Nauto, a startup in the automotive industry that’s building a system to help make driving safer and smarter, approached IDEO to collaborate on the design of their latest device. It includes a proprietary dual-camera system that can be directly installed in just about any vehicle to enable safety features. Through real-time data analysis, high-definition recording, and LTE connectivity, Nauto’s device records and analyzes activity inside and outside the car, and automatically uploads information to a smart cloud.

The device can detect if drivers are distracted based on their eye and head movements, risky maneuvers such as tailgating or swerving, and dangerous environmental conditions such as unexpected obstacles. In these scenarios, the product alerts the driver through audio feedback inside the vehicle.

Over time, the data collected by Nauto reveals bigger insights and trends in driving behavior, ranging from causes of collisions to patterns in driver distraction. These insights are stored in a secure cloud platform and made accessible to both drivers and fleet managers. Drivers can benefit from Nauto’s VERA score—personalized feedback based on their driving performance—and fleet managers can gain access to a complete picture of how each of their drivers are performing across locations. Through these data-driven insights, Nauto gives drivers and fleet managers the tools to stay safe on the road.

To help launch Nauto’s device, IDEO prototyped several iterations of the product’s housing, cabling, and ergonomics, resulting in a clean aesthetic and an easy installation process for users. The engineering team also prioritized materials that would protect against extreme temperatures and sunlight exposure. Most importantly, IDEO helped design a camera device that can be seamlessly integrated into almost any model of any vehicle, greatly expanding its potential in the market.

Nauto’s latest system began rolling out to commercial fleets and strategic OEM and Insurance partners in late 2016.

Photos by Nauto.

Most people are used to watching their favorite shows whenever and wherever they want these days. But 10 years ago, that wasn’t the case. Far ahead of the curve, HBO realized the potential for carving out its own audience, and created one of the first original on-demand offerings that allowed viewers to cut the cord from cable and satellite providers. HBO came to IDEO for help in navigating the future of its audience experience that would be distinguished from cable, and would put full control in the hands of the viewer.

With special emphasis on HBO’s Video On Demand offering, IDEO began early-phase research to explore people’s experience with the media brand and found that it centered largely on the viewing of HBO shows, the most critical part of the media experience. But other important media-related activities—learning about new shows, planning to watch new shows, creating the right viewing environment, saving and sharing viewing experiences—were either underserved or controlled by HBO’s cable and satellite partners. IDEO concluded that HBO’s challenge would be to develop a media service that holistically addressed the media consumer’s entire journey and allowed subscribers to experience HBO wherever and whenever they wanted.

To demonstrate the value of the entire media consumption journey, IDEO created a comprehensive product development and user experience vision. This vision was delivered in the form of an immersive environment, built on-site at HBO, which conveyed key customer values and behaviors and presented a roadmap for building the appropriate products and services. Included in this roadmap were future scenarios and tools that invited prototyping and exploration.

"The collaboration was foundational for us, serving as our guidepost for creating more personalized on-demand and online viewer experiences. This early work influenced what would become our streaming presence—from categorization to how the products rolled out—and ultimately led us to design the next generation of user-inspired products for a more highly engaged audience," said Bernadette Aulestia, Executive Vice President of Global Distribution at HBO.

In the 10 years since the original collaboration with IDEO, HBO has pioneered the path forward for media brands by setting the standard for a world-class array of content and accompanying viewer experience model.

While the designs of most cutting tools have evolved significantly over the years, multi-tools have remained largely the same. Recognizing this gap, SOG, an established leader in the specialty knife industry, collaborated with IDEO to identify new opportunities for innovation in the multi-tool space. The teams specifically aimed to expand SOG’s offerings into a more general lifestyle category and position them as adaptable tools for people’s everyday needs.

IDEO's research and industrial design work resulted in a family of four new multi-tools known as Baton. A sleek, black, minimal design ties together the complete set of tools, whose features vary to include bottle-openers, flashlights, scissors, pens, and pliers.

Each multi-tool’s range of capabilities, combined with its slim, compact structure that looks like a pen, makes it a travel-friendly companion for the office or the great outdoors. And its intuitive design makes it easy to use for anyone, regardless of their experience with multi-tools.

SOG’s new family of multi-tools launched in January 2017.

Every year, millions of students attend career colleges with hopes of landing jobs after graduation, but many end up unemployed and in debt, evidence of a significant disconnect between the goals of the students, educators, and institutions. Administrators are tasked with getting students in the door, but not getting them to graduation and students are focused on getting a degree to secure their future employment, while employers are looking for graduates who have professional skills beyond their new degrees.

In an effort to change this failing model, the ECMC Foundation engaged IDEO to help design a radical new vision for the future of career colleges. IDEO and the ECMC Foundation sought to develop a vision that could be used as a benchmark for the sector, showcasing a student-centered educational experience with a business model that aligns students, employers, and institutions as partners in advancement.

At the heart of the student experience is extended support along the learning journey, from path-finding and job placement to ongoing career support for alumni, helping students mindfully navigate their education from matriculation through employment.

A key insight on the employer side was the need to prioritize the parallel development of students’ soft skills—like collaboration and communication styles—and hard skills, ensuring graduates are not only properly trained in the unique skills of their chosen career path, but also prepared to adapt to professional environments.

Institutional accountability became a core factor in the vision, directly linking the college system’s success to the student experience: as job placement improves, so do the school’s earnings and future enrollment rates. The final result is a student-centered educational experience and business model that aligns students and schools as true partners in a better life.

Key elements of IDEO’s recommendations are being implemented as pilot projects at Zenith Education Group—a nonprofit provider of career school training, funded by the ECMC Foundation.

Many students have the motivation to pursue higher education, but are dealing with external pressures and realities that make completion challenging.

I recently tested myself and found I was averaging four hours per day on my phone, with most of that time lost to Instagram and Facebook. This mindless scrolling was primarily happening in the day’s in-between moments—while waiting in line for a coffee, sitting on the train, and even in the bathroom.

A recent talk by Manoush Zomorodi got me thinking: When was the last time I put away my devices and chose to do nothing instead? When was the last time we all let ourselves experience pure, unadulterated boredom? And is it possible that replacing time sitting around checking email with time just sitting could help us be more creative in both the short- and long-term?

I dug into some research and found that moments of boredom often allow us to take our biggest imaginative leaps. Here are three ways to get yourself there:

1. Schedule time to let your mind wander

Research shows that daydreaming ignites a collection of brain regions known as the default mode network. According to psychologist Dr. Sandi Mann, as our minds wander, our thinking stretches beyond the conscious and dips into the subconscious. It’s in this zone that we’re often able to connect disparate ideas, solve some of our most nagging problems, and do autobiographical planning—reflecting on our lives and setting goals. It’s no wonder that so many of us come up with our best ideas in the shower.

Where and when do you daydream? Allow time in your calendar to stretch those moments out. Skip the express for a slower train. Try designing new routines into your day, like walking around the block during lunch, to help spark new thoughts.

2. Do something mind-numbing before your next brainstorm

To test the creative-boosting powers of boredom, a group of researchers from the University of Central Lancashire conducted a study where half of the 80 participants were instructed to copy numbers from a phone book (experimental group), and the other half were not (control group). They were then asked to brainstorm as many uses as they could for a pair of plastic cups. The phone book group came up with significantly more ideas.

The researchers ran the same test again, but added a third group tasked with something even duller—reading the phone book. These participants came up with even more ideas.

Before your next creative meeting, try tackling those boring-but-necessary tasks that clog up your to-do list. You just might unlock your next big idea.

3. Tap into your childhood self

According to psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, the capacity to be bored can actually be a developmental achievement for children. Unstructured time motivates kids to invent their own entertainment from scratch, and gives them the freedom to explore what truly interests them.

When I was younger, I would pretend to teach a Harry Potter-style “Intro to Spells,” complete with paper wands. Today, teaching design classes at Stanford and leadership workshops for girls brings me the same joy and inspiration. And when I get bored, my mind still races around new design curriculum.

Need a reminder of the things that used to inspire you? Call your parents, siblings, or old friends to help playback stories from times past.

There will always be another something to check, update, or scroll through on our devices, but if we let our minds run free instead, who knows what brilliance our boredom might lead to?

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In our always-connected world, it’s easy to fill every spare moment with another feed to scroll through, notification to check, or calendar to update. Each activity may feel productive in the moment, but at the end of the day we have nothing to show for it.

In one sentence, who are you?

Cindy [sin-dee]: a quirky, creatively neurotic, unapologetic creature who has paintbrushes for fingers and toes—with a laugh that rumbles the ground.

What do you do? How did you get into it?

I am a picture book author and illustrator. Ever since I was a little, I had narratives running through my head for just about anything. My path as a teenager led me to theater and The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where I got involved in puppetry—building puppets and touring my own one-woman shows. In the back of my mind was a dream I couldn’t let go of: I wanted to write and illustrate children’s picture books.

After I moved back to California, I began painting with acrylic on gigantic canvases, but eventually transitioned to working a bit smaller. That’s when I discovered the unpredictable beauty of using watercolor and ink. From there, I spent years diligently working on my illustration skills and developing characters, and I have been working on my craft of storytelling ever since.

As an adult, picture books are a way to collaborate with my little self. And together, we create weird books for weird kids. My debut book as an author and illustrator is How to Walk an Ant (Roaring Brook Press, 2019).

What are your three most beloved possessions?

1) A tiny armadillo sculpture with a broken tail

2) A collection of letters from my grandmother

3) An embarrassing diary from my middle school years—with creepy drawings of all my crushes

What are your favorite tools of the trade?

I make my own paint brushes. I pluck the hairs out of old, scraggly brushes and bind them together to create new brushes. I also use sticks, wires, and clay shapers when I paint. They make imperfect, expressive lines. And I like that.

What does a typical work session look like?

Before I begin any work, I obsessively wipe down all surfaces, organize my materials, and even make my bed. This helps my mind become a blank canvas. This also helps me rediscover things in my studio I may have forgotten about—like that piece of Styrofoam pool noodle I cut out into shapes to make stamps, or that tiny drawing of a bug with a coy expression.

When I finally sit down at my art table, I start by making some spots on paper. The result is not supposed to be good, nor do I want it to look like anything. This is just a way to warm up my hand. It also helps to whisper: “Good morning, hand...Good morning, brush...Good morning, inkblot!”

After a healthy session of experimenting, I transition into working on one of my current picture book projects, which involves a happy balance of planning and spontaneity.

How do you get over creative block?

I intentionally make very ugly art for a few days. That means putting wrong colors together until they are muddied, ripping up paper to make monsters, and pouring a whole bottle of black ink on top of a pretty landscape. Afterwards, I eat too much chocolate and melt into the floor. If I can make myself laugh—really, truly have a good ol’ laugh at myself—that block will get smaller.

How do you see the world in 2078?

If a drone can deliver a rainbow sprinkled donut to me while I’m lying on my death bed...I’m happy.

What’s your number one bucket list item?

I would like to retrace the steps that my late grandmother Marian Mountain took on her journey while creating her book The Zen Environment: The Impact of Zen Meditation. She had a fascinating life. She was a student of Shunryū Suzuki for many years, and helped record and transcribe all his lectures.

She traveled around in a RV with her typewriter most of her life. And she used to be a puppeteer! Before she died, she was working on a follow-up book titled Snail Zen. I’d like to help complete that book.

Who are you creative crushin’ on lately?

Leonard Baskin. I recently discovered his work while doing research at The Letterform Archive in San Francisco. His lines are haunting, expressive, and honest.

I have been stalking illustrator Cindy Derby’s work on Instagram for longer than I care to admit. She creates worlds for children’s books, but her unique characters and experimental style capture the imagination of adults just as easily. For this installment of our Creative Crush series, I set out to learn more about Derby and her process.

If you think about my hometown of Munich, surfing is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. So what do you do if you love surfing but live deep down in Bavaria? You just have to make it happen. Take a bunch of crazy surf dudes, add the freezing cold "Eisbach"—a small man-made river located at the English Garden in downtown Munich that provides the perfect "standing wave"—and there you go. There is always someone taking a ride—early in the morning, when the city is still asleep and you are on your way to the office, at noon during a quick lunch break, in the afternoon for a sunset session, or even at night or in the snow. (The Eisbach has even lured professional surfers like Kelly Slater, Gabriel Medina, and Mick Fanning.) Hang loose can be found everywhere around the world—you just have be creative.

Human-centered design requires us to observe human behavior with beginner's eyes, so that we can spot the innate ways people interact with the world around them. We call these intuitive and unconscious reactions Thoughtless Acts, and IDEO designers collect photos of them to inspire their work.

Dear Maira Kalman,

I have to admit, it was Tibor who brought us together. Him and his flair, and boldness, passion and humor. But you—YOU! You were the words and the drawings and the insights. A creative mess of things I found in contrast to my young orderly graphic design mind, yet loved and admired and wanted every bit of.

In 1999, I saw you at the SFMoMA talking about your beloved husband when Tiborcity was on exhibit. I was sitting next to the person I didn't know would become my own beloved husband. You became part of our lives together—extending to our children. When our 3-year-old daughter recited the full story of Sayonara, Mrs. Kackleman from memory as we flipped through each page, we knew we had done something right.

Yours in missing our beloveds,
Jen Panasik

Portraits in Creativity: Maira Kalman

Dear Buckminster Fuller,

From the moment I first read you, I fell under the spell of a man who couldn’t be contained by a dictionary. Livingry. Tensegrity. Dymaxion. Big ideas packed into beautiful words. Then again, you said to never think about beauty whilst working on a problem. I'd simply know the solution is wrong if its not beautiful in some way.

Oh Bucky, Spaceship Earth needs you now more than ever.

P.S. Can I leave my toothbrush at your geodesic dome?

—Chris Nyffeler

Dear Janet Champ,

I was just a few years out of college when your "If You Let Me Play" Nike campaign came out, and it rocked my world. Here was this gorgeous feminist rallying cry: It wasn't on a flyer at the natural foods store, and it wasn't on a poster at a protest march. It was on national TV, with a big ol' Nike swoosh at the end. I remember thinking, "Whoa. You can have a paying job AND change the world. That's badass." And I promptly became a writer.

With great affection and respect,
Jenn Maer

Dear Syd Mead,

I'm writing to thank your for the countless hours I spent in my youth immersed in the details and possibilities of your future visions. Your inspirational and sometimes cautionary depiction of future artifacts, cities, and cultures inspired me to design optimistically towards a better tomorrow. Thank you for helping enrich and enlarge our dreams of what lies beyond the horizon and for pulling humanity forward.

Best,
Danny Stillion

Visual Futurist: Syd Mead

Dear David Kelley,

You taught me that even the most simple acts can communicate thought, intention, and creativity. Who knew gift wrapping could be an act of self-expression and creativity, or that you could say "no" to someone and still leave them feeling good about the exchange?

You taught me it's all about the nuance, and the details. That with as much care and thought applied to the moments in between, that you can have a lasting impact on someone's day.

In an world of design full of black and grey, you encouraged me to bring the color.

—Sally Sosa

Dear Vaughan Oliver,

I first met you through the Pixies. I don’t know if it was the big hairy back, geometrically augmented monkey, or the bowl of sheep eyes, but you had me hooked. And who uses script type like that!?!! When I first met you, I expected a severe, dark personality in an equally severe, dark dress. But who I met was a clever, happy, normal guy with an incredible eye for the unusual and a penchant for good stories. Because of you, I still own an unusual number of 4AD CDs, whether I like the music or not. And I usually do.

—Michael Hendrix

Dear Aleksandr Rodchenko,

Thank you for teaching me that typography matters. That, with the right size and placement, words on a page can punch you in the face. That might be the most powerful design lesson I ever learned, and something I’ll never be done learning.

Still stunned,
Joe Brown

Dear Jackie and Lloyd,

It was summer of 2007, London Design Week, and my feet were pounding from covering miles and miles of "best of the best design."
Everything is starting to look the same. My eyes glazed over. "Get me out of here!"

On my way to exiting this hell I stumble across a sanctuary. "Take a deep breath..."

Actually, it took my breath away.

Organic sinuous lines, the color so elegant, I still remember that egg-shell blue on the Malvern sofa. But what made the most lasting impression was the two women designers standing before me—as if I was looking at a future self.

Flash forward 11 years, you two continue to inspire me by pushing the craft in furniture design, to bridge the gap between design cultures at We Present, and to help others be successful.

Thank you for showing me the way.

I still dream of an internship, maybe one day...

—Yuni Lee

Dear Marcel Wanders,

You were the designer that I literally wanted to be when I was in school. From your early work with Droog to your radical experiments with materials, to the fantastic stories you create through spaces and objects today. Your work couldn't be more different from what I do as a designer—and I relish that you live way out there on the edge of art and design to remind me of the limits of sound strategy and argued rationales, and to remind us all of the importance of beauty and love and intuition. More recently, we've had the chance to meet, work together, and become friends. I am better at what I do by being challenged by what you do.

—Clark Scheffy

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Do you remember when you first fell for design? The moment you discovered someone whose work sang to you, moved you, sent you skipping down a creative path? In these love notes, the bleeding-hearts of IDEO declare their love for the artists, writers, and designers who showed them the way.

I help organizations cut through complexity by shaping how they show up, through brand strategy, identity, and storytelling.

Working at the intersection of brand and business, I bring an editorial eye and a bias toward making—turning ideas into tangible experiences that people can understand, trust, and believe in.

My work spans government, healthcare, financial services, media, and consumer goods, from launching Gen Z-focused ventures to building innovation labs and reimagining legacy brands. I relish moments of ambiguity and enjoy translating across teams, perspectives, and priorities to move ideas forward.

I started my career in editorial and digital design, shaping cross-platform experiences and identity systems in publishing and agency environments. That foundation still shapes how I work today: I’m detail-oriented, collaborative, and overreliant on the Oxford comma. I hold a BFA in Visual Communication from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

For 25 years, I've asked the same question: Who does this design exclude—and what are we going to do about it?

My work spans human-centered strategy, inclusive design, and qualitative research, with clients ranging from Microsoft, Google, and Verizon to the National Science Foundation, and San Francisco Unified School District.

Before IDEO, I taught elementary school in East Palo Alto and spent a decade doing design work with social service organizations—where I learned firsthand what it costs people when systems are built without them in mind.

I am currently writing User Error, a nonfiction book about digital access and the design decisions behind it. I live in Oakland, California.

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My expertise spans brand, communication, and product design across tech, education, the arts, and social impact.

I believe great work demands both high-level vision and obsessive attention to detail, and only happens through collaboration.

I bring an inclusive, hands-on approach and a deep understanding of business, which enables me to consistently deliver excellence while always asking why.

Before joining IDEO, I worked at the brand firms Pentagram and VSA Partners. I began my career as a designer, leading teams at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Milwaukee Art Museum. I hold an MFA in graphic design from Maryland Institute College of Art and a BFA in communication design from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, and have taught at some of the best design schools in the US.

I am responsible for IDEO’s long-term success in China and working with clients to use design as a tool to enable growth. Specifically, I have helped Chinese companies design holistic brand solutions through the development of their products, communication, services, and innovation teams, and I have helped multinationals expand their presence and influence in China.

I advise global leaders on developing China-led innovation and capabilities.

In over 15 years in IDEO Shanghai, I have worked on projects that use design to elevate the quality of the experience of healthcare products and services, streamline processes that increase productivity, create spaces and programs that promote and enable inclusive communities, and build next generation mobility solutions that are planet-positive.

Before joining IDEO, I worked at Philips Electronics and the Electrolux Group in Italy, the Netherlands, and Singapore on a number of breakthrough commercial products. I am a member of the Young President Organization in Shanghai.

Most AI products today are built for work—a space with clear problems and established systems. One founder noticed a gap: personal life is messier, harder to systematize, and mostly left behind by the AI boom. So she built Cue, a personal AI that lives inside iMessage and group chats, to go where the other tools haven't.

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In this episode, Becca Carroll, IDEO's Chief Strategy Officer, talks with Sida Li, co-founder and CEO of Shared Context Lab, about staying anchored to a human need while the technology around her keeps changing shape, why she treats her business model with the same rigor she'd bring to a product, and what it feels like to build a company at this particular, disorienting moment in AI.

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The conversation also gets into how Sida makes design decisions: the language Cue uses to describe itself, the tradeoffs behind building inside iMessage instead of a new app, and a real story about a business idea that didn’t pan out.

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This is the second in a two-part series profiling founders from IDEO's Startups-in-Residence program. The first conversation is with Johannes Seemann, founder of Sooner, on designing GenAI for the emotional side of money.

Most personal financial tools are built to run the numbers and optimize towards a budget. While that works for some, most people experience money as a lived relationship that does not neatly fit into a spreadsheet. Johannes Seemann and Becca Carroll discuss why money is emotional before it is mathematical, and what a human-centered approach to building a generative AI financial product looks like in practice.

Mina Seetharaman talks with Scott Shigeoka, author of Seek and Head of Curiosity Cultivation at the Eames Institute, about what distinguishes genuinely curious leadership from performative curiosity, how power dynamics shape curiosity, and why practicing curiosity can restore energy rather than drain it.

Mina Seetharaman talks with David Epstein, author of Inside the Box and Range, about why total freedom often produces average work, how leaders can design useful limits on purpose, and what organizations such as General Magic and Pixar reveal about the relationship between boundaries and creativity.