posted by Anna Fleet on September 8th, 2010
An oldie but goldie from ABC Nightline, this video features the renowned design team at IDEO, perhaps world’s most influential product development agency, as it takes on the challenge of redesigning a shopping cart in just five days. Those not familiar with IDEO, will know them from their design of Apples first computer mouse to the 25-foot mechanical whale featured in the movie, Free Willie and …hundreds of products that we probably take for granted like Nike sunglasses, high-tech medical equipment and so on. My point is, at the core, you’ll see why the IDEO design thinking process works.
David Kelley, IDEO founder and Stanford Professor explains it this way, “The point is that we’re not experts at any given area. We’re experts on the process of how you design stuff. So we don’t care if you give us a toothpaste tube, a tractor, a space shuttle or a chair it’s all the same to us…we want to innovate by using our process applying it.”
The IDEO group is made up of an eclectic mix of people, including—a Stanford Engineer, a Harvard MBA, a linguist, a marketing expert, a psychologist, and a biology major that’s put off medical school 3 times because, well, he’s having too much fun at IDEO!
Kelley further explains the group dynamics, “In a very innovative culture you can’t have a hierarchy of “here’s the boss”…and the next person down and the next person down…because it’s impossible that the boss is the one that’s had the insightful experience with shopping carts [or whatever]…it’s just not possible.”
Watch the full video to see how IDEO applies their design thinking process and you’ll see how chaos and failure help them discover creativity success!
Tags: david kelley IDEO, david kelley stanford university, design thinking process, ideo design process, ideo shopping cart, stages of design thinking
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posted by Anna Fleet on September 7th, 2010
Have you ever heard of an environmentally friendly high rise? Me neither, in fact, when I see a new multi-story building going up in Kitchener-Waterloo, I sadly think of all the green that will be annihilated to accommodate the new concrete giant.
However, German architects Sauerbruch Hutton, a firm known for their eco-friendly projects, have shown us the future of mixing Mother Nature with high-rise construction with their innovative computerized facade.
The IEEE Spectrum firm’s KfW Bankengruppe office building, in Frankfurt, has the world’s first “pressure ring” facade. According to Peter Fairley of IEEE Spectrum, it’s a “sensor-controlled ventilators on the outer skin open and close throughout the day in response to temperature, wind direction and speed…throwing a ring of positive pressure around the building. That air is drawn into offices through floor vents and windows along an inner facade workers control; then, it’s exhausted into the building core. So a system of natural ventilation eliminates the need for AC and heat in the fall and spring. And in extreme weather, when you need an artificial bump, the pressure balance won’t throw your heating and cooling systems out of whack.”
The new high-tech, eco-friendly skin is expected to help the building consume a third of the energy that a typical American office building would consume.
Tags: design thinking strategy, eco-friendly design, green architecture, high-tech facade building, ieee spectrum, Kfw Bankengruppe germany, sauerbruch hutton, the power of design thinking
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posted by Anna Fleet on September 2nd, 2010
This morning a quote from Mark Fishman, M.D., President of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research was brought to my attention. He said, “If you’re leading a team or mapping out a strategy—if you’re trying to solve a problem— you’re engaged in design.”
Well put Mark! This really captures everything we’ve been posting on the Design Changes blog around design thinking.
Regardless of you’re industry—finance, engineering, sales, marketing—we believe that when design thinking is applied to any problem, your chances of an innovation solution dramatically improves.
This is because design thinking is a not problem-focused mind-set —it’s a solution focused mind-set. It uses both left brain and right brain thinking to find an actionable solution. Design thinking can be applied to find:
1. Order in chaos
2. People-centered solutions
3. Emotional/desired appeals
4. Memorable, human experiences (scenarios/stories)
5. Unseen/overlooked opportunities
6. Possibilities for the future
7. Prototypes for solutions
Internationally renowned academic and author on business and management, Henry Mintzberg, wrote the influential book, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, and he claims, “Leaders and managers need to think like designers…Design and leadership are fundamentally about actively creating the future rather than reacting to the present.” Mintzberg points to large, successful corporations like Apple, Starbucks, Sony, and Virgin, that all use designed thinking in their leadership, management, market, creation and innovation.
Now, does their success prove that design thinking really works?
Tags: apple design thinking, design thinking process, design thinking strategy, henry mintzberg the rise and fall of strategic planning, mark fishman novartis, sony design thinking
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One Calendar with Social Networking Powers
