Fevers. Boogers. Yucky meds. IDEO Play Lab designers dove deeply into the challenges of sick days and doctors’ appointments through video diaries, online surveys, and in-person interviews with parents, healthcare providers, and small children in homes and pediatric offices across the US. They heard about the struggles of giving medicines, wonky thermometer readings, kids having “stethoscope scaries,” and, worst of all, what happens when kiddos hear the “s-word”—shot.

‍‍The research confirmed Sydney and Kaitlin’s initial hunches about playful healthcare products and provided the team with insights on how to move forward. The answer was a formula of sorts. To help reduce kids’ anxiety and keep them calm at the doctor, give them a choice in their care whenever possible. Build familiarity with doctor’s visits and medical devices through playful moments at home. Redirect their attention away from fear. Design for multisensory richness. And provide age-appropriate narratives about healthcare experiences.

Inspired by this kid-centric formula, the IDEO Play Lab team worked closely with Sydney, Kaitlin, and their co-founder, Michael Kamins, to iterate on several designs, winnowing down more than 150 brainstorm ideas into a dozen tangible prototypes (or tinker models) that were shown to doctors, nurses, parents, and young kids for feedback. The designs—a rocket ship medicine dispenser, an elephant-shaped nose aspirator, and a narwhal nasal bulb, among others—were intended to evoke a sense of playfulness, comfort, and familiarity, with features designed for maximum cuteness. Some even lit up and played sounds, like popular toys.

While the designs passed the fun test with kids, they also needed to be functional for parents, trusted by doctors, easily manufactured, and affordable. Eventually, they would need to be approved by the FDA as regulated medical devices. Playhouse MD also requested patentable innovations to help protect their products from imitation.

With these constraints in mind, IDEO Play Lab delivered a collection of nine unique, high-fidelity prototypes that add a dose of fun to caretaking challenges in homes and doctors’ offices. The final designs were durable, medically sanitizable, and safe for testing with real kids, which helped the startup secure multiple rounds of funding and bring its first products to market in 18 months.

Playhouse MD began selling its first four direct-to-consumer products on its website in June 2025: two Medicine Buddies (medicine dispensers shaped like a rocket ship and a butterfly) and two Booger Buddies (a light-up nasal aspirator elephant called Luna and a light-up nasal bulb narwhal named Noa, which was named one of The Best Inventions of 2025 by TIME). The products are available at Target and Babylist stores, and on Amazon through leading medical distributor McKesson Medical-Surgical.

Most companies design child healthcare devices with parents’ or doctors’ tastes in mind; none, however, focus on what will make kids smile, too.

TIME Best Inventions of 2025

in the Parenting Category, Playhouse MD's Light-Up Nasal Bulb

1 ½ years

from initial brainstorms to in-market launch of 4 kid-centric medical products

Verathon offers one of the broadest portfolios of video laryngoscopes on the market. While these life-saving devices increase the likelihood of successful first-time intubations, reducing trauma and speeding recovery times, they are more costly and can be more challenging to learn how to use than traditional mechanical ones, which rely on directly looking at the vocal cords. Wanting to make it easier for cost-conscious hospital administrators to transition from traditional laryngoscopes to Verathon’s video systems, the medical device manufacturer asked IDEO to technically and visually unite its next-gen reusable baton and stats, ensuring they worked together seamlessly, flexibly, and intuitively during the most routine and demanding healthcare moments.

‍The IDEO and Verathon teams used a prototype-led approach to safely gain feedback from anesthesiologists and emergency physicians. Research participants were given various intubation models to simulate surgical use cases and understand ergonomic trade-offs between different design directions. Insights from the field led to design principles such as prioritizing device balance over weight reduction, providing flexibility to accommodate a variety of gripping positions, making connection points between various parts clear, intuitive, and secure, and ensuring the device was easy to clean.

Inspired by physician feedback, the team designed an innovative video baton that felt both familiar and new, supported the ergonomics of diverse holding styles, and fit Verathon’s wide range of stat sizes (one of its competitive advantages). To prevent accidental disconnections, users receive clear tactile, visual, and sound feedback when the monitor and cover are correctly attached to the baton. IDEO chose color, materials, and finishes to help clinicians quickly distinguish between parts of the system and easily identify reusable components from single-use ones.

Verathon’s new GlideScope ClearFit stats-based video laryngoscope hit the market in August 2025. Combining one reusable baton with an industry-leading selection of six single-use stats, it’s compatible with both the GlideScope® Go™ 2 handheld and GlideScope® Core™ cart-based systems. Magnetic QuickConnect™ technology allows doctors to seamlessly switch between platforms, giving hospitals a standardized airway management solution that simplifies workflows, streamlines inventory, enhances medical education and training, and promotes cost-effective care.

Verathon invented video laryngoscopy technology. Twenty years later, the COVID-19 pandemic spurred more competitors to enter the market.

‍

Cutting-edge technologies like video laryngoscopes are critical—and costly—devices. Hospital systems want to invest in the most comprehensive, flexible, adaptable, and affordable tools for quality patient care

6 shapes and sizes

of single-use covers fit one video baton, enabling health workers to quickly access different throat anatomies

Since its founding in 1992 by the Gokongwei family, which also operates one of the nation’s largest conglomerates, JG Summit Holdings, GBF has supported Philippine education through student scholarships, teacher training funds, and donations to top universities. Over its 30-plus-year history, GBF has reached more than 200,000 teachers and impacted over 1.5 million learners nationwide. When the foundation approached IDEO in 2021, it wanted to move the needle on STEM education in the country’s struggling public schools.

The IDEO and GBF teams interviewed more than 100 subject-matter experts across various government agencies, leading technology companies, and top national universities and educational institutions to build a comprehensive understanding of the current state of STEM in the Philippines. To experience classroom struggles firsthand, the team also shadowed STEM educators and principals. The research revealed that time-strapped teachers needed help mastering overall STEM content, preparing for their classes, and selecting the most suitable activities for their students. They also didn’t always feel supported in their own career development journeys. But the burden of daily responsibilities didn’t leave them any time for outside learning opportunities, either. 

Recognizing that empowering teachers empowers students, the team created an innovative lesson prep tool, the GBF Class Builder, that's based on these insights. Using existing technology and course materials designed to align with school curricula, IDEO developed a working prototype of the Class Builder in under a week, with minimal investment. The team then systematically improved it over several “build-test-iterate” feedback cycles in real classrooms over the course of four months.

The final GBF Class Builder is a targeted program that helps STEM teachers deliver compelling lessons for their students, learn new teaching strategies, and build content mastery along the way. In addition to helping design the Class Builder, IDEO continues to advise GBF on key aspects of the program's piloting and rollout. This includes advising on how to implement the content development, think through the curriculum development process, support in designing feature iterations, define metrics for success, and decide which additional roles GBF will need to support the ambitious program going forward. 

The foundation launched the GBF Class Builder at its 30th-anniversary celebration in 2023. Feedback from pilot 3,500 public schools and 15,000 teachers has been overwhelmingly positive. “Through the GBF Class Builder, we envision our teachers to be more confident and effective in class, more ready to face the challenges of the future, while enjoying every class—feeling proud to be a teacher, " says Grace Colet, Executive Director of GBF.
‍
The ambitious program continues to scale and is on track to be rolled out in public schools nationwide by 2029.

90% of 10-year-olds in the Philippines can’t read a simple text, according to a Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics report. Eighty-three percent of Filipino 10-year-olds lack minimum proficiency in math.

More than 15,000 teachers in 3,500 public schools

are now using the innovative GBF Class Builder program
‍

94%

of teachers report the GBF Class Builder has improved student engagement, while 89% say it saves them 1-2 hours in prep time per lesson

Fizik came to IDEO with the aim of entering the helmet market with a range of high-end performance options fit for road racing, mountain biking, time trials/triathlons, and everyday cycling. Fizik planned to use its world-class production and engineering capabilities (the company is part of the Selle Royal Group, which has over 1,400 employees and manages five other cycling brands, including Crankbrothers and Brooks England). IDEO’s task was to develop an on-brand design language that would unify its new helmet line and integrate seamlessly with the sleek, modern aesthetics of the company’s other products.

The design sprint began with in-context interviews with avid and professional cyclists to learn what they wanted—and didn’t—in a helmet. Unlike other accessories, such as shoes or shorts, riders viewed helmets as a necessity rather than an exciting or aspirational purchase. They also wanted a helmet that complemented their overall style, rather than standing out, and had a flattering silhouette. Avoiding making a cyclist look like a “mushroom” was key.

‍

Different cycling styles involve varying riding postures, ranging from a dropped and horizontal position (time trial/triathlete) to an upright and vertical position (mountain biking). IDEO proposed a family of helmet designs that correspond accordingly. On the horizontal extreme, the time trial/triathlete helmet has the most fluid, organic, aerodynamic shape. A statement of refined simplicity and speed, it features minimal venting and a magnetic wrap-around visor to reduce drag that can be exchanged for the rider’s own cycling glasses.

On the vertical extreme, the mountain biking helmet features a more rugged, angular form with an adjustable brim, rectangular venting, and boxier, back-of-the-head protection. It also offers affordances for goggles, sunglass storage, a GoPro mount, and an optional integrated rear light.

In between, a compact helmet for road racing features evolutionary variations on these design extremes, with more venting as well as a front glasses holder and integrated rear light. All four helmets strike a balance between lightness, comfort, safety, and performance, embodying Fizik’s signature modern style.

In April 2025, Fizik launched all four helmet models simultaneously: Kassis (mountain biking), Kunee (trial/triathlon), Kudo, and the more aerodynamic Kudo Aero for road and gravel. The helmets were greeted with critical acclaim from the cycling world, while Virginia Tech’s independent helmet-safety research lab gave them five-star performance ratings for their strength and durability.‍

‍

Legendary cycling company Fizik was known for its high-performance bike seats and shoes, but wanted to be a fierce entrant in a challenging product category—helmets.

4

new helmet designs

1

new product category

The question tossed out at checkout has become such a common refrain that it can feel like background noise. Perhaps you say no—worn down by membership fatigue, especially for stores you rarely visit. Or perhaps you say yes, lured by a one-time signup perk, only to join the 35 percent of shoppers who say they belong to a loyalty program they’ve never used.

Nearly 80 percent of Gen Z and millennial consumers believe a high-quality digital experience is essential for loyalty programs. But these reward systems, typically built around points, discounts, or tiers, rarely reflect what the brand actually stands for. And when the behavior being rewarded feels disconnected from the brand’s promise, it creates a subtle but powerful disconnect. We think of this as brand dissonance: a type of cognitive friction between what a company claims it values and how it invites people to engage.

When we design loyalty programs at IDEO’s Play Lab, we begin by recognizing that a brand exists at the intersection of what it says about itself and how people experience it, across hundreds of small, accumulated interactions. Done well, loyalty programs don’t just reflect a brand’s values—they embody them, shaping how people experience the brand in the countless moments that add up to brand loyalty.

On a project with JetBlue, for instance, we were tasked with introducing a new premium service that could compete with first-class perks—but without undermining their mission to “bring humanity back to air travel.” Rather than replicate a tiered status model, we grounded the work in a different philosophy: speak to modes of travel, not travel classes.

We designed for different player types—offering “power-up” benefits like faster security, better access to overhead bins, and higher quality food and beverage options. These upgrades honored JetBlue’s inclusive ethos and resonated more with the airline’s loyal passengers.

The result? The new offerings, introduced in 2011, drove its EvenMore line of perks, generating $230 million per year, with a 30 percent annual growth rate, and increasing revenue per customer by 20 percent. That success didn’t come from gamification for its own sake—it came from building a loyalty experience that reflected JetBlue’s values and aligned with travelers’ intrinsic motivations.

Designing for the next generation of consumers brings added complexity, as brands must account for shifting behaviors, rising expectations, and evolving definitions of loyalty. Programs that feel overly transactional or inaccessible often fall flat. Younger, digitally native audiences are highly discerning and research nearly every product online before buying—not just to find the best deal, but also to assess whether a brand aligns with their values and feels worth supporting. They gravitate toward brands that feel authentic, expressive, and purpose-driven. Think REI Co-op or Trader Joe’s. Earning their loyalty means creating experiences that reflect who they are and who they aspire to be—rather than how much they spend.

That’s where game design offers a powerful blueprint. The best programs go beyond transactions, building ecosystems of engagement that give people agency, align with their intrinsic motivations, and evolve over time. Not to be confused with basic gamification, which adds a superficial layer of points, badges, and leaderboards as a way to incentivize customers, game-inspired programs can go deeper and reward engagement in ways that are rooted in brand values and reflective of real-life consumer behavior and identity. Here are three ways we could design a more sophisticated game approach to loyalty programs across three industries: retail, restaurants, and hospitality.

Pokémon Go for retail

Imagine the goal for your brand is to tap into self-expression, identity, culture, and community through your loyalty program. Your app could include an AR feature that lets users scan physical environments—like storefronts, catalogs, or product tags—to reveal hidden offers, collect digital rewards, or unlock exclusive quests. Shoppers could level up based on their interests or shopping style (e.g., “Sustainable Shopper" or "Sneakerhead"), earning rewards that reflect their values and deepen their connection to the brand. Think Pokémon Go meets personalized product discovery.

Gamify the wait at restaurants

Every parent dreads the restless stretch between sitting down at a restaurant and the food arriving. It’s often when screen time rules go out the window—and then backfire when the meal arrives and a tantrum ensues as you try to pry the screens away. Now imagine you operate a chain of family-friendly restaurants. When families are seated, they can scan the table to unlock secret menu items or interactive mini-games that reward adventurous eaters (“no repeat dishes for two weeks”). Better yet, what if your kids could feel like they’re helping prepare the meal through a restaurant simulator game, synced to the real-time cooking process—turning wait time into a playful, immersive experience that reinforces family connection and the fun of dining out together?

Turn hotel stays into an open-ended travel adventure

Let’s say you run a hospitality brand that caters to travelers who care about connection, creativity, and belonging—not only price or convenience. Imagine if guests could earn recognition beyond the number of nights they stay, reflecting how they make travel a part of their lives. Like the cozy game of Animal Crossing, rewards are given to players for consistently returning and doing small, meaningful things over time—earning recognition for sending postcards, documenting hidden gems to help fellow travelers, or simply enjoying breakfast in bed. Each stay becomes a chapter in their story, where they can log snippets of music, photos, journal entries, and even scents as mementos to savor and relive later. Over time, their loyalty profile becomes a rich, emotional artifact of their journey and identity as a traveler—not just a status tier.

Gaming culture has reshaped how people shop, connect, and stay loyal to brands. The most effective loyalty programs operate like games: they offer agency, build a sense of progression, and create emotional resonance. Grounded in a brand’s core promise, they reward behaviors that reflect what the brand truly stands for and show up in the everyday moments that matter. And while they’re inspired by game design, they don’t need to look like games to make people want to keep playing.

So let’s build something better. Let’s co-create the future of loyalty—one that feels like a game your customers actually want to keep playing.

“Are you a member of our rewards program?”

On the one hand, product development processes are built for good reason: They bring structure, reduce risk, and ensure that what goes to market is feasible and viable. I’ve seen this firsthand across various industries, including mobility, real estate, home goods, and consumer products. Rigor is essential when you’re investing in a launch.

But here’s the rub: Those same processes that build confidence often constrain the ambiguity and risk that innovation demands. Design thinking is often touted as the solution, a concise methodology to inject creativity. But how does that square with a stage-gate model built to de-risk and control?

Is it a matter of choosing one or the other? Or is there a way to bridge the gap?

Here’s how one team figured it out.

The familiar question

“How can we integrate design thinking into our product development process?”

It’s a question I’ve heard many times in my career, and this time, it came from an engineer I was coaching on the R&D team at the headquarters of a globally renowned retailer in China.

The team leader had an ambitious vision: leverage their proximity to China’s robust supply chain and dynamic consumer market to build the world’s leading retail R&D center. A critical step was enhancing the engineers’ creativity and critical thinking skills, moving them beyond task execution toward collaborating more closely with their cross-functional partners to design solutions that meet real consumer needs.

That’s where IDEO came in. Building on an earlier innovation project, we embedded designers as advisors and coaches directly into their product development process.

In one of our sessions, the engineers had mapped out their four key development stages on a whiteboard:

• concept discovery
  
  
• product development
  
  
• product qualification
  
  
• launch
  
  

They had also been taught that design thinking contains four key steps.

“Maybe there’s a one-to-one match?” one engineer asked, hoping I could align each development stage with a corresponding design thinking step.

It was a reasonable guess, but not quite how design thinking works.

‍

Getting past process

That day’s focus was prototyping and testing. At first glance, it seemed to align with the third stage of their product development process: product qualification.

“How does IDEO do prototyping and testing?” they asked. “At what stage should we use it? What role does it play?”

Instead of jumping into an explanation, I suggested an experiment.

“Let’s forget about process labels for a moment,” I said. “Write down all the questions you want to explore through prototyping, regardless of which stage or methodology they supposedly belong to.”

Before long, each engineer had a handful of sticky notes with their questions written on them.

“Now map these to your actual development stages based on when you’d naturally ask them.”

When they placed their questions across all four stages of their product development process, something clicked. They could suddenly see that design thinking wasn’t competing with their process.

“Can this product store spices?” belonged in the early concept discovery phase, where prototyping could help define the product.

“Does the product stay stable during movement?” fit into the product qualification phase, where prototyping could test structural performance.

Prototyping was clearly valuable across all stages. 

The same is true for all the other so-called steps of design thinking: finding inspiration in consumer needs, translating needs into design opportunities, and generating concepts. They’re not fixed stages to complete in order; they’re ways of thinking and working that help teams ask better questions, explore possibilities, and make informed decisions, regardless of where they are within their own internal processes.

A mindset shift, not a process replacement

Back to the original question: “How can we integrate design thinking into our product development process?”

The answer, it turns out, isn’t about fitting one process into another.

Through the sticky note exercise, the engineers understood that design thinking and product development aren’t competing methodologies. Design thinking could add value by bringing curiosity, questioning, testing, and making ideas tangible throughout their existing process.

This insight shaped our collaboration model: embedding consultation sessions into real projects rather than trying to overhaul their established ways of working. We weren’t disrupting cross-department collaboration or the high-stakes requirements of mass production. We were expanding the potential for innovation and experimentation within their existing framework.

The results are still unfolding, but the engineers are already applying design thinking mindsets to ask meaningful questions, explore solutions, and test ideas, helping them think more expansively, make thoughtful trade-offs, and push concepts further.

That’s the bridge between structure and creativity: not new processes, but new ways of thinking within the ones you already have. Practiced over time, those habits make innovation both sustainable and rigorous.

‍

“The Making of...” is a series of behind-the-scenes articles written by IDEO Shanghai designers about our innovation methods and work with major clients across industries in China.

As companies grow and their internal processes mature, the concept of innovation can start to feel like a contradiction.

Over the past decade, particularly through two pregnancies and deliveries, I have learned to navigate and deeply appreciate the complex network of healthcare providers and services that comprise the NHS.

I am far from alone in that deep appreciation. In England, the NHS is a national obsession. It determines election campaigns, shapes the budget, and perhaps most importantly, colors how we think about and act on our health. But alongside that feeling of national pride is an understanding that the institution is under far too much strain. There are currently 6.34 million people waiting for NHS treatment. Cutting waiting lists by making better use of the private sector is front and center of the Prime Minister’s latest NHS proposals. It is a top priority for the government as it looks to deliver on a promise to ensure that 92 percent of patients in England wait no longer than 18 weeks for treatment.

Over dinner recently, a close friend asked me: “You’re a designer. If you were going to fix the NHS, where would you start?”

My answer: “Anywhere but the NHS.”

The NHS is a world-class problem fixer. An emergency and acute care service that kicks into gear when we need it most. However, the NHS cannot purify the air we breathe, encourage us to move more, improve our relationships with others, help us develop healthy working patterns, or change the food we eat. To preserve our health, we need to address the causes of preventable lifestyle diseases like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease at their source.

That means turning to the spaces where our health must be built, maintained, and nurtured. Our workplaces, our schools, our communities, our supermarkets. That’s why the best way to improve the NHS actually lies outside of it.

Rethinking the way we generate health in the UK might sound ambitious, but for a designer who has focused on health for 20 years, it is very clearly the right brief.

So, where might we start?

1. Paint a new picture of health

My mentor, IDEO founder David Kelley, used to say, “Paint a picture of the future with your idea in it.” This is where design excels. We need to imagine a future where health thrives outside of healthcare settings, a future where preventable illnesses are dramatically reduced, and people live longer, healthier lives.

Imagine a future where waiting lists for heart surgery are a thing of the past, not because the NHS has magically become more efficient, but because fewer people need surgery in the first place. Or where at-home cancer screening frees up time for healthcare workers, and gives patients more control over their own health. One of our clients, Teal Health, partnered with us to create safe and accurate cervical cancer screenings that would allow patients to collect their own samples at home, giving them more agency over their own health.

Or consider mental health. Across the UK and the US, children and young people are in crisis. In California alone, more than 284,000 youth cope with major depression. Sixty-six percent of kids with depression do not receive treatment. Between 2019 and 2020, the suicide rate for kids ages 10-18 increased by 20 percent. These numbers are shocking. Imagine a future where children, their families, and schools had easy access to tools designed to combat those mental health challenges. This was the vision driving IDEO’s collaboration with Kooth, the State of California, and cohorts of young Californians to create Soluna, a digital mental health resource kids could access anywhere, anytime.

To drive a step change in the state of our health in the UK, we must allow ourselves to rethink the ways in which we keep ourselves and our families healthy. The National Health Service cannot be our sole partner in this endeavor.

2. Break taboos and engage in hard conversations

Taking health beyond the hospital will require us to confront awkward topics—conversations which we have become used to leaving at the door of the doctor’s office. We need to learn how to talk about menstruation, aging, mental health, and—dare I say it —poo, out in the open.

By normalizing these discussions and listening with empathy, we can begin to uncover the human challenges that impact our health, opening up opportunities for new products and services that improve health and drive economic growth.

Menopause is a great example. In our work with QVC, we learned that nearly 40 percent of menopausal women are being prescribed antidepressants to help manage their symptoms, despite four out of five describing the treatment as “inappropriate.” We also heard that nine out of 10 British menopausal women feel society and brands overlook them. Recognizing that its customer demographic makes QVC uniquely positioned to surface conversations and provide support to those dealing with menopause, the video commerce retailer partnered with IDEO to determine how it could not only meet customer needs but also flip the conversation about midlife, reframing it as a time of vibrancy and exploration.

3. Fix incentives to combat health pollution

The true financial cost to society of excessive sugar, saturated fats, and pollution is largely hidden. The sticker price is nothing compared to the cost of lost productivity, medicines, procedures, and NHS waiting lists they create.

Policy makers need to inspire innovative new alternatives and reward manufacturers who can create attractive products that do not come at the expense of our health.

In the US, an organization called Eat Real is working to scale access to nutritious, sustainable foods through healthier meal programs in public schools. Almost 30 million children in the US rely on public school lunches for more than 50 percent of their daily caloric intake, but these meals are often comprised of ultra-processed, unsustainable foods. IDEO collaborated with Eat Real to develop its branding and messaging in order to reach a new set of food philanthropists and scale their impact.

4. Be radically collaborative

Once we relinquish the notion that the healthcare system is solely responsible for our health, we are free to design a new system of collaborative forces to promote, maintain, and foster good health. What opportunities might we unlock if we brought together food producers, educators, employers, city planners, tech leaders, and content creators to co-design a new approach to health with policymakers? Already, some public/private partnerships have led to change. A few years ago, IDEO partnered with the NHS’s health tech unit and a company called Public Digital to create a suite of digital resources that enabled organizations across the NHS to transform their own services, allowing them to provide mental health support for the most vulnerable children and young people.

The opportunities extend far beyond the NHS

A healthier society is more productive and pays more taxes. It requires less healthcare funding and is less poverty-stricken. It can help us all to live happier, more fulfilling lives.

The tensions getting in our way—the short-term incentives to sell unhealthy products, reduce environmental regulations, and the challenge of breaking unhealthy habits—do not necessarily require a revolution in medical technology or vast sums of money to resolve.

They require a designer’s toolkit. A willingness to imagine a different approach to health in the public and private sectors, the courage to talk about health in the open, a realignment of incentives, and the willingness to experiment.

They also present a huge opportunity for any organization interested in building a business centered on improved health outcomes.

It’s time to take our health out of the hospital.

When I relocated from the US to the UK ten years ago, one of the biggest differences I experienced was my sudden access to the publicly funded National Health Service (NHS).

But in the middle of last week’s Signals of TEDAI event at IDEO’s San Francisco studio, where we explored the worth and value of AI in the future workplace and what corporations can learn about leveraging IP from battles currently playing out in the art world, Pat Pataranutaporn, technologist and researcher at the MIT Media Lab, surprised the panel he was on with a far more critical question: “What is AI doing to us?”

Focus on physical, in-person experiences, because that is what people will value.

As technology becomes easier to manipulate through deepfakes, AI-generated content, and misinformation, it will become increasingly difficult to distinguish what is real—and what is not. In that world, Tim Chang, a Venture Partner at Mayfield, argued that human connection may become our most reliable source of truth—and our only form of authentic experience. “Within a year or two, anything digitally created and transmitted will not be fundamentally trustable,” he said. “The only thing I count on is when I see you in person.” In a future where digital content can no longer be taken at face value, people may once again become the most trusted interface.

So, how can these two worlds stop competing and start to enhance one another? Authentic experiences and intelligent technology. Human intimacy and boundless connectivity. The next generation of social networks may not be entirely analog, but neither will they exist solely on our screens.

Why do tech companies get to change the rules?

Speakers like Ed Newton-Rex, founder of Fairly Trained, a non-profit certifying generative AI companies for fairer training data practices, and Amy Karle, an artist and futurist, critiqued the corporate appropriation of artists’ work under the guise of “fair use,” calling out the tech industry’s tendency to shift foundational norms (like copyright protections) without democratic consent. Newton-Rex pointed out that for years, “No AI companies trained their commercial models on copyrighted work without asking permission, because everyone knew it was illegal.” But now that several high-profile companies are doing it anyway, and reaping financial rewards, others are rushing to do the same. “We're doing a very, very bad job of holding those companies to account,” he said.

But we all know tech companies have been undervaluing artists for decades. Spotify pays artists between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream, meaning an artist needs approximately 250 streams to earn just one dollar. In 2015, Google won a 10-year battle with the Authors Guild to display excerpts of works without compensating the creators. The current AI conversation pours gasoline on these precedents. And unless we want to upheave society and consider more radical concepts like universal basic income for artists, as Alvin Wang Graylin posited, tech companies need to change the way they value art and artists; not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because creatives have always helped design the future of technology. We can't have great tech without creatives, and creativity won’t evolve without great tech. There should be mutual benefits for both parties involved in the process.

“Artificial intelligence is not artificial and it’s not intelligent.”

Ovetta Sampson, founder and owner of Right AI, reminded us that AI is only as strong as the people who shape it—and in many cases, they are the marginalized people behind the scenes who are exploited to moderate, clean, and categorize the training data. It’s something we explored back in 2020, when we were working with Mozilla on the consequences of the Surveillance Economy. Back then, we found that “invisible practices enable invisible human exploitation” via the role of mechanical turks. Current LLM practices are similar; that labor is not artificial.

As responsible designers seeking a less biased and more equitable model, we must find ways to shed light on those exploited communities and educate users and organizations on the importance of diversity and transparency in the system.

“Who are the designers?”

Over and over, panelists emphasized that designers must get AI right and create products and systems that meet real human needs while minimizing damaging consequences. Then Rashida Hanif, Founding CEO of RepresentEd, asked a seemingly simple yet fundamental question: “Who are the designers?”

If we consider the scale of impact that “design” will have in this space, then we need to dial up the importance of some of design’s most talked-about shortcomings: diversity, equity, and inclusion. Another interesting moment arose when Chang and Hanif pointed out that too often, the consternation over a lack of female-owned startups overlooks the lack of investment in female founders—not to mention gaps in education and support systems that exist before they even reach that stage. This gender chasm is just the tip of one iceberg. But we need to learn from our past and remember that, “if you invite someone to the table, it’s too late… because you’ve already built the table.” As a design community, we need to do better.

“The revolution has to start, and it has to start with you.”

Sampson reminded us of the most important point of all. It’s easy to say, “the designers need to…” But we all have a say in making this future. “We really need to participate in the AI revolution and not accept the narrative that is given to us by the tech bros,” she said. “We have the resources and the access, and it’s up to us to make the future we’re asking for.”

For us, that’s a future that understands there is no choice between human creativity and technology; and it’s a refrain we’re hearing over and over. We heard it at Figma's AI-heavy Config conference, we've explored it with clients like Ethiqly, and it was clearly resounding in this conversation, for technologists, artists, and business folks alike. AI is going to be able to do a lot, and yes, of course, it will replace jobs and upend entire industries. But its intelligence will only be truly valuable when it’s paired with human creativity to create meaningful human experiences.

So many people are putting so much work (and money) into figuring out what we are going to do with AI.

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.