OpenIDEO looked to people from around the world to contribute to Jamie’s challenge, asking “How can we raise kids’ awareness of the benefits of fresh food so they can make better choices?” Almost 200 concepts were submitted from users in 198 countries. See the 17 that emerged as winners on the challenge page, and download the PDF book that documents the process.

Perspectives on IDEO’s “design playground without constraints” – now in its fourth volume and this time focused on birth – can be found on Fast Company’s Co.Design, Metropolis, Babble.com and Core77. The seventeen concepts in Designs On – Birth, ranging from a video of men’s experience of childbirth to a bracelet marking the early stages of pregnancy and a home birth kit for mothers in rural areas, are documented in the printed publication, available for download on the Designs On– website.

The Filtrete Water Station, a result of a collaboration between IDEO and 3M, is highlighted in Metropolis’ Products for the Planet issue. The device filters water into four reusable bottles in seconds, and eliminates the cost and waste of up to 3,000 disposable water bottles per family, per year.

San Francisco NPR affiliate KQED broadcasts Tim Brown’s talk, “Design Thinking: Leveraging Ideas” from the April 2010 Global Philanthropy Forum. On KQED, the panel was heard as part of the “It’s Your World” program, a broadcast of the World Affairs Council.

UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business recognized IDEO’s Tom Kelley with the Haas Innovation Award for his contributions to advancing the understanding and practice of innovation.

Learn more about the award and Tom’s journey on the Haas website.

What should we do about climate change? Instead of waiting for policy makers to act, you can help figure out the answer at the Climate CoLab.

Working alone–or in teams of people from all over the world–you can create proposals for what to do about climate change. The winning proposals will be presented to key policy makers, including officials at the UN and the US Congress. If your proposal is one of the top two, you’ll receive travel funding for a representative of your team to attend one of these briefings. IDEO’s Living Climate Change Video Challenge is cited as an example of artistic representations of possible future worlds for prospective proposal writers.

The deadline for the contest is October 31, 2010.

Ford set out to improve what it calls the “cabin experience,” and collaborated with IDEO to come up with a set of interface design principles that could be applied across all of their models. This story charts the process—including the extreme user observations, video game driving simulator, and interaction design principles — that serves as the basis for a flexible system informed by what the author, Phil Patton, calls useful specifics: “When you have an eight-inch touch screen, you think of all things you can do,” IDEO’s Iain Roberts said. “But then you remember people have to drive while doing it.” 

Read the article here.

Learn more about our work with Ford on MyFord Touch and the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Dashboard.

Editor David Rowan takes at look at how — and why — HackFwd is rethinking the funding and getting-off-the-ground process for startup technology companies. IDEO’s Tom Hulme talks about the importance of looking at startups real needs, and viewing business models through the eyes of those who realize the value, be it consumer-facing or non-consumer-facing aspects. Lars Hinrichs, founder of HackFwd, summarizes the venture: “We looked at all stages of the current VC model and turned literally every single element upside down.” Read the article here.

In a look inside one of the most iconic restaurants on the planet, Fast Company explores how design has impacted the McDonald’s strategy and experience. “Making Over McDonald’s” covers the everyman approach to creating happy customers and growing sustainably. “McDonald’s has become one of the few companies that does design management well,” says Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, which collaborated with McDonald’s on some of the steps it’s taking.