Sealy and IDEO first collaborated in 2008, to rethink the design of its Stearns & Foster line. For years, Sealy, the largest mattress manufacturer in the world, had taken the standard industry approach to selling mattresses and watched market share and sales flatten; it knew something had to change. Stearns & Foster evolved from a single product design into a keystone for transforming the organization.

IDEO helped Sealy use actionable consumer insights to develop a scalable design methodology and new brand principles, which it applied to product design, operational and manufacturing decision-making processes, and sales and marketing strategy. This “brand-to-product” framework was subsequently used for three separate and consecutive product launches—Stearns & Foster, Embody, and Posturepedic—resulting in an overhaul of 85 percent of Sealy’s mattress portfolio.

Tempur-Pedic was already working with IDEO on a new mattress design when it acquired Sealy in 2013. It was also interested in how design thinking and human-centered design could improve its business. Once solely focused on the technological elements of designing a mattress, together with IDEO, Tempur-Pedic redesigned the outer shells of its mattresses to reflect the quality on the inside. This design change led to the company to look at new ways to infuse design into their products.

“The initial project was to design the mattress,” said Thomas Overthun, associate partner and design director at IDEO. “But the second project was to create a whole design language from the mattress out to what it meant for any other product, from pillows to blankets and other accessories. It eventually became bigger than just the mattress.”

Working on the Tempur-Pedic/Sealy relationship has been gratifying, said IDEO partner and design director Michael Hendrix, because although home goods can be thought of as simply products, nothing could be further from the truth. IDEO and Tempur-Pedic/Sealy changed the course of the mattress company's business through the transformative power of designing where, and ultimately how, people sleep. And in the process, the organization itself changed as well, moving siloed departments to cross-functional teams, with the brand division central to their cooperation, which led to consistent and aligned decisions across the board.

Some of the projects include:

Stearns & Foster Luxury Mattress
Sealy teamed up with IDEO to develop a design language for Stearns & Foster mattresses that would reestablish what the brand stood for. Through redefining brand principles and rounds of prototypes that focused on evocative details, the new Stearns and Foster mattress was the highest rated in Sealy’s portfolio since it started keeping records, and initial retailer orders were three times what management projected.

Next-Generation Posturepedic
An icon in the mattress industry was brought into the 21st century by developing a new product that delivered on the long-running promise of the brand. Together, IDEO and Sealy designed a product that focused on holistic back health. In its earnings report, the company said US bedding sales for the quarter were up 10.6 percent, to $253.4 million, a figure driven by the new product line’s introduction. According to Sealy’s Q3 earnings report, the Posturepedic launch represented the largest and fastest rollout in the company’s history.

Embody by Sealy
The project began by defining the market opportunities for all-foam beds, and ended with the modern, streamlined Embody mattress as well as a simplified design language, free of industry jargon, to help retailers talk about the mattress to customers. “Sealy collaborated with IDEO to create an approachable and attractive mattress that delivers the simple, healthy rest consumers want with a selling story they can easily understand,” said Jodi Allen, Sealy’s Chief Marketing Officer.

Tempur-Pedic Sleep System
Best known for the revolutionary, NASA-proven Tempur material inside its mattresses, Tempur wanted to transform the exterior of its mattresses to match the caliber of innovation inside. Together with IDEO, Tempur created a new sleep system, including an easily removable and washable fabric mattress cover. “Tempur-Pedic was born of innovation, but we were never a design-driven company until we worked with IDEO,” said Patrice Varni, senior vice president of brand marketing, Tempur Sealy North America, LLC. “Seeing consumer need in a new way through IDEO’s eyes has transformed us. Our product design, our creative psyche, our brand are all fundamentally changed by this sharper focus. This collaboration has given us all a renewed sense of pride.”

The challenge of how we’ll feed the exploding world population in the future—in a sustainable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly way—is seeding an agricultural revolution in Europe.

In 2012, INFARM founders Erez, Guy Galonska, and Osnat Michaeli found that vertical farms could be a solution to urban self-sufficiency. These farms could allow people to grow vegetables and herbs in small spaces, with no soil and far less water.

An approach that’s captured the imagination of futurists for decades, vertical farming involves growing vegetables and herbs in stacked units or inclined surfaces, within which moisture, light, temperature, and nutrients are monitored, and controlled.

After creating their first vertical farming experiment in their apartment in Berlin, the founders brought together plant scientists and industrial designers to explore and develop vertical farming’s potential.

Since then, the startup has created custom growing systems for clients including Airbnb, Mercedes-Benz, and Weber. Most recently, INFARM installed a vertical farm growing herbs and vegetables at the Berlin branch of German supermarket chain Metro, the fourth-largest retail chain in the world, to sell to the public. It’s been profiled in Wired Germany, Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Guardian, and Zeit.

INFARM collaborated with IDEO to further explore their B2B offer, including concepts for the industrial design of the stackable, modular, climate-controlled units; the interaction design of an accompanying app to monitor and control the units, and its business model.

Urban farmers will sign up for “farming as a service,” comprising the units themselves, as well as a monthly subscription for seeds, cartridges filled with nutrients, and a pH regulator. Because they’re stackable, the modules can be scaled to suit anyone from a home grower to a restaurant chef or supermarket owner. And Erez claims a 1 square meter growing tray can yield four to six mature plants every day, 365 days a year, doubling that of state-of-the-art hydroponic greenhouses.

As well as remotely regulating each unit’s climate, the app will educate growers about new vegetables and herbs, selling packs of complementary seeds, with suggested recipes for them, and cooking instructions. Aiming to promote biodiversity, the firm will sell rare-breed and heirloom seeds too.

The startup has funding from the EU’s European Pioneers fund, and is now looking to secure investment to accelerate software development and ramp up their hardware production capabilities. Quite literally, it's growing its business.

Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational group that revolutionized children’s television with the launch of the landmark Sesame Street program in 1969. The show, which has since become a household name, is now watched in more than 150 countries worldwide. The Workshop also creates educational content for new media platforms, and partnered with IDEO to design a line of Sesame Street–themed apps for Apple’s iPhone. The Elmo Calls app, which functions as a utility app for parents and as an entertaining behavioral-development app for kids, is now one of the Top 100 paid iPhone apps in the iTunes store.

The collaboration began with a mutual desire to bring the show’s beloved characters to the iPhone platform—and to do so using a human-centered design approach. Child-development experts, educators, toy and interaction designers, and even the Sesame Street puppeteers weighed in on the design decisions. The team also worked closely with families throughout the project—from initial concepts to early prototyping to the final development—in order to stay focused on how children actually use the iPhone for play. The games were designed accordingly. For example, the team omitted menus from the Sesame Street apps to keep the experiences simple, playful, and fun for a young child. And each game features exclusive new Sesame Street videos, allowing players to enjoy “lean back” moments along with interactive ones.

The resulting iPhone applications let children engage with the favorite Sesame Street characters in a whole new way. Kids touch, shake, swipe, and tilt their way through original games featuring Elmo, Grover, Bert, Rosita, and the Count.

The titles, all of which are available from iTunes, include:

• Elmo Calls: Engages 2- to 5-year-olds in listening-skills practice and active participation during everyday situations.
• Elmo’s Monster Maker: Allows kids to create unique monster friends that dance and play with Elmo.
• Sesame Street Video Maker: Lets kids star in their own music videos, mashing recordings of themselves with popular Sesame music videos and adding their own stamps and special effects.
• Sesame Street Makes Music: Helps kids explore an array of instruments as they contribute to new renditions of classic preschool tunes with their Sesame friends.

How do you know when you’re successful in your work? You can check off a list of technical skills and expertise you bring to the table. You can use a career development rubric to make sure you’re hitting the right goals. But often, it’s your behaviors—the intangibles that are the most difficult to articulate—that make the most impact. Things like your ability to stay optimistic or your willingness to adapt when there’s no roadmap.

Because of the nature of our work at IDEO, these intangibles are a big part of what defines the experience of working at the company. So in 2012, a global team of designers from our U.S., Europe, and Asia offices came together to codify these values and behaviors as part of a larger effort to evolve IDEO’s career development platform. More often than not, when IDEOers hit road bumps in their career, it was not about what they were doing, but how they were doing it.

The team agreed that, in addition to identifying the technical requirements needed to progress through one’s career, it was just as crucial to give IDEOers the tools they need to navigate the complex culture. So they captured the values they believed were foundational to the culture and most strongly shared across the IDEO community, and put them to paper in The Little Book of IDEO. The title is meant to reflect its purpose for readers—a handbook that’s compact, useful, and free of any corporate jargon.

For IDEO-ers, this red cloth-bound guide provides a shared lexicon around both the hard and soft skills we need to succeed. It describes things like why IDEO is so loosely structured, where it comes from, and where it’s headed.

Most importantly, the book identifies the organization’s seven core values. These are by design specific, actionable, and integral to the kind of work we do and the environment in which we do it, going beyond common sense and general ethical practice. The intention: to foster meaningful conversations within the community about life at IDEO, and how to achieve success along the way. With each succinct expression comes a deeper explanation of why it matters, and how it shapes our experience at IDEO.

Over the years, the book has been roundly embraced by the IDEO community as an honest articulation of who we are, as opposed to what we aspire to be, and what we appreciate most about working together. When IDEOers first got their hands on it, a movement took shape to create videos that bring each of the core values to life. To depict the value of "Embracing Ambiguity," for example, New York-based designers built a makeshift cardboard rowboat, and while simulating a storm, navigated their way through uncharted territory with teamwork and optimism. San Francisco produced a Jacques Cousteau inspired look at the lifestyle and behaviors of designers in their natural collaborative habitat.

Through the process of making the videos, IDEOers came together to reflect on each of the values, talking through what resonated and what didn’t. It gave them a sense of ownership, and a platform through which to share their interpretations.

A Global Conversation

IDEO has a global presence—offices in two countries in Europe, two countries in Asia, and multiple locations across the U.S. As an organization that embraces a human-centered culture, it felt important to learn if the values resonated with the IDEO community in all of these locations, especially in a country like China, whose working culture is so different from the west. We saw the authenticity and resonance of the values as essential for attracting, motivating, and retaining local talent.

So how did The Little Book of IDEO land in Shanghai? Exploring this question would illuminate insights into how our own clients are often challenged to keep their company culture resonant within the global landscape.

A team of IDEOers in our Shanghai office took on the challenge of exploring the meaning behind each of the values. They were surprised with what they discovered—that despite the firm’s Western origins, locals felt largely connected to the values. It even helped to further solidify their identity as a community, even if it may have been in tension with local working culture, because it was rooted in a set of shared beliefs.

In some instances, the Shanghai team built on the existing values in order to refine the meaning for the local context. For example, the core value "Be Optimistic" rings true, but could sound naive when translated directly to Chinese, implying "rose-tinted glasses.” So in the Mandarin edition, an extra phrase was added to convey the measuredness we mean when we talk about optimism at IDEO. The lesson here: The treatment of something as fundamental and nuanced as our values requires authenticity and emotional connection, and therefore more of a transcreation process than straight translation.

Lasting Power

As an organization, we are designed to be flexible. This means we’re always changing—even when it comes to how we are structured—so that we can respond to the kinds of challenges that clients come to us for. In the midst of our constant evolution, The Little Book of IDEO is as resonant today as it was when it was published.

Take a look at ChatGPT or other generative AI systems, and you’ll notice they look a lot like a Google search bar.

We’re still in the awkward, early phases of AI, where the technology is so new, the only way people have figured out how to interact with it is a way they’re already familiar with—even if it doesn’t make the most of the new technology. (ChatGPT itself admits its interface wasn’t designed with users in mind.)

Given where we are in the evolution of the technology, we decided to imagine new models for how we would want to interact with A.I. We borrowed a little inspiration from the Joaquin Phoenix movie Her, about a man who falls in love with the operating system in his phone, and the concept of calm technology, which is unobtrusive and embedded in our everyday lives, to come up with seven ideas for AI interaction paradigms we’d like to see in the world. There was only one rule: no chatbots. (Spoiler: We broke the rule.)

Here’s what we came up with.

1. Neverending Story Book: AI-generated bedtime stories 

This hardware device uses generative AI to always tell a new tale—and one that users can help shape. While some inputs are constrained, like the genre knobs, the subject matter open input box can accommodate as much creativity as the user can produce. This combination of constrained and flexible inputs provides guardrails for how users are meant to interact with the device, and by extension generative AI.

2. Tamaglitchi: An AI pet, embodied

It’s about time somebody made a pet with an off button. Tamaglitchi uses models trained on thousands of hours of dog and cat noises, behaviors, and interactions with humans to create an experience that is so close to having an actual pet, your parents can’t say no. (A prototype to meow at, via Character.AI.)

3. Portals: Handheld, AI-enabled circular lens that enhances connections

With so many devices that command our attention and pull us away from our physical environment, Portals are windows that allow us to refocus on the people in our lives and the natural world. Leaning into the passthrough quality of augmented reality, Portals allow users to capture memories and style inspiration in real time with minimal disruption to their field-of-view. Using machine learning models, Portals provide users with valuable social nudges and additional context to objects, people, and places in their environment.

‍

4. RemixRemote: Custom entertainment content on demand

The future of personalized entertainment: When you have a specific amount of time available and an inkling of what you might like to watch, you can generate something that meets your specific needs. The RemixRemote uses generative AI to create unique content tailored to your taste and time availability. Collect ideas of what you’re interested in, then press down on the voice input dial to describe qualitative aspects of your inspiration. Pressed for time? Each turn of the dial cuts (or adds) 15 minutes to your content’s duration, making sure you can fit this into your schedule.

‍

5. Collective Sentiment Mirror: An installation that summarizes conversations 

This AI will gauge the conversations in a room and spatially map them in an installation in the ceiling. Each person is represented by a glowing dot, and as they interact with other people, interconnections between the dots grow. Opt-in poetry: The ceiling can also generate poetic summaries, picking up nouns or a single word based on the conversations happening in the space. 

‍

6. Scent Capture: Meet the eNose

eNoses digitize odors using a graph neural network. Once scent is recorded, scent capture will organize, tag, and combine smells to create AI-generated scents as unique as you. Relive your experiences by sending your custom scent profiles to be translated into physical forms like perfumes, candles, and essential oils.

And for the last one, we tossed out the rulebook, leaning into chatbots.

‍

7. ArticulateGPT: An LLM that reduces articulation barriers

ArticulateGPT seeks to address one of the biggest issues users face today: their ability to translate their thoughts into words. It gives users options for what to say, so they don’t have to deal with the paralysis of a blank slate. But it’s not just to help with speech or written communication; users can flow between multiple media types, like text, code, imagery, video, audio, and even 3-D. 

How do you want to interact with A.I.? We’d love to hear from you: ai@ideo.com

Special thanks to Grishma Rao, Neal Boyer, and Ceci Gomez for their work in coming up with these concepts. 

When humans design paradigm-shifting technologies, they often create a similar interaction model as the technologies that came before.

He made a plea: “I need your help. If you have looked at computers, they look like garbage. All the great product designers are off designing automobiles or buildings … People are going to spend more time interacting with these machines than they do interacting with automobiles today.”

Jobs foresaw a future where those machines—computers—would be central to our lives. But he also knew that if mass adoption was to happen, they’d need to make them more beautiful, intuitive, and delightful. In other words, more desirable. 

So what does that have to do with the climate crisis? 

Climate solutions already exist. Whether based in nature or in state-of-the-art technologies, we have the means to halve emissions in the next decade. But if we are to avoid the most dire consequences of climate change, these solutions must be adopted much faster, in more places, by many more governments, businesses, and people.

The climate crisis is a technology challenge, an investment challenge, and a regulatory challenge. But it is also a crisis of adoption, where we need to accelerate the uptake of climate strategies, solutions, and jobs. Fast.

The climate crisis is also a crisis of adoption.

Just as happened with computers in the 1980s, public interest in sustainable solutions is growing, but has not yet reached mass appeal. It makes sense: When was the last time you saw a house that looked better with the addition of solar panels? Or a community excited to install wind power in their backyard?

Desirability can help. What if regenerative agriculture could be a simpler business for farmers and a more affordable option for people? What if alternative meats tasted demonstrably better than a burger made of beef? What if repairing something you already have could be as much of a thrill as buying something new?

Since our early days, IDEO has centered people’s needs and desires—often hidden or latent—in how we think about design. Over time, that work has extended into helping the world’s leading companies make sustainability desirable, from designing electric cars with Ford, or removing waste from H&M’s supply chain, to helping Conservation International design strategies that protect natural resources.

We see three ways design can make the greatest impact toward accelerating and scaling effective climate action. Each supports our central thesis: The climate crisis is a human crisis. If we want businesses and people to make a climate-positive choice, make sure it’s a desirable choice.

1. Create compelling future visions, especially for leaders.

‍Nobody is willing to embrace the pain of change unless they see potential for a better future on the other side—including both new opportunities and ways to avoid loss. We see leaders experience a symphony of emotions over the course of climate-centered work, from denial to acceptance to purpose. That angst is the hallmark of a shifting mental model—from seeing sustainability as a business constraint to seeing it as an opportunity for growth. Futuring—the craft of creating informed and plausible visions of the future—is a key design tool to help that process along. When leaders explore potential futures, they realize they can’t opt out of the climate crisis, and start to see the extraordinary potential of the moment they’re in.

2. Design iconic products, services, and experiences, specifically for the Climate Era.

The competitive advantage of the future will be enjoyed by companies that thrive within planetary boundaries. The pressure is coming from constraints on resources, more stringent regulation, and shifts in public sentiment. But that’s an opportunity too: to make iconic things that could only be designed in, and for, the Climate Era.

One example: The Ford F-150 is currently America’s best-selling truck. IDEO helped Ford design its latest edition: the electric F-150 Lightning, which has been described as the best version of the truck. Here’s why: The Lightning has more power and torque than any of its predecessors and more electric sockets than the average apartment. When there’s an emergency, like the catastrophic storm that hit Texas a couple years ago, the F-150 saves the day by acting as an emergency power backup. There is also the “frunk” (a storage compartment where the internal combustion engine once was) that doubles as a cooler, and a tailgate that can be converted into a workbench for power tools, laptops, and more. Is it sustainable? For the truck owner, that’s not the point. The point is that it’s a better truck.

None of the F-150 Lightning features can be copied by a truck with an internal combustion engine. They are all creative affordances of the core technology behind the F-150 Lightning—electrification. 

In other words, in the Climate Era the goal should not be to create a sustainable version of a given product. It should be to create a far better version of a product in ways made possible because it’s sustainable. 

Ford’s F-150 Lightning is an example of an iconic Climate Era product, and it’s showing the way for the entire industry. The world needs many more.

3. Merge product innovation and sustainability into one team.

The vast majority of  sustainability-related challenges begin at the design stage, yet most of today’s efforts are focused on compliance—reducing the negative impacts of things that are already in the market. 

Transforming a business to operate within our planetary boundaries is an innovation challenge, not a reporting, marketing, or PR one. So nature-positive thinking needs to show up from the start, with innovators, designers, and technologists who are versed in sustainable strategies. Leading organizations are now hiring combined Heads of Innovation and Sustainability. 

As the decade progresses, we foresee corporations transitioning from an umbrella, organizational level of accountability—“getting to Net Zero”—to requirements and norms that operate at the level of individual products. Allbirds’ net zero shoe, Apple’s net zero watch, and the regenerative packaging solutions created by Notpla serve as early examples. The teams behind those products will inspire others and be the engines of change for our economy—and they’ll attract funding, talent, and customers faster than anyone else.

One large grain of salt: Designing for desirability is one of the reasons why we’re in this mess. 

Design has fuelled mass consumption of disposable goods. Can the force that helped create the problem be redirected to help solve it? We believe it can and it must.

Government policy and private and public investment create the conditions that push the adoption of climate solutions, but it’s desire that creates the pull. That’s why making climate solutions desirable is a critical piece of the climate action puzzle. Push and pull. We need both.  

Back in 1984, Jobs closed his speech to designers with this: 

"We at Apple feel that … we are at the right place at the right time to put something back. [M]ost of us didn’t make the clothes we’re wearing, and we didn’t cook or grow the food we eat … We are constantly taking.

The ability to put something back into the pool of human experience is extremely neat. I think that everyone knows that in the next ten years we have the chance to really do that. And we will look back and say ‘God, we were a part of that!’”

Especially in industrialized regions, like Europe and North America, we built our lives and economies around taking whatever we wanted from the planet.

It’s long past time to stop taking. We have to put something back. And that means redesigning much of our world to meet the demands of the Climate Era, and to do it within our lifetimes.

Change at such a scale can only happen fast if it’s what people want.

In other words, it’s time to make better things … because it’s a way we can make things better.

‍

In Dubai for #COP28? Please join one or more of the IDEO Climate Lab sessions, where we’ll explore these questions in greater depth.

‍If you want to know more about IDEO’s climate-centered work, please get in touch: climate@ideo.com.

We stole this headline from Steve Jobs. In 1984, five months after Apple introduced the first Macintosh, Jobs spoke at the International Design Conference in Aspen.

Founding Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, known to most as the d.school, was a big part of that. The goal of the d.school has always been to bring diverse disciplines together to solve problems, and to help people gain creative confidence.

But we’ve never wanted our methods and capabilities to be siloed within our walls. That’s why I’m so proud to share the collection of design guide books the d.school has published, written by colleagues and friends with whom I’ve had the opportunity to work and teach. To give you a sense of what you can find in them, I’ve asked the editors at IDEO to spotlight some of the things they particularly liked, so that we could have the pleasure of sharing them with the broader community. I am giving them as holiday gifts this year and our friends at Porchlight Books are offering a special discount  if you want to do the same. Enjoy!

—David Kelley

‍

The Secret Language of Maps by Carissa Carter

Whatever you think this book might look like, get ready for a surprise. Instead of a dry how-to, Carissa Carter, the academic director at the d.school, opens her book with the first chapter of a murder mystery, using a set of clues to illustrate a lesson on the wide range of forms that maps can take. Cartographic formats, data exploration, and methods are woven in between the chapters, drawing on the clues and themes to not only help you solve the mystery, but also expand your definition and understanding of what maps can be, and how you can craft your own. More than a clever manual that is useful for anyone making maps or graphs, The Secret Language of Maps breaks ground on an entirely new genre of instructional storytelling.

‍

Design for Belonging by Susie Wise and Design Social Change by Lesley-Ann Noel

Together, these two books offer paths to help navigate building a more inclusive world. 

Dr. Susie Wise, the founder and former director of the K12 Lab Network at the d.school, breaks down Design for Belonging into three chunks: the feeling of belonging, the moments during which belonging occurs, and the process of shaping your context so that belonging can emerge. The first chunk has exercises to help designers uncover what it really feels like to belong, while the second invites you to deconstruct belonging in your own life and the systems you dwell in—from the experience of entering a place of work to shopping in a grocery store, to how you share invitations with others. The final third details the design levers you can pull to engender inclusivity, from the spaces you meet in to the rituals and groupings you create—even what you choose to wear. “When people feel like they belong, they are able to be their best and do their best,” she writes.

‍

In Design Social Change, author Lesley-Ann Noel offers a roadmap for transforming social norms, structures, and behaviors. The book includes a process guide that lays out all the steps of social change, from building a team to generating ideas and refining prototypes, but also opportunities to look inward, raise critical awareness, and understand the different types of oppression in the world around you. The “Checklist for Equity in the Design Process” is a particularly useful tool for designers to check their assumptions, ensure that they’ve considered all the stakeholders, and think through the consequences of their designs, while “Strategies for Thriving in the Face of Hostility” offers helpful methods for anyone trying to dismantle systems of oppression.

‍

You Need a Manifesto by Charlotte Burgess-Auburn 

Why do you need a manifesto, you ask? “In this age, where it seems like everyone is being recruited by everyone else every moment of the day, you need a way to recruit yourself to your own cause, a method for collecting and considering your own power to create and to make positive change in a world that sorely needs it,” writes Charlotte Burgess-Auburn, director of community at the Stanford d.school. What follows is a guide to composing your own manifesto, with recommendations for sources of inspiration and wisdom, thoughts on 21st Century design ethics, and even how to spread the word. Figure out what to say yes and no to, and what you want to go after by following this helpful guide.

‍

Make Possibilities Happen by Grace Hawthorne

The first page of this book declares it an “operator’s manual for you and your wits!” That includes a long list of activities to help you activate your ideas and creativity, including Duchamp-inspired exercises and visualizations, a guide to focusing on the things in your project you can actually control, and help crafting a pitch of your idea. Both a kick in the pants and a hand to hold, this book is great for folks looking to get their creativity into the world. 

‍

‍The full collection also includes: Drawing on Courage by Ashish Goel; Navigating Ambiguity by Andrea Small and Kelly Schmutte; This Is a Prototype by Scott Witthoft; Creative Hustle by Olatunde Sobomehin and sam seidel; and Experiments in Reflection by Leticia Britos Cavagnaro.

At some point in my career, I shifted from being the guy designing the thing, to the guy building the stage for others to do the work.

To make gifting a little easier, we’ve pulled together a list of IDEOers’ favorite things, from the best pens for drawing to our favorite pottery, and even a superior garbage can. We asked our Play Lab to weigh in on their favorite toys, too. So make your list, check it twice, and take a stroll through our 2023 Gift Guide.

FOR THE CRAFT

Pentel Sign Pens, $8 for a box of 12‍

Offering amazing ink flow with tips smaller than Sharpies, these pens are one of our designers’ favorite drawing tools. 

‍

Culture Hustle: Black 4.0, $49.99‍

According to the company, it’s the blackest black paint “in the known universe.” 

‍

Stanford d.school Book Collection, $128

We’re big fans of this collection of 10 design guide books, which is “designed to help you adapt to change, see things in new ways, work well with others, and peer into our collective future.” Give the whole set, or break them up—You Need a Manifesto is helpful for anyone navigating change, or running their own practice, while Design Social Change is a great guide to meeting the current moment.

‍

Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information by David Byrne, $98

EEEI not only shows that PowerPoint can be art, it contains one of our designers’ favorite definition of knowledge management

‍

Manufactum Notebooks, $18

These are small enough to fit in a pocket, but with enough pages to last you for months. 

‍

FOR THE KIDS ON YOUR LIST

Magformers, $54

The fun, fidgety way these building blocks snap together makes them perfect for kids of all ages to build all sorts of things with—and of course, smash apart! Magna-Tiles may be more popular, but we prefer Magformers with their rounded edges.

‍

Books from Ashay by the Bay

This black-owned bookstore specializes in African-American and multicultural kids books, from baby board books all the way up to novels written for teens. It’s based in Vallejo, California, but ships across the country and to Canada. 

‍

Bitzee, $25

This interactive Tamagotchi—like toy with a techie twist includes 15 cute little pets for kids to discover, nurture, evolve, and play with.

‍

COOKEEZ MAKERY Cinnamon Treatz Oven, $51

Mix the ingredients into dough, mold it into a pet, pretend to bake it in the oven, and surprise! Out pops a plush pet. The trick here is finding it—it’s incredibly popular, and comes highly recommended by the Toy Lab.  

Twister Air, $15

The one toy on our list that we helped make, Twister Air is an active, digital take on the classic game. Challenge your friends to move their hands and feet to the beat—or play solo! For an app-based game, it’s a great way to get moving. 

‍

FOR SOMETHING MORE PERSONAL

Block Shop Textiles, $145-$195

The Southern California textile, art, and design studio run by two sisters has such big fans at IDEO, we actually interviewed them to learn more about their craft. Gift ideas range from a bandana printing kit to beautifully patterned bathrobes.

‍

Monastery Skincare, $48-$293

This brand is a big favorite in IDEO’s skincare lovers’ Slack channel. Fans love it for its beautiful, luxurious texture and scent. 

‍

Anecdote Candles, $26-34

An IDEO alum is behind these scented candles that also “spark a conversation.”

‍

Casio Men's Casual Classic Digital Bracelet Watch, $22

Missing the features of a smart watch, sure, but this Casio is a classic favorite that won’t have your emails popping up on your wrist.

‍

Concha Coin Purse, $7

A sweet gift with a sweeter price point, this coin purse would make a great stocking stuffer. But if you’re looking for something bigger, Chicago’s Mestiza focuses on Latinx artisanal products, and ships around the country. 

‍

FOR THE KITCHEN

Sichuan Chili Crisp, $17

At this point, Fly By Jing’s perfectly savory, spicy, crispy condiment needs no introduction from us, so consider this a gentle reminder that delicious gifts make the best gifts. 

‍

Yes, Chef Gift Box, $46

Thrill fans of The Bear with four of Oaktown Spice Shop’s favorites, vadouvan, urfa biber, umami sea salt, and kampot peppercorns. Bay Areans can visit the store in Oakland or Albany, but it ships across the country, too. 

‍

Kinto’s Travel Tumbler, $34

One IDEOer is a big fan of Kinto’s minimalist and refined design aesthetic, and the tumbler in particular, which has held up over the years with just a few dings and dents. “ As a product designer, you really can’t argue with any detail on those products,” he says. 

‍

Mill, $33-$45 per month

Composting. Great for the planet, not always great for the smell in our kitchens. Mill is something different, a bin that dehydrates and shrinks your food scraps, and a service that picks them up. One of our designers calls it “life-changing.”

‍

FOR THE HOME

Herringbone Outdoor Scraper Door Mat, $31

This doormat is a serious defender of the cleanliness of your floors, and won’t cause a wood deck to discolor or rot.

‍

Rubbermaid Defenders Step-On Trash Can, $217

If it’s good enough for infectious waste, hopefully it can handle whatever is going on at your house. One IDEOer recommends these garbage cans for their clean, classic lines, robust construction that can handle kids and dogs, and their ability to contain smells. 

Daxue Folding Garden Lounge Chairs, $265 for two

Folding chairs aren’t known for their looks, but these wooden numbers have an attractive design, don’t hold water, and are easy for kids to climb on. 

‍

East Fork Pottery, $40-$94

The Asheville, N.C.-based ceramics company makes pottery with clays from the American Southeast, crafting everything from mugs and plates to vessels that hold candles. Check out gifts under $100, like a four-pack of bowls in panna cotta, or a mug in Henri’s red. 

‍

FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT

AI Against Humanity, $40‍

Made by a former IDEOer, this dystopian take on Cards Against Humanity puts the future of the world in your hands. It comes complete with 200 cards of technological turmoil and venture capitalist wild cards. “Get ready for a dystopian deck where Silicon Valley fantasy gets a reality-check.” 

‍

Session Bong, $185

IDEO alum Vinh Pho’s Session Goods has created award-winning glass bongs and other smoking essentials for the well-curated home. 

‍

Actually Curious Cards, $25

The original version is less a party game than a deck of cards with questions that are designed to spark conversations that help people get to know each other better. Want something more light-hearted? Go for the Happy Hour edition.

‍

Pluto Pillow, $160

Part travel pillow, part sensory deprivation tank, this product IDEO helped design will get you to your destination as well rested as anyone on a plane can be.

Wondering what to get the design-obsessed in your life this holiday season? We’ve been there.

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.