UX Critic: cold medicine
I’ve spent much of the week battling a nasty cold. One of the last things I expected when sent to the pharmacy was to think about user experience. Doc said, “Get some Mucinex D,” so off I went.
But what is Mucinex D? I asked for it at my usual pharmacy but they only had plain Mucinex and Mucinex DM. This sent me to the nearby chain pharmacy, where my head began to spin.
Mucinex–a basic guaifenesin expectorant–comes in seven varieties. There’s plain; D, with a decongestant (requiring the pharmacist keep it behind the counter); DM, with cough suppressants; a dedicated cough version; a maximum strength version; a severe-cold formula; and a nasal spray. Each has its own color scheme.
This theme plays out similarly throughout the entire cough-and-cold aisle. Every product has multiple versions that exist in part to satisfy finicky customer demand but mostly to consume shelf space at competitors’ expense. Thus the pharmacy becomes an experiment in patience at the exact point in time when pharmacy customers want speed and efficiency.
I ultimately got my Mucinex D (and a righteous bout of post-nasal drip, thank you very much). But I also got overwhelmed. Is this the best way we’ve found to treat the sick?
And then there are those 8 different versions of Vista…
Not to mention the store brands that are designed to look as much like the category leader as possible, deliberately confusing consumers. Seems like trademark infringement to me, but IANAL.