In 1987, the three companies that would later form IDEO worked together with Microsoft to create the world’s first ergonomically designed mouse. IDEO’s human factors research suggested a small but significant change: Moving the location of the mouse ball forward, from under the palm to under the fingertips, enabled more precise control and resulted in measurable performance differences compared with earlier models.

The industrial design effort examined and tested dozens of shapes in comfort and aesthetic studies that led to the famous “Dove Bar” form, a significant advance over the boxy mouses prevalent at the time. The resulting clean appearance, enhanced control, and improved reliability created enormous consumer appeal that replaced all earlier versions, and Microsoft sold more than 2 million units in its first two years.

With approximately 55,000 Americans waiting to receive kidneys and a list that could double in the next 10 years, there is an acute and urgent need for new technology to increase the quality and number of organs available for transplant. Using the conventional method of organ storage and transportation—a cooler filled with ice—doctors and nurses needed to accompany the organ to ensure proper handling.

IDEO and Organ Recovery Systems created the LifePort Kidney Transporter to provide a new high-tech alternative. The LifePort gently perfuses, or pumps, the kidney with a cold liquid solution to improve its condition before transplantation, which can nearly double storage time and may increase the number of usable kidneys and improve patient outcomes. The device also provides critical data to monitor and evaluate kidneys during transport.

Organ Recovery Systems believes that perfusion has the potential to remove tens of thousands of patients from the waiting list and dialysis, and save the healthcare system more than $1 billion annually. In 2006, the LifePort Kidney Transporter was used to transport 350 kidneys per month in 12 countries, and was included in the permanent architecture and design collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Pediatric healthcare system Nemours provides primary, hospital, and clinic-based specialty care, prevention and health information services, and medical education programs in Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. When Nemours wanted to strengthen its brand, it faced two challenges: Empowered patients had more access to information and choice than ever before, and new players—alternative-care centers, retail-based care clinics, and urgent-care centers—were entering the marketplace, diverting market share.

Nemours approached IDEO for help in creating an innovative, differentiated, and patient-centric experience for a new hospital in Orlando, with the goal of establishing Nemours as a destination care provider and industry leader. Together, they identified and clarified both family needs and key experience touchpoints in the patient journey, resulting in the state-of-the-art-designed, 60-acre, $400 million Nemours Children’s Hospital in Lake Nona Medical City, Florida. “The design team’s approach to defining key moments in the patient journey was highly instructive,” said Dr. David Milov, chief of clinical informatics at Nemours. “They captured insights otherwise unavailable to us.”

Concepts that were realized in the hospital’s final design include:

• Care Team Room ID: Patients and families are introduced to each member of their care team to ensure continuity of care.
• Floor Greeters: Concierge-like greeters welcome and orient families and answer questions.
• Family Lounges: Private dining rooms have kitchenettes, so families can cook and eat together.
• Emergency Department: Patients are greeted, sorted by medical condition, and immediately checked into rooms.
• Patient Information Screens: Doctors and nurses can access patient information prior to entering an exam room to enable informed conversations and build trust.
• Smart Bracelets: Personalized RFID-enabled bracelets keep track of the care team.
• Smart Rooms: Triggered by the Smart Bracelet, Smart Rooms “welcome” the patient upon entry.

To arrive at these designs, IDEO sought inspiration via analogous kid-friendly environments, such as museums, schools, toy stores, and zoos. Designers also conducted in-context interviews with patients, parents, families, doctors, nurses, support staff, and outside physicians. One key insight that led to the final design: Patients and families came to Nemours with varied levels of experience—first-timers, occasional visitors, and those who were chronically ill—but the hospital treated them all the same.

To address these needs, the team created an experience blueprint focused on welcoming, guiding, and supporting patients and families through unique environments, integrated service moments, and market-differentiating spaces and tools. To test the look, feel, and value of the designs, designers built full-scale foam core prototypes of welcome stations, waiting lounges, and exam rooms.

The results appeal to patients, families, and caregivers. According to Dr. Lane Donnelly, Nemours chief medical officer, “all the amenities at Nemours focus not only on the child but their parents and families as well.”

The hospital won two awards at the International Interior Design Association’s 2013 Best of the Best Gala (Georgia Chapter), one for the Healthcare Design category and one for best overall out of all 11 categories. Parenting.com writer Shawn Bean noted, “Set amidst a wooded expanse of central Florida, with theme park roller coasters peppering the horizon, Nemours Children’s Hospital is arguably the new high water mark for pediatric care in the United States.”

Designer turned educator Kiran Bir Sethi wanted to blur the boundaries between school and life to help young students become aware, enabled, and empowered to effect change in the world. In aiming to spread her message to millions of children across India , Sethi tapped IDEO and the d.school at Stanford to help create a design contest for youth that would show them that they could make a difference in their community.

Together with the d.school, IDEO designed a competition for middle school students called the Design for Change Contest. Adapting the human-centered design approach into a simple process that 10- to 13-year-old kids could follow on their own, the contest included rules, tools, and platforms that would be accessible to children and teachers throughout India regardless of their previous exposure to design.

The team shaped the rules so that students could learn core design-thinking skills such as empathy, brainstorming, collaboration, and reflection through the process of participating in the contest. And together, the group developed a toolkit to walk students through the simple four-step process.

The biggest challenges to the contest were overcoming the lack of infrastructure, language barriers, and a discrepancy in school resources. There was no national database of schools for easy outreach, so Riverside built relationships with NGOs across India to distribute the contest toolkit to more than 30,000 schools.

The contest receives about 2,000 entries from groups of youth in India each year. They have been addressing challenges such as illiteracy, pollution, traffic safety, care for the elderly, alcoholism, and the environment.

As of 2015, the Design for Change Contest has scaled far beyond India, and is being run in 30-plus countries, with millions of children participating. Each contest entry shows that kids really can make a big difference in the world.

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My main objective is to influence a user’s mood through automatic customization of virtual worlds—a tool that could, for example, help improve existing VR treatments for problems like phobias and anxiety disorders by automatizing the intensity of the experience. If the system were able to gauge an emotional reaction, it could ease participants into facing their fears. The same capability could be used to test different environments for mindfulness exercises, or even as a design tool, to help determine which designs elicit desired reactions.

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So far, most of the innovation we’ve seen in this space has come via proprietary systems like the HTC Vive controllers. But those kind of systems are very standardized and don’t allow users to experiment much with sensors. With that in mind, I built a platform with Unity and Arduino that would enable me to explore new interactions within VR environments, and allow other makers to test their ideas, too. I’m a big believer that as hardware and other tools become more accessible, makers will dig in and uncover even more immersive VR experiences.

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Using Unity and open source development hardware, I created an atmospheric space that can change depending on the user’s biosignals, as well as the amount of pressure they apply to sensors. To build it, I used Arduino and the eHealth platform, which can process the signal from a user’s heart rate, electrodermal activity, or breathing. In this case, I used the ECG sensor reader and developed a little piece of code that would translate the voltage signals into beats per minute, which were then sent directly to Unity via Serial. In Unity, I wrote a script based on Dyadica’s open code that constantly reads the input from the sensors and updates the scenario in each frame. For example, when the heartbeat goes up, the light in the virtual reality world changes to a more soothing blue; when it goes down, the illumination flashes and changes to red. The idea behind this particular interaction is to test whether changing color or lighting patterns will affect the user’s mood, either calming him down, or further agitating him.

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The results from these experiments were not completely satisfactory. Our users did acknowledge that changing the colors in the virtual world influenced their state of mind, but the changes in their biorhythms were small. One of the limitations of the system is the fact that heart rate is not an ideal indicator for mild changes in physiological activity. Electrodermal activity could provide a more accurate measure of comfort or distress, and we may turn to that in in future iterations.

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In another set of experiments, we used light and pressure sensors to change environments. In one virtual environment set on the coast, the light changes based on the light detected by a sensor set in the real world. Meanwhile, the size of the virtual space changes depending on the amount of pressure a participant applies to a sensor that is set in the same place on a wall in both the real and virtual worlds. The harder the user presses the wall, the smaller and more claustrophobic the virtual space will become.

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We’ve also been playing around with creating uncanny experiences. I started by 3D-scanning Rich Cahill, our newest interaction designer, then placed his 3D persona inside a virtual world. We then used a Leap Motion attached to the Vive headset to increase the immersive experience by allowing users to see their own hands in the virtual world. Then, we had Rich stand in the same place as his 3D model. When Rich raised his hand to touch his (virtual) face, he felt the warmth of his (real) skin under his fingers. Every single person who agreed to do the experiment found it unsettling. It was also really fun to make, and I learned a lot about how to replicate real objects and people in the virtual environment.

Right now, these enhanced interactions are just small steps towards a richer, and more immersive virtual experience. But I’m hoping this platform can be a template for other people to build their own interactive VR experiences. As more and more people dig into the technology, I'm sure we’ll see an explosion of creativity mixing the real and the virtual worlds—and maybe even creating new valuable hardware and platforms. Soon, instead of being passive characters in a prescribed world, we will be able to change our virtual environments to fit the state of mind that we would like to be in, and help ourselves relax, or even find inspiration. That’s when things will really start to become mind-blowing.

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As a designer, I am fascinated by exploring new ways to interact with virtual reality. Technology is able to trick our senses like never before, and we’re starting to see VR hardware like HoloLens and the HTC Vive really push things forward by allowing meaningful interaction between the real and the virtual worlds. One possibility I’ve been experimenting with is how we can create environments that can adapt to our emotional and psychological state.

1. Myths & Legends

“This podcast tells original stories that have become myths, in cultures ranging from the Romans and Greeks through to Disney princesses. Understanding how common themes have turned up in stories through the ages helps me think about fundamental human needs and behaviors that stay unchanged over time.” Listen here.

2. On Being

“This podcast considers the ‘big questions of life’ through interviews with creatives like Yo-Yo Ma, Paulo Coelho, and Sarah Kay. It reminds me that our human condition is so much more vast than we could ever fathom, and that the answers to the secrets of our existence are mere approximations, at best.” Listen here.

3. a16z

“This is an in-house podcast from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which is famous for the phrase ‘software is eating the world.’ It’s not a ‘creative’ podcast per se, but it covers bleeding edge technology and indicates emerging fields and mediums for creative expression, new experiences, and potential effects on society at large.” Listen here.

4. Meet the Composer

“I find this podcast incredibly inspiring because it asks the listener to really engage with contemporary classical music. It's both exploration and art criticism, a prompt to get out there and listen more deeply, and a glimpse into a small and vibrant world that really only exists in New York and LA.” Listen here.

5. The Moment with Brian Koppelman

“Koppelman talks to creative folks about their creative process, how they do what they do, and the ‘moment’ that changed things for them. He's able to be very vulnerable, so his guests open up as well. This podcast always makes me feel more sane. Or at least like I belong to some really awesome club of weirdos.” Listen here.

6. Radiolab

“I’m inspired by the fascinating science and the polished stories, but most of all by the sound design. The way the show experiments with sound to tell better stories inspires me to think about how to make the experiences I create more engaging.” Listen here.

7. The Allusionist

“Linguistic adventures with the very funny Helen Zaltzman. This show reminds me that language is so mutable and fungible. And that when we humans talk with each other, it is a miracle that we know what the other person is saying.” Listen here.

8. Death, Sex and Money

“This is a podcast about the big questions in life. It reminds me of how to talk to people about sensitive topics and get deep insights from individual stories that speak to both the commonality and the variety of the human experience.” Listen here.

9. Magic Lessons

“Elizabeth Gilbert's creativity podcast features her interviewing people about how they overcome the fears that are inherent in the creative process, and calling up famous creatives to get their input. I like the fact that she actually provides advice to her guests, and acknowledges the challenges we all face in being creative.” Listen here.

10. Song Exploder

“Musicians and artists break down a track and talk about their process. A lovely parallel to any designer’s process. We hosted the creator of the podcast at IDEO earlier this year and he talked about his background as a graphic designer and how that’s influenced his approach to the show.” Listen here.

11. Becoming SuperHuman

“This show interviews people who have achieved ‘superhuman’ performance in their field in order to understand their strategies. The podcast provides insights into the lives of people who live at extremes, which provides inspiration for designing ways to meet more conventional human needs.” Listen here.

12. Imaginary Worlds

“This a is podcast about science fiction and fantasy worlds, both about how they are created and why audiences are able to suspend their disbelief. Of all forms of creativity, I figure that creating a fictional universe is the most expansive, and get inspired by such a broad-brush imaginative exercise.” Listen here.

13. 99 Percent Invisible

“This podcast reminds me that pretty much everything in the world has been designed, and that there are so many opportunities to improve things. I also love to hear the backstories behind things that have been designed and are now part of our everyday existence. It reminds me that so many things could easily have turned out differently.” Listen here.

14. Sampler

“Like the name suggests, this show features samples of other podcasts. I love it because it introduces me to other podcasts that I would never have known about or thought to try. And it's the unexpected or different stuff that turns out to be most inspiring.” Listen here.

15. TED Radio Hour

“This podcast repackages TED Talks into an accessible radio format. The way the show focuses on shared human themes, such as ‘growing up’ and ‘becoming wise,’ helps me zoom out my perspective and realize how the things I look at in life and in my work can be connected.” Listen here.

Honorable mentions: Surprisingly Awesome, The Memory Palace, Invisibilia, The Moth, WTF, Theory Of Everything, Planet Money, This American Life.

Check out the Creative Confidence podcast by IDEO U, our school to empower creative problem solving, here.

Thanks to Chris, Magen, Andrea, Grace, Maggie, Geoff, Jayant, Deirdre, Piper and everyone else who suggested podcasts.

Header illustration by Jane Ha.

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We're living in a golden age of audio. Whatever your interest, passion, or taste, there's a podcast out there that will cater to it, available free of charge. These podcasts don't just provide entertainment while commuting or walking the dog, they also provide fuel for creativity, by opening doors into unfamiliar cultures or scenarios. We asked IDEO designers to nominate the podcasts that they find most inspiring.

Alex was a self-described gaming addict in his college days, but hadn’t touched his console in years. He knew his old habit would be the strongest incentive for working out. At the same time, he recognized that a simple post-workout reward wasn't gonna cut it, not to mention the temptation to skip the workout altogether with a perfectly functioning Xbox so close at hand.

Time to wield his ninja hacking skills.

Alex adjusting duration and intensity on his new (addictive) weight-loss machine.

The result is Cykill, a simple tweak that connects your gaming console’s power source to an exercise bike. The only way to start the console is by riding the bike. Fail to pedal fast enough and Cykill will cut the power using a “kill switch”—a disaster for serious gamers—which not only erases game progress, but can also corrupt the console’s hard drive. “After a big scene in the game you will see the Cykill LED meter appear," he said. It gets dangerously close to power-off, which forces you to pedal like mad in order to stabilize it. "What a silly but effective invention this is!”

Alex on the Cykill, an exercise-bike-gaming-console that interrupts your game if you stop pedaling.

After using his invention for three months to impressive results, Alex was ready to share it with the world. He made the project open source and submitted it to Hackaday. “I never intended this to be shared online. But then I realized, there are millions of Americans who are challenged with excessive gaming and weight gain—many of them kids and teens." Is Cykill is the answer to obesity for game-obsessed kids of America? "I feel it is definitely worth a shot,” he said.

Learn more about how Alex made Cykill here, at his website Fuzzy Wobble, and on his project page at Hackaday.

The Cykill dashboard.

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When interaction designer Alex S. finally decided to get serious about exercise, he knew exactly what to do. He bought a cheap stationary bike on Amazon and dusted off his old Xbox.

1. Inferno, by Louis-Philippe Demers, Bill Vorn

How does it feel to have an exoskeleton move your arms and make you dance? Pretty weird. Inferno, one of the single most talked-about pieces at Ars, offered visitors the curious sensation of being remote-controlled by a machine.

2. RoBoHoN, by Tomotaka Takahashi with Sharp

Half robot, half smartphone, RoBoHoN runs, dances, talks, takes pictures and projects them. Plus, it’s cute. Like a mini butler. We came away asking: Will future smart devices be gadgety, or sleek and designy a la Apple?

3. Rhizome Animation, by Boris Labbé

A hypnotising story about life on earth, and a good reminder of the power of mixing handdrawn images with computer-generated visuals. Designer Boris Labbé’s short film Rhizome is worth a watch.

4. Radical Atoms Exhibition

If the MIT Media Lab has its way, we’ll control the physical world of atoms in the same way that we control the digital world of pixels. This exhibit hewed closest to the theme of the Ars festival: “Radical Atoms: the alchemists of our time,” including provocations around biology as a responsive, “second skin” interface; a physical shape display that can be manipulated from near or far; and wearable miniature robots that rove around your body. Take a trip down the rabbit hole.

5. ASSISI, by Thomas Schmickl, Professor of Zoology at University of Graz

Tiny robots, placed among a society of fish and of bees, enabled the two to communicate and influence the actions of the other. Begged the question: how might we use robots to design and evolve swarm behavior in natural ecosystems?

6. Artificial Skins and Bones, by Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin

We loved the variety of thinking from this group of students, who are exploring the design of artificial bodies. Ideas included everything from regaining physical ability through smart prosthetics; to enhancing an experience through haptic feedback; to the inevitable evolution toward augmentation, like color- and pattern-changing skin (above), inspired by the octopus.

7. Innovation and Creativity on a Very Large Scale, by Ivan Poupyrev, Google ATAP

Poupyrev, head of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group, argued that constantly introducing new gadgets does not scale. What does scale is creating technologies enabling industries that manufacture basic goods, like jeans, to transform themselves. For Project Jacquard, ATAP invented a new type of conductive thread that can be woven into clothing (like a Levi’s jean jacket—the project was a collaboration between the two companies) giving it an invisible interface. These kinds of mutations are unpredictable, Poupyrev said, and driven by serendipity, emphasising the role of the artist in technological research.

For more about Ars Electronica, or to watch all the talks and presentations mentioned, check out their website: http://www.aec.at/

Header image by Martin Hieslmair. All images sourced from the official Ars Electronica Flickr.

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We went to Ars Electronica, Linz's annual celebration of art and tech, and here’s what we saw: Exoskeletons. Dancing robots. Shape-shifting materials. Swarms of fish and bees. Skin. Just your average day in the surrealverse. Here are seven projects to watch:

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.