IDEO

News: The Future of Retail: From Revenue Generator to R&D Engine

2012-01-13T00:42:50+00:00

In a 5-page feature, IDEO partner Dana Cho and IDEO environments designer Beau Trincia show why tough economic times and emerging technologies are prompting consumers to change their buying behavior, and how smart retailers are responding with innovative in-store offerings.

News: Designing for Dignity in Metropolis

2011-12-22T00:02:42+00:00

Paul discusses the role of dignity in design is his Curiosity Chronicles column.

News: Tim Brown on Why Innovators Need Design Thinking in McKinsey Quarterly

2011-11-14T18:39:35+00:00

Tim Brown discusses how design thinking can help tackle social issues by building empathy, discovering the unmet needs of the end user and more. Read the article here.

News: James Moed in Hong Kong’s Banking Today magazine

2011-10-01T15:59:21+00:00

James Moed’s “Retail Banks Turning to Design,” is included in the Sept.-Oct. issue of Banking Today, a publication of the Hong Kong Institute of Bankers. In this three-page spread, James writes about rethinking retail banking from the customers’ point of view and how international banks are recognizing good design as a critical element to their retail banking products and services.

News: Collaborative Service: How Doing Less Can Satisfy Customers More

2011-08-24T23:21:16+00:00

In a 5-page feature, IDEO designers Heather Emerson and Ashlea Powell show why service providers who recognize our growing desire to navigate our own experiences are on their way to greater customer satisfaction.

News: Punk Manufacturing in IDSA Journal

2011-04-07T18:20:49+00:00

IDEO’s Kara Johnson writes an article on punk manufacturing, which she defines as “modern craft. It’s the idea that people want, to some extent, to create the stuff they buy or use, even if it is mass-produced.” She believes that “as punk manufacturing begins to gain influence, it will help designers and the people they work with set a new standard for manufacturing and a new type of market.”

News: Business People Into Business Designers

2011-03-18T22:30:58+00:00

David and Arvind cover eight concepts that can help cultivate a business design mindset. They are: look beyond your industry; apply rich constraints; use tangible provocations; use letters and numbers; speak to your crowd; deliver stories, not data; aim, ideate, repeat; and let go of “right.”

News: Designing the School Day of the Future

2011-02-23T00:21:02+00:00

Sandy Speicher writes about what the school day of the future could look like on KQED’s MindShift education blog. Envisioning a day that’s unpredictable, inconsistent, and wildly relevant for learners, their engagement, and their development, she argues that above all, it will be designed. Read the post here.

News: PATTERNS on Fast Company: Nine Examples of Branded Environments That Mimic the Web’s Fluidity

2010-11-05T20:29:49+00:00

Fast Company’s Co.Design published a new PATTERNS column. PATTERNS posted so far include Colin Raney’s “Business in Beta,” “Shanzhai” from Makiko Taniguchi and Eddie Wu, “Millennials” by Ashlea Powell and Davide Agnelli, and “Continuous Conversations” written by Jenny Comiskey, Aradhana Goel, and Simon King, “Stories as Cultural Currency,” from Suzanne Gibbs Howard, and Beau Trincia’s “Not-So-Real-Estate”.

To learn more about PATTERNS and read past issues, go to the PATTERNS website.

News: The Future of the Book

2010-09-24T04:07:08+00:00

IDEO designers produced a video with three concepts—Nelson, Coupland, and Alice—that provoke and inspire new thoughts about the future of reading. The Brian Lehrer show on NPR affiliate WNYC spoke with IDEO’s Duane Bray and Robert Lenne about the project. Listen to the interview here.

Others posts inspired by the video include: The Atlantic, Wired.com, The Guardian UK, Gizmodo, Fast Company‘s Co.Design, GOOD, Core77, Metropolis, Creativity, Brain Pickings and Mediabistro’s Unbeige.

Watch the video here and read more about the Future of the Book here.

News: No Bad Philanthropy? IDEO’s Jessie Cutts writes for Alliance Magazine

2010-09-02T18:42:27+00:00

IDEO’s Jessie Cutts and Active Philanthropy’s founder and managing partner, Felicitas von Peter published “No Bad Philanthropy?” in Alliance magazine, a leading publication in the field of social investment.

News: PATTERNS on Fast Company

2010-08-24T17:03:11+00:00

A new PATTERNS column in Fast Company’s Co.Design kicked off today: Read the preface by IDEO’s Suzanne Gibbs Howard here. She writes, “by sharing PATTERNS, we hope to help people design for greater impact within their organizations and communities. We believe more can happen when we work together.”

PATTERNS posted so far include Colin Raney’s “Business in Beta,” “Shanzhai” from Makiko Taniguchi and Eddie Wu, “Millennials” by Ashlea Powell and Davide Agnelli, “Continuous Conversations” written by Jenny Comiskey, Aradhana Goel, and Simon King, “Guilty Secrets” from Betsy Fields, Rebecca Sinclair, and Annie Valdes, Beau Trincia’s “Not-So-Real-Estate”, Patrice Martin’s “The ‘I’ in Community and Suzanne Gibbs Howard, Meija Jacobs, Rachel Switzky, and Jody Turner’s “Social Media Bolsters Big Brands”.

To learn more about PATTERNS and read past issues, go to the PATTERNS website.

News: Tom Hulme Writes for Director Magazine

2010-08-19T21:19:58+00:00

Tom Hulme’s article “Watch the Disruptors, Not the Incumbents” was published in Director Magazine. In the article, Tom explores the importance of businesses being both exploitative and explorative and walks us through two case studies to illustrate.
Read the article here.

News: Design for Social Impact

2010-08-11T18:33:09+00:00

IDEO’s Aaron Sklar and Sally Madsen discuss working with foundations, nongovernmental organizations and social entrepreneurs in “Design for Social Impact,” published in the spring issue of Ergonomics in Design. The article explains “empathy, a community focus, and team preparation are among the human/humanity-centered principles for design and innovation in the developing world.”

News: World Bank Institute Publication Includes Article From Jocelyn Wyatt and Tim Brown

2010-07-01T18:56:05+00:00

Development Outreach ran “Design Thinking for Social Innovation” in its July issue titled “The Power of Innovation.” The article originally appeared in Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Read the Development Outreach virtual magazine here.

News: IDEO EYE: A Monthly Column on Innovation, Business, and Design

2010-05-26T21:53:46+00:00

IDEO Eye is a monthly column written by IDEO experts for BusinessWeek online. Each month a domain or industry is explored based on IDEO’s experience innovating in that particular area. The articles aim to help business leaders visualize new directions for their companies and brands and design the offerings — products, services, spaces, media, and software — that bring innovation strategy to life. Additionally, the writers behind IDEO Eye hope to help organizations change their cultures and build the capabilities required to sustain innovation.

The first in this series comes from Ryan Jacoby, based in IDEO’s New York office, where he focuses on innovation strategy and designing for growth. In the article, Ryan shows how many big banks struggle to innovate, and he outlines how they might help consumers make better financial choices. Click to read the full story here.

Next, Iain Roberts considers some of the more promising ideas for a “car” of the future. He writes about how the automobile industry is in the midst of a huge transition. Consumers who were once lured into purchase decisions by iconic designs, strong brands, or high performance ratings now want all that and more.
Click to read the full story here.

News: Re-defining Comfort: Making Energy Conservation Less Painful

2010-05-25T18:27:02+00:00

IDEO’s Aislinn Dewey writes an article titled “Re-defining Comfort: Making Energy Conservation Less Painful” for Touchpoint, a magazine produced by the Service Design Network. Touchpoint’s fourth issue tackles the topic “Service Design and Behavioural Change.”

News: Sue Siddall Included in HSBC’s 100 Thoughts

2010-05-07T21:44:00+00:00

Sue Siddall, managing director of IDEO’s London office, is on the cover of HSBC’s 100 Thoughts, a newspaper supplement distributed throughout the UK in The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph. 100 Thoughts is a collection of the freshest business ideas from around the world.
In her contribution, Sue challenges businesses to ask, What are we giving consumers beyond the product or service we are selling? What is our higher purpose?
Download the complete set of 100 Thoughts at HSBC.

News: The Development of Design Sensibilities

2010-04-26T21:27:22+00:00

Effective design thinking entails more than applying design methods. To produce the best outcomes, organizations need to develop — and trust — peoples’ design sensibilities.

DESIGN THINKING IS RECEIVING a great deal of attention as increasing numbers of innovative organizations succeed in solving complex problems by creative means. In doing so, many of these firms implement specific “design methods” such as observational research, iterative prototyping and storytelling alongside more mainstream approaches. But as any professional designer will attest, design thinking entails much more than applying methods: to create value, methods must be applied together with design sensibilities.

In this article, Jane Fulton Suri and R. Michael Hendrix write about how organizations can produce the best outcomes by developing — and trusting — peoples’ design sensibilities.

News: Your Health in 2020

2010-04-08T18:59:58+00:00

In Your Health in 2020, IDEO’s Arna Ionescu explores the future of connected health care. She shows how new technologies seeded in the health industry will lead to significant improvements in patient care and overall health, and she demonstrates the power of integrated health systems in transforming the way we view wellness.

Read the article here. David Webster visualizes health trends in the form of a mind map. Connected health — seen as a network and a continuum — relies on the inherent links between technology and wellness.

News: The Eight New Rules of Customer Services

2010-04-01T18:50:05+00:00

Paul Bennett’s interview with Australia’s Smart Company magazine titled “The Eight New Rules of Customer Services” discusses the importance of listening to consumers to create simple, meaningful service experiences.

Read the article here.

News: The Participation Economy

2010-03-15T18:43:26+00:00

The Economist is presenting a series of online articles about design thinking in the lead-up to the magazine’s “Ideas Economy: Innovation” event in Berkeley, California. IDEO’s Tim Brown and David Fetherstonhaugh write on the power of collective contribution.

Read the article here.

News: Paul Bennett Discusses Collaboration in The Independent

2010-02-09T18:19:27+00:00

In an online article for the publication’s business section, IDEO’s Paul Bennett writes, “Look to collaborate with those who can do what you can’t.”

Read the article here.

News: How Holistic Design Can Help Business

2010-02-01T18:15:03+00:00

In an online article for BusinessWeek, Diego Rodriguez explains that good business outcomes treat design as a holistic process that pulls in savvy marketing and research, as well as smart ideas. For him, it’s why design matters.

Read the article here.

News: Sandy Speicher in ‘Back to the Future’

2010-01-27T18:04:56+00:00

Sandy Speicher is included in the Metropolis article, “Back to the Future.” In the story, Sandy explains, “When you’re looking at new models of education, the first question is: How much do you want to stick to the paradigm, and how much do you want to break it?”

Read the article here.

News: IDEO Introduces Designs On- Food

2010-01-14T18:35:23+00:00

Food is a complex topic — it touches on the essence of our being and our culture, all while transforming our lives in fundamental ways. Designs On– approaches food with the eyes of someone ready to enjoy a succulent meal. The results are fresh and provocative. The designers were willing to go off the beaten path, to question their personal assumptions and to move beyond the realm of expected possibilities. Designs On– Food is the third in a series of concepts, following the the topics of global warming and time.

View the Designs On– website at www.designs-on.com

News: Decisions by Design: Stop Deciding, Start Designing

2010-01-13T01:07:31+00:00

IDEO’s Colin Raney and Ryan Jacoby wrote, “Decisions by Design: Stop Deciding, Start Designing,” in the Winter 2010 issue of Rotman, the magazine for the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

News: Paul Bennett Says the Biggest Idea Might be Learning to Think Small

2010-01-06T16:07:04+00:00

Paul Bennett’s article in London’s Financial Times, “The Biggest Idea Might be Learning to Think Small,” highlights his recent trip to Bangladesh, where he met Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus. While in India, Paul learned from the Grameen organization, its micro-financing banking system, and its collaboration with global French food group, Danone.

Read the article here or find it in the Business Life section of the Financial Times’s print version.

News: Design Thinking for Social Innovation

2009-11-23T18:04:19+00:00

Designers have traditionally focused on enhancing the look and functionality of products. Recently, they have begun using design tools to tackle more complex problems, such as finding ways to provide low-cost healthcare throughout the world. Businesses were first to embrace this new approach—called design thinking—now nonprofits are beginning to adopt it too.

Read the article here.

News: Social Software: The Other ‘Design for Social Impact

2009-11-03T17:13:15+00:00

In “Social Software: The Other ‘Design for Social Impact,’” Gentry Underwood discusses the use of social software tools, from wikis to Facebook, in the corporate environment.

Read the article here.

News: Tim Brown Writes About the Making of a Design Thinker

2009-10-21T18:51:50+00:00

On Metropolis, Tim Brown writes about how he came to design. “It took years before this industrial designer realized that the true power of his craft transcended the physical object,” he explains.

Read more about the making of a design thinker here.

News: Change By Design In BusinessWeek

2009-09-25T20:59:38+00:00

IDEO’s Tim Brown writes about design thinking in BusinessWeek. He explains how businesses can transform the way they work by tapping frontline staff to engineer change.

Read the article here.

News: How We Might Put People at the Center of Innovation

2009-08-26T17:29:40+00:00

IDEO’s Jocelyn Wyatt writes for the Innovation in Evaluation blog this week. Her post “How Might We Put People at the Center of Evaluation?” discusses IDEO’s work with International Development Enterprises (IDE) in Ethiopia and VisionSpring in India.

News: Design’s Odd Couple

2009-08-24T18:54:29+00:00

“Design’s Odd Couple” by IDEO’s James Moed and Fran Samalionis was recently published in Touchpoint, the new journal of the Service Design Network. In the article, Moed (a business strategist) and Samalionis (a service designer) explore their contrasting experiences with the people and places around them.

News: Doug Solomon on Social Impact Work at IDEO

2009-08-12T18:36:55+00:00

IDEO’s Doug Solomon writes on tackling some of the world’s biggest problems by applying design thinking to social impact issues in “Innovation in Evaluation: an Introduction.”

News: The Future Of Innovation is Holistic And Networked

2009-08-10T16:26:07+00:00

IDEO’s Tom Hulme writes on the need for a networked and holistic approach to innovation for The Future of Innovation project. The project book will be published by Gower in November 2009.

Read the article here.

News: Design Thinking for the Biotechnology Industry

2009-07-15T20:48:34+00:00

Arna Ionescu writes on gaining a competitive advantage through design thinking in Australasian BioTechnology. The article is based on her workshop presentation at AusMedTech 2009.

To read the article online, click here and scroll to page 52.

News: Can Designers Help Deliver Better Services?

2009-07-03T09:36:27+00:00

“When it comes to improving services, is it worth spending money on service designers? Of course, improving services can be attempted without recourse to seeking expert help, but the result is more than likely to be a false economy. Changes in service design will be long-lasting and profitable only if they are driven by insights gained by close observation of the people who use those services. It is this human-centred approach that lays at the heart of everything our design teams do at IDEO.

Design challenges are inherently complex – and every client has their own particular knots to untie - but over the years, our experience has shown that better service design depends on overcoming four crucial problems that are common to all our clients: how to get closer to consumers; how to collaborate across every part of organisation; how to create a strong narrative that inspires key people and finally, how to conquer the fear of failure. Hand in hand with identifying the problems our clients all share has gone the development of techniques to tackle them. This article takes a look at these in detail and shows how they can be used in collaboration with organisations of every size and in every business.”

This article by IDEO’s Fran Samalionis, is published in the new book Business in Beta by Colin Raney, who considers how to build a business around a new-to-world concept or in an unknown market. He asks, How do you figure out what customers need when you’re delivering an experience they’ve never seen before? Join the discussion here.

Visit the PATTERNS site here.

News: IDEO Considers the Future of News

2009-05-22T22:40:04+00:00

In “News Flash from the Future: What Will Journalism Look Like?” in the June issue of San Francisco Magazine, IDEO sketched out fourteen scenarios for the future of news.

The once profitable news industry is teetering on the brink. The recession has battered advertising. Dailies are folding. Printing the New York Times for a year costs twice as much as sending every subscriber a free Kindle. The Daily Show is a more trusted source than network news. And consumers have been marginalized in media dialogue about how to save journalism.

Yet how we define and experience news can—and should—change for the better, if we ground ourselves in what people really need and want. The next four pages showcase two environments that put the future of news in the context of our daily lives. In these scenarios, we see that information has become even more personalized and hyperlocal—and, paradoxically, more communal, participatory, and global. Journalism is more like having a conversation. People speak with unique voices, take ownership of content, and establish credibility, which in turn enables strong communities in which news can thrive. Anything that’s notable to a person in a particular moment and place becomes newsworthy.

To read San Francisco magazine’s story about IDEO’s process and the creation of the “future of news” scenarios, click here.

News: From Made in China to Learned in China

2009-05-06T19:31:41+00:00

In China-based Business Watch, IDEO’s Richard Kelly writes about what happens when China shows the world its design-driven innovation, rather than merely its technology-based R&D innovation. He explains why a human-centered approach to design is so well suited to the Chinese market, where consumers have a rapacious appetite for new experiences and accelerated learning.

Download the full article here.
Download the article in Chinese here.

News: IDEO’s Ten Tips For Creating a 21st–Century Classroom Experience

2009-02-27T22:11:07+00:00

In recent years, IDEO has spent a lot of time and effort thinking about education. The firm’s work with Ormondale Elementary School, in Portola Valley, California, helped pioneer a special “investigative-learning” curriculum that inspires students to be seekers of knowledge. Metropolis spoke to Sandy Speicher, who heads the Design for Learning efforts at IDEO. Her insights provide powerful lessons for architects and designers creating the schools of tomorrow.

News: Tim Brown Writes About Two Views of the Future

2009-02-09T21:03:37+00:00

IDEO’s Tim Brown blogs on two worldviews: that of TED and that of Davos. For more on Tim’s take and what inspired him at each event, visit his blog, Design Thinking.

To watch Tim talk about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play at the 2008 Serious Play conference on TED Talks, click here.

News: Designing Systems at Scale

2009-01-06T02:58:32+00:00

When attempting to solve wicked problems, creative thinkers must design systems that influence people’s behavior on a mass scale. Every ecosystem is comprised of both micro and macro elements, and when any element gets out of whack, the rest of the system suffers. In too many cases, products and services are conceived to impact massive change, yet the offerings lack an awareness of their overall systems.

IDEO’s Ilya Prokopoff and Fred Dust talk about designing systems at scale to solve some of the world’s big problems.

News: IDEO’s Kara Johnson Writes About ‘What Beautiful Future Gadgets Will Be Made Of’

2008-12-23T23:43:12+00:00

Gizmodo’s editorial director Brian Lam gives Kara Johnson the final word on tomorrow’s gadget materials. Kara explains that unpainted plastic is the future, and that we need to move beyond injection molding and look at sheet processes for 2D layers.

Read the article here.

News: Creativity and the Rise of Optimism

2008-12-16T20:45:51+00:00

IDEO’s Paul Bennett writes about his theory on why heaven might not be that far from YouTube on C&binet, a network that links the international creative and commercial communities.

Read the blog post here.

News: Diego Rodriguez on ‘Buzz Board — Smart People Recommend’

2008-12-02T23:24:21+00:00

IDEO’s Diego Rodriguez reviews What Matters, a collection of photographs and essays about the issues of our time.

Read the article here.

News: Design Thinking

2008-09-18T23:59:27+00:00

CEO Tim Brown is using his blog to share ideas about design thinking.

News: Reframing Recession: Lessons from the Potato

2008-09-18T18:12:54+00:00

James Moed discusses how businesses can best identify opportunities that can be used to create new business growth in the current economic climate.

News: Management Today Expert: Innovation

2008-09-15T19:15:27+00:00

IDEO’s Paul Bennett on why some companies are better than others at “The I-Word.”

Read the article here.

News: Designing Green Products That People Want

2008-09-11T19:10:50+00:00

Steve Bishop, a global lead of Design for Sustainability at IDEO, tells how to create a green product that people actually want.

Read the article here.

News: Greater Good

2008-09-09T17:14:27+00:00

Adam Mack and Aaron Sklar of IDEO discuss the three tools that will make the strongest contribution when designing for social impact.

As designers, we are empowered to make choices and challenged to understand the consequences of our decisions. In fact, many of us were drawn to the field of design because of our desire to make an impact. While this drive to contribute has long been present in the design discipline, recent trends have thrust design into centre stage and we are increasingly being invited to take on bigger challenges with high-profile partners and even higher potential for impact.

News: Designs On—

2008-08-15T15:21:36+00:00

“Designs On–” is the first edition of a printed design publication by IDEO designers. Crafted in response to I.D. Magazine‘s 2007 Annual Design Review award competition, the concepts featured in the booklet aim to raise awareness about global warming through the disciplines of industrial design, interaction design, and communication design. Pushing the edges of possibility, the designs range from a sustainable death experience, to personal ads for Mother Earth, accompanied by rhetoric-free facts to address imminent issues in global warming. Part design challenge, part bonding experience, the exercise demonstrated the ability to marry both aesthetics and sustainability, a courtship that IDEO is increasingly exploring.

View the Designs On website at www.designs-on.com

News: Informing Our Intuition: Design Research for Radical Innovation

2008-07-09T15:48:32+00:00

Radical innovation requires both evidence and intuition: evidence to become informed, and intuition to inspire us in imagining and creating new and better possibilities.

THE TERM ‘RESEARCH’ shows up in the context of design and innovation in multiple guises, not all of them positive. For some people it connotes ‘data collection’ – looking to the past and present but not to the future; for others it’s simply a required step before coming up with ideas; for yet others it’s a ﬁlter that rejects promising ideas before they’ve had a chance to evolve.

News: From Small Ideas to Radical Service Innovation

2008-07-08T20:37:38+00:00

“Mark Jones and Fran Samalionis probe challenges and pitfalls in the process and outline five steps that leverage positive results.”

News: Where Do We Start Being Green?

2008-07-01T23:47:49+00:00

Steve Bishop’s latest blog post on Green Business.

Read the article here.

News: Design for Social Impact: What Does It Mean and Why Should We Care?

2008-06-23T22:42:01+00:00

Jocelyn Wyatt blogs about IDEO’s work with the Rockefeller Foundation on acumenfund.org.

Read the article here.

News: Design Thinking

2008-06-01T22:07:36+00:00

Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products, services, processes—and even strategy.

Thomas Edison created the electric lightbulb and then wrapped an entire industry around it. The lightbulb is most often thought of as his signature invention, but Edison understood that the bulb was little more than a parlor trick without a system of electric power generation and transmission to make it truly useful. So he created that, too.

Join Tim Brown’s ongoing discussion at his blog Design Thinking.

News: Aligned for Sustainable Design: An A-B-C-D Approach to Making Better Products

2008-05-28T21:43:18+00:00

A joint report by IDEO and Business for Social Responsibility.

Read the article here.

News: Innovation through Design

2008-05-05T15:18:50+00:00

“The development of a new category of bicycles based on the Shimano Coasting Platform illustrates the process of design-led innovation as a case study.”

News: The Role of Consumers in Energy Industry Innovation

2008-05-01T15:28:31+00:00

Tim Brown’s contribution to the World Economic Forum report, Energy Vision Update 2008, is a one-page look at how the consumerization of the energy industry could prompt innovation and redefine the market.

News: From Plague to Paradigm: Designing Sustainable Retail Environments

2008-04-30T15:13:13+00:00

“We have presented a new perspective on the retail space—one that puts people first and engages them in new ways. Building a relationship with shoppers based on values such as sustainability has impact beyond the storefront.”

News: Lessons from Sao Paulo’s Streets

2008-03-10T15:41:45+00:00

“Can we apply what’s happening in places like Sao Paulo, where people are taking matters into their own hands, and see how we can use that as inspiration for our own design process? I think so.”

Read the article here.

News: Creating an Entrepreneurial Culture of Optimism

2008-01-14T19:42:07+00:00

“Companies that innovate well often share in common a culture of optimism. This type of culture exemplifies a company’s belief that its employees are extremely capable and serves as fertile breeding ground for extraordinary innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.”

Read the article here.

News: Innovation, Growth, and Getting to Where You Want to Go

2007-12-01T15:58:00+00:00

“Our experience creating successful innovations at IDEO tells us again and again that the best efforts come from organizations that solve for human desirability.”

Design thinking is a crucial business asset—one that can, indeed, move a company forward and improve the bottom line. To optimize this impact, Ryan Jacoby and Diego Rodriguez advise thoughtfully structuring the innovation process. They stress working on projects that improve people’s lives, and they present a “ways to grow” model that helps managers direct and assess innovation efforts.

News: 2007 Yearbook of Design Excellence

2007-09-30T15:33:22+00:00

Included in the IDSA’s 2007 compendium of IDEA award-winning designs are six bylined case studies by IDEO designers and writers, featuring work for Bank of America, Eclipse Aviation, Lifeport, and others.

News: Davos Summers in Dalian, China

2007-09-14T15:54:04+00:00

“This melting pot of company executives (over 1,700 from more than 90 countries) spent three days discussing all aspects of business and the economy… .”

Read the article here.

News: Leadership and Innovation in a Networked World

2007-07-31T15:50:27+00:00

“At its best, innovation is more than a team sport - it is a networked, collaborative adventure.”

News: Product Experience

2007-07-01T14:43:01+00:00

IDEO human factors specialist Katja Battarbee contributed to Product Experience in Chapter 19, Co-experience: Product Experience as Social Interaction (co-written with Ilpo Koskinen).

Buy the book here.

News: Embracing Risk to Learn, Grow and Innovate

2007-04-30T15:57:29+00:00

“In the world of ‘design thinking,’ acknowledging risk is the first step toward taking action, and with action comes insight, evidence, and real options.”

As an innovator, you’ve likely encountered some of the most challenging and risky problems in the world of business. Let’s grow this lagging brand. Let’s envision the future of our market. Let’s connect to a whole new set of users and customers. When it comes to generating business growth by bringing new things into the world, the stakes are high, and risk is everywhere.

News: Prototypes as (Design) Tools for Behavioral and Organizational Change

2007-03-01T22:02:45+00:00

“This article promotes the idea that prototyping,a method regularly employed in the design and development of products and services, is a powerful means to facilitate organizational
development and change. The authors present three objectives related to prototyping that facilitate behavioral change within organizations. These objectives include building to think - creating tangible expressions of ideas enables organizational thinking to develop concretely through action; learning faster by failing early (and often) - making things tangible allows small, low-impact failures to occur early,resulting in faster organizational learning; giving permission to explore new behaviors - the presence of a prototype encourages new behaviors, relieving individuals of the responsibility to consciously change what they do.”

News: Most Memorable Ads of 2006

2006-12-22T16:33:54+00:00

“Channeling the needs of consumers and making sure that they see themselves somehow in the process and the end result is how brands are starting to win.”

Read the article here.

News: Managing Change, by Design

2006-11-30T16:53:10+00:00

IDEO’s Peter Coughlan and Ilya Prokopoff address methods to proactively manage change within organizations and complex systems, including the healthcare industry.

News: Medication Adherence: Many Conditions, A Common Problem

2006-10-01T16:34:28+00:00

IDEO explores ways to apply design thinking to the problem of medication adherence. The result? A generative framework that can be used to create real solutions.

News: Going Deeper, Seeing Further

2006-09-01T16:36:41+00:00

“Going Deeper, Seeing Further: Enhancing Ethnographic Interpretations to Reveal More Meaningful Opportunities for Design” appeared in the September 2006 issue of JAR.

News: A Mouse in the O.R.

2006-07-01T16:38:26+00:00

“We rely heavily on prototypes, because though it’s relatively easy to guess how users will interact with a system that runs on a standard computer with a keyboard and mouse, with novel input devices, there’s little on which to base such a guess.”

News: Time for Some Buzz-Kill

2006-06-08T16:41:18+00:00

IDEO’s creative director Paul Bennett calls for a halt to the nonsensical buzzwords that have overrun branding and marketing, and makes a case for a return to “simple stories” and “truths well told.”

Read the article here.

News: Diego Rodriguez Explores Trends in Business and Design

2006-04-26T16:44:19+00:00

IDEO’s Diego Rodriguez explores trends in business and design in his column for BusinessWeek online.

April 26, 2006 “Think Big”
March 6, 2006 “Happiness and the Art of Innovation”
October 24, 2005, “Saturn’s Rust-Proof Brand”

News: Listening Lessons

2006-03-01T16:56:36+00:00

News: A Laboratory for Insights

2005-09-19T17:40:11+00:00

At IDEO, we manage a constant stream of experimental projects designed to expand our knowledge and create new intellectual property valuable to us and our clients.

Read the article here.

News: Strategy by Design

2005-06-01T17:42:28+00:00

“In order to do a better job of developing, communicating, and pursuing a strategy, the head of IDEO says, you need to learn to think like a designer. Here’s his five-point plan for how to make the leap.”

“It’s remarkable how often business strategy, the purpose of which is to direct action toward a desired outcome, leads to just the opposite: stasis and confusion. Strategy should bring clarity to an organization; it should be a signpost for showing people where you, as their leader, are taking them - and what they need to do to get there. But the tool executives traditionally use to communicate strategy - spreadsheets and PowerPoint decks - are woefully inadequate for the task. You have to be a supremely engaging storyteller if you rely only on words, and there aren’t enough of those people out there. What’s more, words are highly open to interpretation - words mean different things to different people, especially when they’re sitting in different parts of the organization. The result: In an effort to be relevant to a large, complicated company, strategy often gets mired in abstractions.”