Articles / Posted: May 22 2009
IDEO Considers the Future of News in San Francisco Magazine
‘News Flash from the Future: What Will Journalism Look Like? IDEO sketched out fourteen scenarios for the future of news. The work appears in the June issue of San Francisco magazine.
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.
For the back story to this article or to learn about IDEO’s process, click here.
Articles / Posted: May 21 2009
MBA Students Pick IDEO as Top Employer
Every year Miami-based research firm Universum publishes a list of where B-school students most want to work for an exclusive Fortune.com list. This year, IDEO ranks fifteenth on the list. For the full Fortune article, click here.
Articles / Posted: May 11 2009
Tim Brown in the Talking Design Series at the Victoria and Albert Museum
On May 15th, 2009, Tim Brown will participate in the Talking Design series, chaired by Alice Rawsthorn at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where he will discuss IDEO’s work in redefining industrial design and pioneering concepts of service design. Read more about the event here. Or, follow Tim’s blog about design thinking.
Articles / Posted: May 6 2009
当中国向世界展示设计主导而非科技研发主导的创新时
文 Richard Kelly（IDEO亚太区总裁）
对于我来说，这真是一个良好的开端。在我到IDEO亚太区的上海办公室工作前，我去了北京，与奥运会不期而遇。我的两个儿子收看了电视转播的奥运开幕式，他们被深深震撼了，而我则开始意识到，这是最为罕见的一种个人和全世界之间的联系。我们正在目击中国的决定性时刻，我们正在亲历中国在世界地位的提升。
奥运会期间，我开始和中国同事以及中国客户共事，这场盛事所引发的活力和兴奋之情显而易见。这是“中国创造”的最佳例证——向全世界呈现的壮观场景，推动中国民众的雄心壮志、为他们注入乐观心态，启发创意，并激发行动和变革。
而这场夏季盛会之后，金融业的寒冬无可避免地降临了。那么在出口经济日渐低迷的情况下，我们如何最大限度地利用“奥运精神”这个优势？
显然，刺激国内和地区市场的需求首当其冲。中国刺激内需的方式能够带来黄金机遇，帮助自身从世界工厂转变为世界领先的创意产生地。
我认为，如果完全依赖基于科技的研发来发展国内市场，这样的转变将难以实现。增长市场的关键不在于通过对研发主导的设计进行逐步的改善和优化，从而卖掉更多的产品。我们以手机为例，真正的业务增长来自于对用户的理解——了解他们想要以怎样的新方式来使用手机，并针对这一点进行设计。为了发掘出这些新方式，设计师需要走近消费者，观察他们的真实行为以了解他们的需求。
中国的消费者十分乐于了解新事物和尝试新体验，因此这种以人为本的设计方式尤为适合中国市场。新的价值能够激发消费者的兴趣，而实现新价值可以通过这样一种设计方式来实现——揭示消费者未被满足的、未被提出的需求，然后满足这些需求。
IDEO设计方式的核心就是深入观察消费者以获得洞察力，这就是设计思维。我们和美国银行的合作案例讲述了我们如何帮助客户走近消费者，通过对业务做出小小的改变来获得较大的利润。美国银行希望更加深入地了解市场，它将研究重点放在育有孩子的婴儿潮女性身上，IDEO在美国的不同地区开展了用户调研。我们观察到，很多女性消费者都有存钱的下意识举动，比如说，她们在购物时会付整钱，回家后把找零放在存钱罐里。虽然人们从未谈及自己有存钱的需求，但他们的行为启发了我们的灵感，让我们设计出“保存零头”的银行服务，即如果用银行的贷记卡消费，消费金额会被调高到最接近的整美元，而多付的零钱则自动转入顾客的储蓄帐户，银行会累加存款并加上利息。举例说明，如果顾客使用银行的贷记卡购买一本售价19.8美元的书，在付款时会从顾客账户上收取20美元，多收的20美分转入顾客的储蓄账户，然后美国银行会累积这20美分的储蓄并加上利息。
“保存零头”业务在2005年10月正式推出，之后不到一年的时间内，吸引了250万名顾客，为美国银行带来了70万新支票帐户和1百万新储蓄帐户。这项全新服务不仅免除了人们将钱存入帐户的繁冗手续，还进一步提倡了存钱行为。截至2008年5月，已有800万名顾客选择了“保存零头”服务，存款总额累计约100亿美元。
Download the English translation here.
Articles / Posted: May 6 2009
Tim Brown on the Shift from Consumer to Participant
Ideas Project interviews Tim Brown about how communications technology has turned consumers into participants who add intrinsic value to products and services. The site highlights big ideas about the future of connected communications, and the connections between those ideas. To read more about consumers as participants, follow Tim’s blog.
Articles / Posted: May 1 2009
Arna Ionescu Talks with Mobile Health News About Designing Devices for Health Care
Reporter Karen Katz talked with Arna Ionescu, co-leader of the Connected Health, about how design firms are being asked to build “use scenarios.” “A lot of companies,” explained Arna, “are looking into what they can do with the basic 160 character text message, such as reminders or staying in touch.” For more about how to strike a human-focused balance when incorporating technology into health care, read the full story. Arna also talked about IDEO’s work with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and how the team used mobile, web and analog channels.
Articles / Posted: May 22 2009
Greener by Design: Can We Build Efficiency Into Products and Systems?
IDEO’s Ted Howes was part of the final panel at Greener by Design 2009. As part of the “Designing for Energy Efficiency” panel, Ted explained that “In the real world, people don’t want energy efficiency; they don’t think about ROI [return on investment].” “You have to build on what people care about,” he said. To read a Reuters article about the panel, click here.
Articles / Posted: May 18 2009
Mat Hunter Asks Whether the World Is Focused on the Right Challenges
Mat Hunter will speak on a panel hosted by The Foundation Forum, entitled “The Last Thing We Need Right Now Is Innovation.” Mat will pose the question of whether or not we’re focusing our innovation efforts on the right challenges. The talk will take place on Tuesday, May 19, 6:30 to 8:15 pm GMT at The Arts Club in London.
Articles / Posted: May 6 2009
Tom Kelley Wins the 2009 Kellogg Award for Distinguished Leadership
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management will present Tom Kelley with its annual award for distinguished leadership on May 19.
Articles / Posted: May 6 2009
From Made in China to Learned in China
When China shows to the world its design-driven innovation instead of technology-based R&D driven innovation
It couldn’t have been a more auspicious start. My arrival in Beijing - just before starting work at IDEO’s Asia Pacific regional office in Shanghai - coincided exactly with the Olympics. As my two sons watched transfixed by the TV coverage of the opening ceremony, I became aware that this was the rarest kind of conjunction between the personal and the global. We were witnessing a defining moment for China and its place in the world.
As the Games progressed – and as I settled into working with my Chinese colleagues and clients – the energy and excitement being generated by the event were palpable. This was the brightest and best example of ‘Created in China’ – a spectacle for the world which across the host nation was fuelling ambition, injecting optimism, inspiring ideas and mobilising forces for change and action.
The Games in the summer were, of course, inevitably followed by the chill of the financial winter – and with it the economic climate grew grimmer by the month. The China-wide dynamism crystallized by Beijing 2008 remains undiminished, but how can it best be harnessed with exports to a recession-hit world becoming increasingly sluggish?
Stimulating domestic and regional demand is a clear priority. And the way China does this could offer a golden opportunity to transform itself from the world’s factory into the world-leading generator of creativity.
I believe that this transformation will not come about if growing the home market depends entirely on technology-based research and development (R&D). The point is not to try and sell, for instance, more mobile phones by adding small incremental changes to design driven by technology based R&D. Real growth comes from discovering the new ways people want to use a mobile phone and designing for them. To find out what these new ways are, designers need to get close to the consumer and observe how they truly behave and what they ideally want.
This human-centred approach to design is particularly well suited to the Chinese market as Chinese consumers have a rapacious appetite for new experiences and accelerated learning. It is new value that excites them – and this can be created by a design approach that is driven by uncovering consumers’ latent, often unspoken needs and meeting them.
To read on, download the full article here.
Download the article in Chinese here.
Articles / Posted: May 2 2009
Jocelyn Wyatt and Doug Solomon Speak at the Council on Foundations Annual Conference
May 3, 2009
Jocelyn Wyattt and Doug Solomon will speak at the Council on Foundations annual conference in Atlanta in a session titled "Innovative Approaches to Increase Effectiveness and Social Impact."