Commonwealth Bank of Australia was interested in helping customers and businesses build close connections. They believed the way to do this would be by creating richer interactions around different forms of payment. The bank approached IDEO to explore these opportunities, and the result is a new retail business platform—Pi—and a portable payment device—Albert.

Pi brings a new level of flexibility, functionality, and customization to the face-to-face interaction between a cashier and a customer, improving everything from the process of splitting the bill in a restaurant to helping a guest find more personalized experiences at a hotel.

Insights

In the team’s research in Australia, the UK, and Germany, they found a few key insights that informed the design. First, they saw that an ideal platform should support the full spectrum of human behaviors around payment. Second, platforms can add value by improving the relationships among banks, merchants, and customers. And third, the payment experience should be customized to fit a specific setting, working one way in a luxury boutique and another in a gas station.

IDEO, CBA, and Wincor Nixdorf worked together closely to steward the design of Pi And Albert through product development and implementation, and to gather feedback from merchants during rapid, iterative cycles.

Results

The platform is flexible enough to benefit organizations of all sizes: Larger merchants can incorporate Pi as part of their existing network, while smaller merchants can grow their business using powerful business tools. And customers of all kinds can easily access a variety of payment methods and helpful applications.

Albert offers a large touchscreen that’s intuitive to use, the safety of virtually encrypted PIN entry, and a variety of ways to access data connections. A large battery provides power when retailers are on the go, and a modular housing means that Albert can be used in all kinds of situations. The device is built to handle current card payment methods but can also adapt to how cards might be accepted in the future, and even eliminates the need to swivel a screen from cashier to customer during the payment process.

Forty million Americans became newly eligible for health coverage when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was fully implemented in 2014. Some enrolled in health insurance for the first time, while others were able to get better access to affordable health coverage.

In preparation for the millions of applications, states were required to develop ways for people to sign up for health insurance online for plans that were operated by state and federal governments under the ACA. To help public and private agencies to meet the requirements, a coalition of nine national and state-based foundations, led by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) developed a digital enrollment prototype, and hired IDEO to lead the consumer research and design effort.

After a yearlong collaborative process, the resulting 300-page design manual and design reference prototype illustrates a customizable approach to public and private health insurance enrollment.

The flexible set of design standards developed for Enroll UX 2014 aims to make online health insurance enrollment simple, intuitive, and easy to navigate at scale.

To encourage PhD candidates to think differently about how they tackle tough science problems, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and IDEO embarked on a fruitful collaboration.

Three PhD candidates were tasked with the following challenge: Cultivate new audiences and uses for a microscope. Drawing inspiration from cell phone microscope CellScope, the trio arrived at a prototype that was less reliant on technology and easily disassembled and reassembled. How? By using the most basic building blocks: Legos.

Made of custom 3-D-printed parts and standard toy building blocks, the LegoScope, which functions as a microscope, can easily snap pieces in and out to hold different components. Both the device and the team-based process are now being used in various other campus projects to change how researchers think about conducting and advancing scientific research.

“The best work in the future is going to be done by teams of people with very different expertise, who know different things and think about things in different ways, who come together to focus on one big problem,” said Keith Yamamoto, vice chancellor of research at UCSF, who led the initiative.

Arye Barnehama and Laura Michelle Berman wanted to take their invention—a headband that measures brain wave activity, focus, and concentration—to the next level. As a part of IDEO’s startup-in-residence program, Barnehama and Berman collaborated with IDEO on the product’s rebranding, hoping to refine and emphasize the product’s promise: When people improve their focus, they feel more mindful, confident, and productive.

With IDEO’s help, the company changed its name from Axio to Melon, delineated their brand, refined its product, developed its user experience, and prepared a Kickstarter campaign that garnered considerable press coverage. The new name, Melon, reflected the friendly, scalable character of the company. The name also suggested the intent of the product—using neuroscience data to inform a personal activity.

To distinguish Melon as a standout in the crowded quantified-self category, IDEO designers made the logo a faceted orb that references the gear-shifting mind, with “Melon” written in a distinctive font born from that same logo. The team went with fruit colors—cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon—to evoke the sweet, refreshing experience the Melon headband promises.

Together, the Melon and IDEO teams also developed an app that shows increases in concentration after performing certain tasks and features a game in which you “fold” origami through mental focus to hone concentration.

Melon’s new brand strategy and UI set it apart from your typical fitness tracker, engaging the user in an elegant, joyful, and customized experience with every interaction.

Melon: a headband and mobile app to help you measure focus.

At their core, rituals are intentional actions that follow a particular repeatable pattern. Certain words or phrases, symbolic props, and patterned movements are used to elevate everyday moments into meaningful and memorable experiences. Rituals have a unique ability to make intangible values and beliefs concrete because they bridge the mind and the body, the two ways humans process and make sense of the world. We use them all the time in religion, politics, and sports to help groups navigate change, form a shared sense of identity and purpose, and enhance performance—but we forget they can also be incredibly powerful at work.

In the past year, we’ve had a lot of time to learn about rituals for the virtual world. Some of IDEO Chicago’s favorites are featured in a new book by Stanford’s Ritual Design Lab called “Rituals for Virtual Meetings: Creative Ways to Engage People and Strengthen Relationships.” The book highlights remote rituals from companies around the world that help with focus, connection, flow, and more. Here are some of our favorites.

Embrace the cacophony

For years, all-hands Monday Lunch Meetings (MLMs) have been an important weekly ritual for sharing inspiration, information, and project work over a meal at IDEO studios across the globe. When we first entered round-the-clock remote life, presenters were faced with an intimidating, feedback-free void. It felt cold and awkward, and nothing at all like the MLMs we knew and loved.

To fix that, we identified that the MLM routine itself wasn’t enough—we needed to design moments of consistent virtual connection to revive the feeling of the shared experience. So we sped up the pace of shares, encouraged side conversations in chat, added sound effects like air horns through a creative hack using DJ software, and fully leaned into the awkward audio latency tendencies of video calls with our monthly singing of “Happy Birthday.” By embracing the cacophony, we subverted the silence and saved each other from being isolated in the void, retaining some semblance of consistency and communal spirit during an otherwise unpredictable and lonely time.

Find serendipity through structure

When we were together in our studio, we could rely on the walls and furniture to create safe boundaries and immersive experiences. But in a video room, space can feel infinite and spontaneous conversation challenging. We realized we needed to design specifically for serendipitous encounters.

One of the first events we created was the ChIDEO Variety Hour. An event inspired by improvisational, slapstick variety shows (think The Muppet Show and old telethons), it’s meant to showcase the range of talent and work being done in the studio. It feels spontaneous and whimsical thanks to two constraining factors: First, presenters sign up in advance for “on-screen time”—from as little as one minute to as long as 30. Second, two hosts write a script for the show and get robust “back of house” support from a team that monitors live technical aspects like time keeping or moderating chat.

At the first Variety Hour we had a research share from recent project work, an intermission dance party, and one minute of screaming, to name a few examples. It was the most participatory virtual event we had ever had, and Variety Hour has since become a beloved monthly ritual in our digital studio.

Make the most of digital tools

When everyone works remotely, the physical distance becomes compounded with digital invisibility. The right ritual can manufacture proximity, rebuild trust and connection, and mimic the ebb and flow of a good house party. This is where digital tools can shine.

The Breakout Room function is meant for subdividing large webinar audiences, but we asked, what if it was used for something like speed dating? Breakout Rooms can be randomized, sized in different ways, and attendees can even move between them on their own. We harness these features for an icebreaker game called “Chance Encounters of the Zoom Kind.” By randomly placing participants in different breakout rooms together, keeping the duration a surprise, and providing thought-provoking conversation prompts to break the ice, we recreated casual collisions for the digital office. In some cases, it was the first time people had seen each other since the lockdown began, and it provided much needed reconnection, randomness, and joy.

Developing your own rituals

If you’re looking to decrease the stress that accompanies change, create conditions that kickstart innovation, inspire greater trust and collaboration among coworkers, or turn the mundane into the memorable, consider creating your own workplace rituals from scratch—or turn to the dozens outlined in Rituals from Virtual Meetings for inspiration.

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When COVID first sent office workers remote, many companies struggled with the decentralization and loneliness of virtual work. Thankfully, at the IDEO Chicago studio we had a secret weapon we knew would help us bring serendipity, joy, and creativity into the uncharted landscape of perpetual videoland: rituals.

Our personalities and outlooks, where we grew up, and all of the experiences we’ve ever gone through in life get filtered and expressed through the things we create. And—perhaps even more importantly—our identities impact why we create, helping us find meaning and purpose in our creative work.

In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM), we're sharing reflections from some of the incredible creatives who continue to inspire us. Here, they share insight on what drives them and their goals for the future—bound to, centered in, and empowered by their unique identities.

Adamu Chan, Writer, Filmmaker, and Community Organizer

Adamu Chan is a formerly incarcerated writer and filmmaker whose work is shaped by his connections to community. He’s written for Slate about the impact of COVID-19 on prisons, and has published a short film from within San Quentin. He sees his role as a catalyst to drive change in society.

“Culture and history are our collective memory, and history is usually shaped by dominant groups. Art has historically been one of the only avenues for marginalized peoples to participate in dominant discourses, and so I believe it is the job of artists to produce cultural projects that propel political and social transformation. I would like to be remembered as someone who helped move our world towards being more equitable, just, and inclusive.

If we are committed to transforming ourselves and our society, it is important to hear the stories of those who have always lived at the margins, because they hold the answers to what is broken, and in their stories of survival are the solutions we are seeking.”

Kimberly Ang, CEO and founder of of KAYA

Kimberly Ang is the founder and CEO of KAYA, an app that connects climbers and helps them track and get insights from their workouts. Prior to that, she led IDEO’s Design for Health portfolio. Today, Kimberly is focused on forging a path so that others like her feel welcome within the climbing community.

“Looking ahead, there are three changes we’re focused on: 1) Democratize access to the insights and coaching people need to learn how to climb and climb well 2) Celebrate a much more diverse range of climbers to show everyone they can be included in this community and 3) Take care of our public lands and ensure we grow sustainably.

I hope to be remembered as leading with heart and being myself, and creating space for others to do the same.”

Anupama Rao, Communications Designer and Behavioral Science Practitioner

Anupama Rao is the creator behind BrainGoo, a library of visual storytelling sequences (often in the form of Instagram posts and stories) that explain complex words and make observations about the world. In her day job, she’s a Design Researcher at Qure.ai. Her work is fueled by a desire to make healthcare access more equitable and compassionate.

“I work in the intersection between the future of design and behavioral science so that I get the chance to tackle wicked problems, especially those focused on women’s rights and healthcare, via small incremental changes. I’m fueled by my experience as my mother’s primary caregiver from a young age. The idea is to work towards inclusive design by consciously accounting for representation, systemic inequalities, social biases, and lack of access.

Currently, as a designer at Qure.ai, I work with experts to create AI products that make healthcare affordable and accessible, which is equal parts challenging, overwhelming, and rewarding. I love seeing how design can play a role. For example, can designing this report differently save a healthcare professional 10 seconds? What factors influence a crowded ER when a patient is having a stroke? How can I make this relevant to a low-resource, sparsely populated village?

I want the legacy of my work to be its empathy for the context it lives in, and its ability to create sustainable and positive behavior change.”

Michelle Lee, Managing Director, Design For Play at IDEO

Michelle Lee leads the Design for Play studio at IDEO, where she designs actual toys—but also finds ways to bring games and play into other unexpected industries, like education and health.

“My initial career in toy design taught me that play has potential far beyond the world of kids and toys. Through play, we stretch our imaginations, conquer our fears, realize new possibilities and take on challenges with optimism and confidence. It enables us to find meaning and happiness in the world. At IDEO, I lead a team that harnesses this power of play to ensure that aging is joyful, education is engaging and environmental action is inspiring.

I see the future in bringing play to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges—helping people thrive mentally and physically, building inclusive communities and helping to elevate voices that are often unheard. Driving lasting change by aligning these important issues with what brings people joy.”

Want to learn more, and get inspired by other Asian and Pacific Islander creatives? Follow the #AsianCreativeNetwork tag on social media, and check out our Asian Pacific American Heritage Month series on Instagram.

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What you make is who you are. For many designers, creativity is rooted in identity.

From flexible working conditions to the coexistence of both physical and digital experiences, COVID-19 has accelerated the trends and behaviors that have been rearing their heads for some time, and pushed them to the forefront of our everyday lives.

Indeed, the future is already here. How might we fully step into it with creativity and resilience?

Recently, a group of IDEO designers in Tokyo convened a creative project to brainstorm and design for the implications of the pandemic on the future of Japan. Called “Emergent Futures,” the goal of the work—accessible below—was not to predict the future, but to prepare for the possibilities it may bring.

To envision these “emergent futures,” we started where we always do: with people, and by observing ourselves, our families, and communities. For each future, we describe what it looks like and what behaviors prevail, the evidence we see for this future already emerging, and what design opportunities exist for Japan-focused businesses.

For example, the first emergent future we explore is Leftover Spaces—the idea that physical spaces will become more dynamic due to public health concerns around occupancy. With this, business opportunities related to rent, consumer preferences, space design, and co-ownership emerge. We explore and ground this emergent future through Kei, an IDEO designer and blossoming curry chef, whose needs inspired us to prototype a pop-up system concept—the Kei Truck. Our research reveals how some businesses are already prototyping this future, including restaurants operating as corner stores and Hoshino Resorts, who is leveraging data tracking to keep guests safe. These examples provoke key takeaways for leaders, from the need to develop a more entrepreneurial, adaptable workforce to using data in a human-centered way.

Though Emergent Futures is a collection of provocations about the state of Japan post-pandemic, the value of this futuring exercise and framework is universal, especially now. For Japan and other parts of the world to meet the challenges and opportunities we face post-COVID—from how to safely utilize physical spaces to how to remain competitive in a changing job market—our response must be human-centered, innovative, and imaginative.

Please share the work far and wide. We hope to spark the global collaboration required to ensure the future is evenly distributed, so we can step into it with confidence and creativity, together.

Download and share Emergent Futures here.

“The future is already here—it’s just not very evenly distributed.” Though attributed to essayist William Gibson nearly 20 years ago, the quote could not be more relevant today.

It was a result of her own tenaciousness, her creativity, and the support of RepresentED, a small organization with a big mission to prepare students for careers in industries where they are underrepresented. The organization uses a human-centered approach to diversify the next generation of leaders through training, mentorship, and internships. RepresentED’s founder, Rashida Hanif, met Cisneros when she was a transfer student at UC Berkeley. Hanif notes that transfer students—particularly Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) young adults—are missing out on what she calls the “hidden curriculum of life.”

Cisneros immediately saw the opportunity to help other Black and Brown transfer students like herself attain university education and gain visibility into concealed opportunities for their futures. Cisneros first learned about RepresentED in 2017, when she applied to join the first cohort of fellows. As part of the fellowship, she participated in a design thinking workshop led by former IDEO designer Scott Shigeoka. Later, she and her team competed in OpenIDEO's Future of Higher Education Challenge and designed an app that connected transfer students with much-needed community and resources. The experience and process introduced Cisneros to an industry she had never considered before. “Learning about design was absolutely pivotal for me,” she says.

Making change from within

After the competition, Cisneros was encouraged to apply to IDEO, and was hired as a recruiting coordinator before being promoted to her current role. Today, she leads Color by Design (CxD), which she helped launch in the wake of the rise in activism for social justice last year. She also helps facilitate internal programs at IDEO like business and inclusive leadership trainings, which seek to support IDEO’s senior leaders (and eventually all employees) to better understand how to create a culture of belonging. “In these trainings, we’re going to provide tangible leadership skills which help build awareness of where people are in their own personal journey,” she explains.

Shifting the power dynamic

This month RepresentED and IDEO are opening application submissions for the fall session of CxD. The program is open to all BIPOC students from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in design.

“It was important to shift away from the typical ‘company-intern’ power dynamic,” said Hanif. “It’s about an equal exchange of value that shifts the long-held power dynamics between the company and the fellow.” Following a bootcamp in design thinking, the cohort will receive placement on a six-month full-time IDEO project and have the opportunity to pursue a career at IDEO. Whether they decide to continue a design career or not, fellows will leave the program with a deeper understanding of design that they can apply to nearly any line of work.

Fellows will also be trained holistically for entry into culturally white-dominated industries, preparing them for challenges that are likely to come up, like imposter syndrome. “Having the ability to name things like imposter syndrome enabled me to step into my own authenticity,” explains Cisneros, “while understanding that institutions need to do their own work in order truly create a culture of belonging.”

A signal to the industry

Looking forward, there’s a lot of potential for programs like CxD to drive lasting change within other companies and industries. “This isn’t just a pipeline program, it’s a signal to the industry,” Hanif notes. Companies that have more diversity in their staff will have a greater competitive edge, and the design skills fellows bring to the table can be applied to more than just traditional design work—they can be used anywhere.

“It's not about checking DE&I boxes,” she adds, “When you build products and services, you want the people who buy those products to be represented in the design process—there’s a real business case for that.”

The first cohort has been invited into IDEO in January 2022 for a 6-month period, and an iteration of the program will launch by the end of 2023. We will share more updates as we get closer to the recruitment season. If you have any questions, please contact cxdinfo@ideo.com.

For Jordan Cisneros, a Senior Specialist on IDEO’s Global Learning and Development Team, access to a career in design was not a given.

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.