IDEO

Living Climate Change: Design Thinking to Solve the World's Biggest Problem

Noah Robischon — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:18:35 -0400

Want to Improve Democracy? Try Design Thinking

Linda Tischler — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:37:47 -0400

Better ballot design could have changed the results of the 2000 election. A better design for information sharing might have prevented 9/11. Now, could design thinking help fix something fundamentally broken in American democracy: how we engage in national debate?

Big Awards for the Year's Best Industrial Design

Cliff Kuang — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:13:55 -0400

Each year, the Industrial Designers Society of America sponsors one of the largest design competitions in the world, IDEA. For designers--and in particular American designers--it's a major feather in the cap (Europeans tend to focus on the Red Dot Awards).

Open-Source Innovation: IDEO's Human-Centered Design Toolkit

Alissa Walker — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:35:14 -0400

Social Design Gets Its Own Curator

Michael Cannell — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:48:07 -0400

Last month the Cynthia Smith curator of socially responsible design, the first position of its kind at any design museum. Her new duties include helping to select candidates for the 2010 Triennial, which the museum is giving over entirely to social and sustainable design. These are the clearest signs yet that social design, as it's come to be called, is more than a passing fashion on design's evolving agenda.

IDEO Method Cards Turn, Um, 7!

Craig Pelkey-Landes — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:54:34 -0400

Learn. Look. Ask. Try. These are the cards we're dealt in the people-centric design approach used by the global design innovation provocateurs at IDEO. Back in 2003, IDEO began dealing these four "suits" in a pack of 51 Method Cards.

News Flash From the Future: What Will Journalism Look Like?

IDEO Staff — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:24:37 -0400

Illustrations by Tom Manning for IDEO | Photographs by Nicolas Zurcher with IDEO

Creating a Post-Crisis Economy: How to Design a Participatory System

Tim Brown — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:48:01 -0400

Those who have stuck with me all week, know that I believe that participation is key to the next big wave of innovation in business and society. Whether it is in the fundamentals of how we think about wealth or the economy, how we parse the minutiae of individual transactions, or how we evolve our most important social systems such as health care, I believe that the interconnectedness of our information society makes this shift inevitable and highly desirable.

The question that I inevitably ask as a designer is how we design these kinds of participatory systems?

Creating a Post-Crisis Economy: Control Your Own Health Care

Tim Brown — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:37:00 -0400

In the U.K. in the 1940s, Sir William Beveridge designed what became known as the welfare state. In an ambitious program, the post-war Labor government attempted to put in place a series of services designed to ensure that the population of Britain could reliably receive high-quality public education, health care and other public services. Beveridge envisioned a system in which citizens participated directly in their own well-being. Instead, he helped create what he later described as a "culture of consumption" of public services.

Creating a Post-Crisis Economy: Why We Need Economic Dashboards

Tim Brown — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:32:18 -0400

A significant difference between those of us fortunate to be living above the poverty line and those unfortunate enough to be at the "bottom of the pyramid" is that the 'wealthy' can afford to consume. Being a "useful" member of a consumer society requires the consumption of products and services not directly necessary to survival. The very poor do not generally have that choice.

Creating a Post-Crisis Economy: Learning to Measure Participation

Tim Brown — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:18:08 -0400

When I consider bidding for something on e-Bay, the first thing I do is check the reliability rating of the seller. When I want to meet a hard-to-reach executive, I try to establish a link through my network. When I consider which conference I will pay to attend, I choose TED because I know it will give me the most new ideas to feed off for the year.

Creating a Post-Crisis Economy: Moving Beyond Consumption

Tim Brown — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:04:19 -0400

For the next few days I plan to explore what I am calling the Age of Involvement: the role of participation in an information society and how it leads to an expanded view of our economy. I am not an economist and have never studied economics. I am approaching this as someone who believes that innovation is redefining everything around us, including the ways that we measure human achievement. For those who do understand economics I apologize for the inevitable naiveties represented here but I hope there is enough of interest to stimulate a conversation.

Welcoming Guest Blogger Tim Brown: Can We Design a Post-Crisis Economy?

Linda Tischler — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:17:22 -0400

About a year ago, I happened to be at breakfast panel at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, where Tim Brown, CEO of Ideo, was speaking. At the time, the topic, "What is Wrong with American Design?" was much in the air. Figuring this was as good a place as any to pose the question, I raised my hand and blurted it out.

IDEO Takes a Spin Inside a Real-life Holodeck

Cliff Kuang — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:42:49 -0400

Objectified: The New Design Film That Sickens, Inspires

Linda Tischler — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:48:10 -0400

"Your movie made me physically sick," one audience member told Gary Hustwit (left), the director of Objectified, the eagerly anticipated film about industrial design, last night at a screening in New York.

Far from being miffed, Hustwit grinned. "Maybe that's what we were trying to do," he said slyly.

Ideo's Roshi Givechi Offers Six Ways to Make Energy Conservation Electrifiying

Alissa Walker — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:37:52 -0400

When Roshi Givechi first came to Ideo from Microsoft she thought she had made a mistake. The famously human-centered firm wasn't giving her many opportunities to design for real people. "I thought, is this for me?" she admitted, while giving a presentation Friday at AIGA's Y Conference.

Ideo Redesigns the Icebreaker

Jeff Chu — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:35:48 -0400

One of my least favorite activities of all time is the icebreaker. You know how it goes: Throw together a bunch of people--six, eight, more than two is too many--and force them to tell each other something silly, secret, anything that will publicly humiliate in front of total strangers. Cue nervous laughter and clammy palms. But barely has the Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship begun and Ideo is already telling us: We have a better way. We're going to use design.

Ford's SmartGauge Improves Fuel Efficiency Through Better Instrument Design

Alissa Walker — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:21:12 -0400

'Objectified' Review: A Hurricane of Consumer Values

Alissa Walker — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:53:58 -0400

The Most Innovative Companies in Design

Linda Tischler — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:08:05 -0500

Ideo: The undisputed design champ, with new work for the Department of Energy and TSA, Medtronic, PNC Bank, and (Red).
Marcel Wanders Studio: A growing global brand, Wanders produced a glam design for Miami's Mondrian hotel; a flurry of home products; and a new Villa Moda store for the "Sheik of Chic," Kuwait's Majed al-Sabah.
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Ideo's David Kelley wins Edison Award for Innovation

Linda Tischler — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:47:31 -0500

On April 1, Ideo founder David Kelley will be awarded the Edison Achievement Award by the Thomas Edison Papers at Rutgers University for his “pioneering contributions to the design of breakthrough products, services, and experiences for consumers, as well as his development of an innovative culture that has broad impact.”

Why a Bowling Shirt Made Me Love David Kelley

Linda Tischler — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:44:06 -0500

It was a Power Point slide of Ettore Sottsass in a bowling shirt that first made Jim Hackett, CEO of Steelcase, want to get to know David Kelley.

Fifteen years ago, Hackett remembers, the Ideo founder had been summoned to Steelcase’s Grand Rapids boardroom to talk to the company’s executives about why the office furniture giant should be more design-driven. In prior weeks, other designers had trooped through with predictable presentations about metrics and ROI.

17 Career Lessons from Ideo's David Kelley

Linda Tischler — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:27:55 -0500

David Kelley is well-known for his astute application of design thinking to many of life's intractable problems. Less known is that he's also a veritable Dr. Phil of good advice about life, careers, and the importance of not being a jerk.

"If you ask people, was there ever a teacher or mentor who changed your life, many hundreds of people would say that was David Kelley. I'm one of them," his brother, Tom Kelley, told me. "If they spread the word....you can figure the exponential effect."

Ideo's Newest Design Projects

Fast Company staff — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:45:05 -0500

Under David Kelley, Ideo has received more than 1,000 patents since 1978 and 346 design awards since 1991. Here are a few of the firm's many projects.

A rendering of the Stanford d.school's new facility, opening fall 2009

The i2i chair for Steelcase

The KickStart water pump (in Kenya)

A KP Medrite sash for Kaiser Permanente

The Launching Pad Lobby for Marriott TownePlace Suites

Ideo's David Kelley on "Design Thinking"

Linda Tischler — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:46:08 -0500

The smell of ramen noodles wafts over the Stanford d.school classroom as David Kelley settles into an oversize red leather armchair for a fireside chat with new students.