Dunkin Donuts Mystery Lid Design

I have been a Dunkin' Donuts fan and customer for 36 years, basically since I came to this country. I love their products, especially their coffee. I have been wondering, though, for several years already, about the functionality of their cup lids. Please keep reading and try to help me answer a question that has been bothering me for many years already.

Most people go to Dunkin' Donuts, buy coffee, consume their coffee and throw their cup away. Well, I don't do that. After having their coffee I hold on to the cup and I try to understand the mechanics of it by trying to get into the mind of the designer(s). What were they thinking when they were locked in a room designing the lid? What questions were formulating, their arguments, their counterarguments. their fears.

When I drive and I see a new Dunkin' Donuts store that I haven't visited before I always go in and buy a coffee and I try to mingle with the employees in an effort to learn more about the mystery behind the design of their coffee lids.

Here is a typical, traditional coffee cup with the lid attached to it available for customers that is simple and to the point. Please pay attention to the lid and the pull-back part that exposes a hole where you can sip the coffee. You pull back that part, push it onto the top surface of the lid and snap lock it there. The lid was designed to make the process easy by having perforations strategically placed along the pull-back part.

Here is that pull-back part locked onto the lid. The design is simple and to the point. You can drink your coffee time after time and you will not have any questions to grapple with. Period. 

Here is another coffee cup design from Dunkin' Donuts. Please note the pull-back part that is very different looking from the previous design.

This design is very similar but it is different. This lid has no perforations because it is separate from the lit itself. The floppy thing you can be pulled back AND pulled away form the lid! This is the lid that drives me nuts. The more I look at it, the more it bothers me and the more questions I generate.

Initially, the lid seems normal to the casual observer but as you hold the lid and you begin to play with it you begin to wonder what the functionality of each part is. Here is the floppy part that has been pulled back exposing the hole to drink from. Please note that it's attached to a boomerang-like portion and both can be pulled away from the lid thus completely separating them from the lid.

Hold the pull-back part with your hand and continue to pull it back and you will separate it and the boomerang from the lid. The pull-back component now becomes a pull-away component. Why did they go to such length to design such a complex structure. I can see the machinery involved in the production of this lid. Why did they attach the pull-back part to the boomerang-like shape and then allowed the whole thing to separate from the lid? I would have been happy with just the pull-back part that would attach back to the lid.

The image below shows the pull-away part separated from the lid.

Here is the same structure sitting next to the cup. Why would they design such a complex structure for so little functionality? What is the purpose of this boomerang-like shape? WHY?

In my office at home I have a cardboard box under the printer desk with just a Dunkin' Donuts lid in it and many times I go there, take the lid in my hands, look at it and wait for some divine intervention that would help me solve this question. Then I begin to play with it and try to understand why did they go to the trouble to create such a complex component for such a simple lid with such simple function. Why would the customer(s) want to have such functionality in the lid? The pull-back part is just fine and enough for me. It is the pull-back part, attached to the boomerang-like shape that separates from the lid that drives me crazy. What problem did the engineers and designers solved by allowing it to separate from the lid?

It was a great improvement in the coffee cup design when they added the pull-back part that exposed a hole for you to sip your coffee. They should have stopped there. Here is the removable structure attached to the sipping hole and the boomerang-like part in the air. Obviously this is not the way we are supposed to use this structure.

I remember in the late seventies when I lived in Yonkers, NY, I was buying take-out coffee from the Broadway Inn Diner. The process was simple and to the point. After buying the coffee I would put the cup down on a solid surface and I would remove the lid from the cup. Then, with my teeth I would cut two small slits in the lid close to each other. Then I would put my thumb between the two slits and squeeze it with my thumb and index finger and slowly pull back that portion of the lid just enough to create a hole for me to sip coffee.

Nowadays, though, I spent my time trying to figure out the function of the pull-away portion. I try all kinds of configurations. Here are some ideas that have failed. I even tried to turn the whole lid upside down to see if that would produce a viable, sensible solution. But noooooooooooooooo.

 Here is another failed effort.

I waste so much of my time at Dunkin' Donuts trying to figure out the reason behind the design of this lid. It has become an obsession of mine and I hope to have a resolution soon. I contacted Dunkin' Donuts via their website and I haven't received a response yet. I hope my inquiry will land in the hands of a caring person who will help me with my quest. Do you know what is the reason behind this design? Why did they connect the pull-back part to the boomerang-like shape that pulls away from the lid? HELP!!!!!!!!

There is an updated post you may want to check.