Remembering C.K. Prahalad The author of "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" who passed away earlier in the month was influential in transforming Ravi Sawhney's design practice.
Mon Apr 26, 2010
Extreme Makeover, Weiner Edition: RKS Redesigns the Deadly Hot Dog Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics called for the redesign of hot dogs. Never ones to resist a challenge, or the chance to play with their food, RKS carved out a little time to reinvent the wiener.
Sat Feb 27, 2010
Coca-Cola's New Video Proves Brand Happiness Can Be Viral The new "Happiness Machine" video made by Coke is a model for how brands can create that moment of delight with their consumers.
Mon Jan 25, 2010
New Models for Engaging Consumers: A Report from Opportunity Green Shifting the consumer paradigm to sustainable products, processes, and experiences has to begin with a fundamental shift in the way we think, the way we do business, and the way we all live our lives.
Posted Thu Nov 12, 2009
Teaching Moments: A New Era for Design Education Design educators are reinventing the industry from the inside out as employers are less interested in students' ability to sketch, and more interested in their ability to think and communicate strategically.
Posted Thu Sep 17, 2009
A Better Way to Health Care Reform: Is There a Designer in the House? A "dream team" of designers could improve America's ailing system by focusing on health care as a series of meaningful, user-centered experiences.
Posted Thu Aug 27, 2009
Broken Guitar Has United Playing the Blues to the Tune of $180 Million When the airlines smashed a songwriter's guitar and refused to reimburse him, he got even by going viral.
Posted Tue Jul 28, 2009
Why Designers Need to Focus on Focus Groups The design team can play an important role in research and focus group testing.
Posted Wed Jul 8, 2009
Over-Innovation: A Cautionary Tale The difference between simple and elegant can mean the difference between success and failure for your brand.
Posted Mon Jun 22, 2009
Roadmap for Recovery: Five Ways to Come Out on Top
In my last post, I shared five short-term strategies for surviving the downturn by using design thinking as a roadmap to connect your business with consumers. Once you've weathered the worst of the economic storms, it's time to plan for the future. To survive and thrive into the next upturn, you must innovate now. Innovation fueled by consumer insight will propel your company into the future, empowering you to rocket past your competition.
Posted Tue Jun 9, 2009
Roadmap for Recovery: Five Ways to Help Your Company Survive Now
History has shown that hard times can provide as much opportunity as pitfalls. Want proof? Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, and Xerox are just three innovation-driven companies that were founded during the Great Depression. More recently, both Apple and Microsoft began in the midst of an economic trough in the mid-1970s.
In this post and the next, I'd like to share ways in which design thinking can provide a roadmap that will help you position your company to not only survive the recession, but thrive through the recovery.
Posted Thu Jun 4, 2009
Design Like a Surfer..and How Hyundai Caught the Wave
Over the past decade, driven by an ever-more sophisticated consumer, design has gone from being a bonus to being an essential ingredient in almost every market sector.
Posted Fri May 22, 2009
Designing From the First-Person Perspective
In professional industrial design, designs aren't really for the designers. They aren't even for the clients. They're for the end-users. I believe we get the best results when we "design from the first-person perspective" and really immerse ourselves in the user experience. When we understand the touch points the user identifies with, the needs that drive them, and the benefits they seek, we can create designs people crave. The more we're able to focus on the user, the more we're able to create deep emotional connections.
Posted Fri May 15, 2009
Change-Agent Designs: They Inspire You to Do the Right Thing
While designs are often the result of great inspiration, I'm even more interested in designs that themselves inspire. I'm a great believer in design's power to effect positive change in the world. Understandably, the first job at hand is often to create a positive effect on a company's bottom line. But it's absolutely possible to make money and make a difference.
Posted Wed May 13, 2009
The Web Design That Changed the World
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I like to explore design's reach into unexpected places. Today, I'd like to focus on design in politics… specifically, how, by creating emotional connection, the Web site my.barackobama.com (commonly known as MyBO) ...
Posted Mon May 11, 2009
Design's Reach: Let's Begin a Dialogue
Design. Everyone seems to know about it. Some discredit it as superficial, while others crave it as a lifestyle. Business can be perplexed by it or harness its power. Not even designers can agree on its meaning.
Posted Fri May 8, 2009
