At my age, you worry about things like this. Could it mean presbyopia, cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration or some other age-related eye problem? Or is some-thing else going on?

In a semi-panic after struggling to read some of the back labels on oil containers at Wal-Mart, I recently decided it was time to see a vision specialist. And at the risk of having him refer me for diagnostic psychological testing, I brought some motor oil bottles with me.

My glasses indeed were misaligned and in need of adjustment, he said, and my eyes were in fact changing with age – but these were not the reasons I was struggling to read the labels. Instead, after careful inspection of the labels on the motor oils I brought along, he said the 6-point font on the labels was too small, the color contrast was not ideal, and the spacing between letters and words was very tight.

In short, his diagnosis was that my eyes were fine but the labels had issues: They were too crammed with information. With that, I breathed a sigh of relief and decided rather than questioning my eyesight, maybe it was time to take a closer look at how labels have changed over time.

Looking back, the first observation is that some things have not changed. The real estate available to print info on the back label of a motor oil bottle is one example. That space has remained at roughly 3 inches by 4 inches for decades.

But although the size of the label has remained nearly the same, one change that occurred was the need to make space on the label for a Universal Price Code. The UPC comprises a unique 12-digit number and barcode used for scanning trade information at the point of sale, for automated checkout and inventory control. Whereas UPCs are generally meaningless to consumers, they are vitally important to retailers, so UPCs now occupy somewhere between 7 and 15 percent of the back label on a quart of motor oil. Thats a lot of space for something consumers generally cant read or understand.

Another big change on the back label speaks to diversity and the appreciation that Hispanics represent an important and growing segment of the U.S. population, and the do-it-yourself motor oil market. Although it differs by lubricant manufacturer and region, many motor oil labels are bilingual. Thats very helpful to Hispanic consumers, but the reality is, it takes more space. In fact, the inclusion of Spanish on the back label can consume 15 to 30 percent of the available space.

Also taking space on the back labels of motor oils are the necessary warnings about the dangers of skin contact with used oil, keeping it out of reach of children, and conserving resources by recycling. Taken together, this material can account for as much as 8 percent of the back label. Add this to the 5 percent required to include contact information on the products manufacturer, marketer and/or distributor. Then add a date of manufacture or batch code, too.

And just when you think there is no space left for anything more on the back label, toss synthetics claims into the mix, add some slick graphics comparing the attributes of various brands, weave in some creative advertising ideas for cross-merchandizing, and if needed, expand the back label to be a three-page pull-out or peel-off. Why not include a magnifying glass and decoder ring as a prize for those truly interested in reading the label?

Then again, maybe less could be more. What about that obscure QR code on the back label? What if there were a smart-phone application that knew the make and model of your car and allowed you to scan the QR code on the motor oil label to see if the product meets that vehicles warranty requirements and is API licensed? What if that same app gave you the most current data and approvals on the product, customer reviews, independent test data and analysis? In addition, the app could let you know where to get the best deal on that product and others like it, plus coupons and rebates.

Surely younger, digital-savvy buyers would find such an enriched QR and app useful. The same could be said for older folks like me – if the app provided an opportunity to make the font size larger and showed the text with a high-contrast background and better spacing between characters.

In todays day and age, thats not asking for much.