This reminds me of soda/beer can designs. You know the hole in the ring tab? I used to believe it was there only for it to provide better grip for your finger when opening it. Turned out it was also there so you can fit a straw and have a way of stabilizing it.

Most people had no idea about that.

[–] locuester@lemmy.zip 16 points 3 days ago

You’ve mistaken the manufacturers aluminum cost cutting measure for a feature.

[–] Lightfire228@pawb.social 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I'm not sure that's their intended design. Old pull-tab cans actually had a ring for you to pull them off (similar to "easy open" soup cans of today)

I'd imagine that as the tab shrunk and changed from pull to a lever action, the "ring" was left as a vestigial design (as a form of skeuomorphism)

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Also, the one with the hole requires less material for the same lever width.

[–] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 2 points 3 days ago

Yeah I remember those. Where I grew up that style of ring pull was the dominant style.

One reason why that style was retired in many places was to reduce waste. When you had a ring pull tab that peeled off, most people threw that away separately. I remember seeing those tabs being thrown all over the place.

[–] REDACTED@infosec.pub 2 points 2 days ago

First, you come up with a way to save on materials, then you come up with a way to represent the changes as a feature