information hierarchy so-to-speak. Larger pot is the “main area”, smaller pot, “secondary area”. This is done at McDonald’s with their yogurt parfait, at least here in the US, though the amount of crumbly part is IMO much to little. I like that crunch.

2. Make spoon out of divider material.
To resolve the “find the spoon” exercise, it might be worthwhile to create a tear-out or pop-out spoon from the divider material itself. I know currently it’s tin foil or aluminum, quite thin and too flimsy. But perhaps there’s another equally food-safe, air-tight material that could be used to contain the crumble, that would be thin and strong enough to create a make-shift spoon from. I can see this acting something like those tins where you pull the tab and it creates and opening (this is usually found on drinkables but I’ve seen on container for nuts too). What more if it could be biodegradable. They are making disposable spoons and other utensils out of potatoes now – taterware. It’s quite strong.

3. Turn the entire problem on it’s head. Put the yogurt, crumble and spoon in concentric circular package or concentric in some way so that one plastic column is placed inside the outer pot.

Done by packing company:
1. Drop spoon in center, small cylinder.
2. Fill with crumble.
3. Fill outer cylinder with yogurt. Seal all accordingly.

When ready to eat, open top and pull out center cylinder. Voila, all items in place. Stir to mix.

*There would need to be some way of course to seal the inside so that there’s no seepage between the bottom inside, but I think this could be achieved. Alternative could also be to have the crumble fully contained in a pot that nests inside the yogurt pot, but keeping it tall would allow for a proper length spoon to sit inside vertically.

However, there’s also the bigger problem of the pouring-yoghurt-over-cereal being the wrong way round, and to solve that I’d make the yoghurt pot larger and the cereal bit smaller.

The only caveat I can think of (other than packaging redesign) is that having a larger air gap in the yoghurt party might conceivably increase the rate of spoilage, but surely it’s normal to fill such voids (as in the cereal compartment) with inert gas anyway?

As Charlie pointed out earlier, it’s most probably the victim of over-prescriptive testing (if indeed it was tested).

I don’t think it requires a solution that is expensive. Often these things are sorted with just language/labelling or a lovely picture to set expectations.

I’m thinking of branching out into yoghurt pot design. Sounds fun.

Sometimes though, perfection doesn’t ship.

They themselves may agree with you but had to toil over the options and costs.