More than 7 million people each year came to the Boston.gov site to tap into all sorts of city services: reporting a pothole, learning the assessed value of their property, paying a parking ticket, checking recycling schedules.

Boston wanted to create a beautiful platform that would make the process of finding and navigating information easy and intuitive, one that prioritized the needs of its people.

The Boston.gov site had outgrown its existing structure and needed an overhaul. The user experience was mired by the fact that Boston City Hall has nearly 50 different departments, each with its own microsite, navigation and content standards that feed into a centralized site.

So the City of Boston hired IDEO to design its new digital home, Boston.gov. IDEO designers worked with the major stakeholders—department heads, employees, and Boston residents, with a focus on those in underserved communities and those with varying levels of technical proficiency—to gather insights into what users needed.

The objective was to design something that would simplify how people navigate the site, to make it easier for residents to find answers to common questions, and, in the process, serve as a community facilitator—an up-to-date, reliable resource that makes life in the city more manageable.

Rather than organize the site by the city’s departments, the design solution was rooted in illuminating relevant content by topics—people’s life moments—many of which overlapped through different branches of government. Owning a car in the city, for example, is closely related to preparing for winter, so bridging those common threads allowed for a more intuitive organizing principle.

In the process of the site redesign, IDEO also helped to create a visual identity system that underscores Boston’s strengths: the city’s confidence, humility, personality, and optimism.

In addition to the web architecture and redesign, IDEO also produced a comprehensive style guide to help maintain design consistency, so departments can add content without compromising the overall integrity of the site, as well as a brand look that the city has decided to adopt across nearly all of its consumer-facing media. Now you’ll see the famous underlined B on T-shirts, banners, and even snow shovels.

Holding true to its mission to include Boston residents and all site users in its design process, the new Boston.gov site was piloted for six months, and the process document on the city’s blog (including the IDEO designed brand guide), before a full launch was rolled out in July 2016.

“The website should act like a helpful human. This is one of the big differences between the old site and the new site,” said Jascha Franklin-Hodge, the city’s chief of information technology in a Boston Globe article. “Oftentimes, when you looked at something on the old site, it would feel like you were interacting with some sort of lawyer-robot that was speaking to you in government-speak, using very formal language. We are trying to move away from that so your experience is akin to a person.”

The City of Boston was in need of a new digital home—one that emphasized a shift to a more welcoming tone and commitment to its citizens.

‍

In the Western Hemisphere, The North Face brand has long represented an active, sporty lifestyle that’s filled with challenges and adventures. But appreciating “the great outdoors” in China is less about extreme sports and more about connecting with nature in a communal, spiritual way. This research-based insight led the team to identify new opportunities for The North Face to better target its messaging.

Designers found a key opportunity: Encourage Chinese consumers to escape the pressures of hectic city life by enjoying the freedom and renewal that comes with spending time outdoors.

Today, as people find less time to enjoy the benefits that lie just beyond China’s large cities, there’s a tangible desire to return to the outdoors to refresh, reassess, and renew oneself. The North Face aims to help consumers do exactly that.

To create a compelling new brand vision for The North Face in China, the team’s design research tapped into Chinese ways of spending time outdoors. IDEO’s insights and creative brief provided the essential brand story for The North Face in China and informed the tagline of the company’s current marketing campaign, “Go Wild” (去野). The North Face brand’s new messaging links “old nature” and “new outdoors” through a combination of digital, retail, and interactive community channels.

IDEO also collaborated with the company on designs and prototypes for a new digital platform and an updated store-within-a-store merchandising display. The digital community aims to attract newcomers and connect them with more experienced outdoors enthusiasts and clubs. As the platform evolves, it will help aspiring adventurers plan trips, learn skills, and share their experiences through photos.

The retail community space aims to integrate this digital community with in-store shoppers and an effort to turn the “buy-a-product moment” into a “join-the-outdoors moment.” Both will be integrated to provide a holistic brand experience in China centered on nature and community.

In the West, The North Face, with its decades-long history, has long symbolized an adventurous, active lifestyle. In China, however, the outdoor market only began accelerating in the early 21st century.

‍

Success in this growing market depends on building strong and deep connections with Chinese consumers.

‍

20% sales growth in China

from 2012 to 2013—the year the project was completed—propelling the brand from sixth place to a market-leading position

Over the last 36 years, IDEO and Lilly, along with the pharmaceutical giant’s other design, development, and manufacturing partners, have collaborated on more than 250 projects. During this time, Lilly has not only honed its engineering-focused internal device-development team but also transformed into a human-centered organization with extensive, robust in-house innovation capabilities.

Early in the relationship, a team of IDEO designers and Eli Lilly leaders traveled the world to understand how people with diabetes live with the disease. Their findings led to the design of a series of award-winning insulin injection pens like SAVVIO. Portable, aesthetically pleasing, and discreet, the pens are suitable for use in both medical and personal settings. Combined with Lilly’s technical design prowess, this human-centered focus allows the devices to seamlessly integrate into patients’ lives and routines, making a challenging disease like diabetes feel more manageable.

Fast forward to today, Lilly’s innovative, easy-to-use auto-injectors are not only continuing to provide life-saving treatments to people with diabetes but also enabling the adoption of the popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, which together accounted for the majority of the company’s annual revenue in 2025. Perhaps most importantly, patients consistently rate the experience of using Lilly’s auto-injectors as relatively pain-free, easy to use, and preferable to competitors’ brands, improving adherence, satisfaction, and health outcomes.

This unwavering focus on driving innovation through a patient-first mindset is evident in some of the most impactful projects Lilly and IDEO collaborated on over the years:

GLP Auto-injectors
Convenient and cutting-edge, the first Trulicity injection device was originally designed to deliver the GLP-1 drug to treat type 2 diabetes. Today, it has been adapted for use with other GLP-1s, Mounjaro and Zepbound, which are increasingly popular weight-loss drugs and are also administered once weekly via fixed-dose injections. A wide base enables the pen to be held securely against the injection site, and the device automatically regulates the dose and needle depth.

Taltz Injectors
For most patients, living with severe plaque psoriasis means being your own medical technician—metering your drug dosage each time, and attaching and removing needles by hand. Taltz provides patients with clear visual and auditory feedback throughout the injection process through simple icons, bright colors, a translucent material, and clicking sounds. The devices are available in both autoinjector and prefilled-syringe formats and are adapted for Emgality, a preventive monthly migraine treatment, and Ebglyss, which helps treat eczema or atopic dermatitis.

HumaPen SAVVIO Injection Pen
Key insights informed the design of SAVVIO, including patients’ preference for insulin pens that look less like medical devices and more like everyday objects you’d find in a backpack or purse. The sleek, colorful device was created to help patients feel comfortable and confident about fitting mealtime injections into their everyday lives.

Refillable Human Growth Hormone (HGH) Injector and Reconstitution Device
Designed to be kid-friendly, the Refillable HGH Injector leverages insights into pediatric treatment adherence to create a more integrated, systematic approach to treatment, while the Reconstitution Device makes mixing Lilly’s powder-and-liquid drug easier and less intimidating for parents and healthcare professionals alike.

KwikPen Insulin Pen
KwikPen is a next-generation, prefilled insulin injection pen that builds on the success of two previous designs, reducing its size to 5.7 inches and enhancing ease of use for patients.

HumaPen(R) Luxura™ Insulin Pen
HumaPen Luxura combines several innovations into a robust yet elegant pen that can be carried and used anywhere—an insulin pen solution that improves dosing accuracy, dose setting, and injection force.

In addition to designing products to meet the needs of people with diabetes, IDEO and Lilly have developed innovations in areas of oncology, autoimmunity, and men’s health. The results of this collaboration and expansion have won numerous design awards and produced one of the longest and most fruitful innovation relationships in IDEO’s history.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Eli Lilly had a number of new, life-changing medications and two big challenges: Most of its drugs were self-injectables, not pills, so patients were hesitant to take them. And its drug-delivery device platform lagged behind its drug pipeline.

99%

of Trulicity users reported the auto-injector was “easy” to “very easy” to use in a JDST study

$36.5B

of Lilly’s $65.2B 2025 revenue came from sales of its auto-injectable GLP-1s, Mounjaro and Zepbound, a 45% increase from 2024

‍“…the Advisory Council will recommend transformational programmatic, cultural, and physical change to San Quentin that can serve as a practical model that can be replicated and scaled to other institutions.”

Source: Office of Governor Gavin Newsom: Governor Newsom Names Leading Criminal Justice and Public Safety Experts to San Quentin Transformation Advisory Council, May 05, 2023  https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/05/05/san-quentin-transformation-advisory-council/

The Advisory Council included the expertise of established criminal justice, public safety, healthcare, academic, reentry, and rehabilitation professionals, along with system-impacted/formerly incarcerated community leaders, and representatives of crime victims/survivors. The premise of IDEO’s involvement is to augment the Advisory Council Co-Chairs’ and members’ expertise in evidence-based best practices and lived experience living and working in prisons, with expertise in collaborative design, synthesis, visualization, storytelling and bringing visions to life.

Specifically, IDEO was brought in to facilitate input-gathering, and assist with incorporating the many viewpoints into a single, cohesive report of recommendations to the Governor. This included meeting the challenge of bringing together the viewpoints of 21 people on the Council (17 members, three Co-Chairs and an advisor to the Governor); incorporating the views of people who are most impacted (those incarcerated at San Quentin, San Quentin staff, community-based organizations, victim/survivor groups, among others); and formatting and designing the final report.

IDEO’s facilitation included workshops with the full Advisory Council, individual interviews and check-ins with Council members to gather their input to inform the recommendations. Each Advisory Council member was asked to speak with, and record feedback from, no fewer than five people at San Quentin or in affected communities and to share this feedback with IDEO. IDEO integrated this information and feedback into this report.

Research activities included visits to San Quentin to speak with and facilitate conversations with:

• San Quentin residents (100+) including the Citizens/Inmate Advisory Council, focus groups with Spanish-speaking residents, former gang members, ACT (LGBTQIA+), Voices Heal, People in Blue, San Quentin Citizens Advisory Council.
• San Quentin staff (100+) including interviews with numerous officers.
• San Quentin staff and residents together.
• Current participants and staff at Amistad (MCRP) and Beacon (former lifer) campuses (many who were previously incarcerated at San Quentin).
  
  

IDEO also organized listening, information sharing and feedback sessions, both at San Quentin and in the community, between Co-Chair representatives and various stakeholder groups, including victim/survivor groups, labor unions, and advocacy organizations. These perspectives were also brought into the report.  

‍

Here are four titles on Tim’s list of highly recommended reading:

1. Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson, the biographer behind Kissinger and Steve Jobs, turns his attention to the original Renaissance man, whom Brown describes as “perhaps the most curious person who ever lived.” Isaacson draws from 7,200 pages of the artist’s notebooks to trace his journey as inventor, painter, doctor, sculptor, and scientist. Da Vinci was both a procrastinator and a perfectionist, both exuberant and introspective—and his life holds valuable lessons for creatives today. Read the book.

2. Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies and Companies by Geoffrey West

Presenting something of a “theory of everything,” West says we can apply the same mathematical principles that govern growth in nature to complex political, corporate, and civic systems. What they all have in common is their response to a rapid increase in size. As cities, companies or human beings grow, they require more resources, which leads to innovations like higher wages and new products, but also negative consequences like waste and overcrowding. As he unpacks the physics of modern systems design, West cautions that growth must be matched by greater sustainability.

3. Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World by Chris Lowney

Before he became an investment banker at JP Morgan, Chris Lowney spent seven years as a Jesuit priest. That background in the cloth helped him realize that the issues he faced in nurturing new leaders at JP Morgan were the same ones the Jesuit order had faced over its 450-year history. The Jesuits focus not on what leaders should do, but on who they are. They contend that leadership springs from within and involves a never-ending process of self-examination and learning. The four pillars of leadership that inform the Jesuits’ “corporate culture” are: self-awareness (understanding your strengths, weaknesses, and values), ingenuity (innovating and adapting to a changing world), love (engaging others with a loving attitude), and heroism (energizing yourself and others with heroic ambitions). Can you imagine if every corporate leader embraced these principles? Read the book.

4. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth

Doughnut analogies do a lot to sweeten economics. What, Raworth suggests, if we positioned society within a “doughnut” made of two rings: an inner ring that represents the minimum amount of food, shelter, and other necessities a person needs, and an outer ring that represents the point at which greater consumption begins to damage the Earth beyond repair? That question, along with the author’s case for a more compassionate, sustainable economic model, dovetails with our interest in advancing the circular economy. Tim calls it “a book about economics that makes sense to designers.” Read the book.

Want more? Here are 10 graphic novels we give a thumbs up. And here’s a list of more than 75 books we love, from East of Eden to Exit West.

‍

When he’s not on the road, teaching, or tinkering in his garage, our CEO Tim Brown can often be found immersed in a good book. Histories, biographies, creative nonfiction—for someone who leads a company that approaches problems from multiple angles, it’s often books that have nothing to do with design that offer the most useful insights.

The exercise wrapped up a three-day workshop with The Nature Conservancy, focused on finding new ways to track entangled whales. Whales often get caught in fishing lines, and responders can’t always free them on the first try. The Conservancy was looking for an easier way to find the whales after they swam away, so that they could complete their rescues.

When designers take on a new challenge, we start by talking to people to gain empathy for their needs. But how do you do that when the user is a whale? Along the way, we found a few workarounds.

Here are our top four lessons on designing for non-humans:

1. Understand the entire ecosystem

We were designing for an unusual ecosystem—an underwater one—and we needed to understand it from all angles. So, we took a day-long field trip to Monterey Bay and Moss Landing, where we really focused on getting a sense of the marine environment. We went kayaking among wildlife, visited a whale disentanglement boat and checked out all of its knives, buoys, and equipment, and talked to several locals. We wanted to understand everything we could about a whale’s journey and behaviors—even if we couldn’t talk to the whales themselves.

Tip: When you can’t physically ask users about their environment, you have to get creative to put yourself in their shoes (or fins). Getting a first-hand look at the users’ surroundings helps you gain empathy for them and gets you into the right mindset.

2. Get visual

Knowing that we’d never be able to experience entanglement from a whale’s perspective, we had to find our own scrappy ways to understand how it happens. We watched whale rescue videos, got a collection of whale posters (illustrated by the man who did the special effects for Free Willy), and asked a rescuer to tie string around miniature whale models to help us visualize the entanglement process. We also bought crab fishing gear, rope, buoys, flippers, and lifejackets to decorate our project space. When our clients arrived for the workshop, we set up kiddie pools and inflatable orcas on our patio. This may sound excessive, but it was a really important part of the project; not only did the equipment set the right scene and mood for the workshop, but it also allowed us to quickly and easily test our ideas.

Tip: Keep your designers and clients immersed in the project with visual cues that represent the subject matter. It keeps morale high, and can even help you quickly iterate and test concepts—the kiddie pools at the workshop came in handy when it was time to try out prototypes.

3. Bring all the players to the table from day one

Since we couldn’t talk to any whales during the project, we conducted our design research with the people who knew them best—marine biologists, researchers, fishermen, and rescuers. We also brought in people with backgrounds in design, technology, government, and academia, and collectively discussed the problem and potential solutions. With the help of so many experts, we were able to fill in all of our gaps in knowledge, whether it was about whale anatomy or government funding.

Tip: When you’re designing for animals, you’re also designing for the people that work with those animals (similarly, if you’re designing for kids, you’re also designing for their parents). To make sure your solutions work for them, too, bring a wide range of voices into the room—even if they have to dial in.

4. Test prototypes in context

After brainstorming and sketching out early concepts, we headed to the IDEO Shop to create prototypes for the whale trackers. We couldn’t test the devices in the shallows of the kiddie pool, so we set up a rig in a neighbor’s swimming pool to see how they’d perform above and below water. This context helped us immensely in understanding what improvements could be made and how much each tracking device would burden the whale. We were able to measure how smoothly the devices moved through water (to minimize drag), and how well they stayed afloat. After each trial run, we were able to refine the prototypes on the spot, and continue testing.

Tip: Before you finalize any concepts, create a test environment that’s as close as possible to the user’s environment. This helps you understand how the concepts will work in context, and gives you the ability to record and measure what you've learned.

Next time we have to design for whales, though, we'll probably just channel our inner Dory.

Special thanks to Dali Yu for being a thought partner for this article, Rachel Tobias, Joerg Student, and Brooke Thyng for taking these photos, and the rest of the team for hosting an amazing workshop!

‍

On a Thursday afternoon, I found myself with a team of whale biologists, product designers, mechanical engineers, and public policy directors, all standing by a gigantic pool, throwing handmade contraptions into the water. Above us, aerial drones were flying around capturing the scene. Below us, GoPros on selfie sticks moved back and forth under the water. Typical day in the office.

In one sentence, who are you?

A hard-headed idealist, who revels in the start and finish of every project, but curses throughout the process.

What do you do? How did you learn it?

I am a curator of architecture and design. I always wanted to work in a museum, and so I studied art, architecture and curatorial history, and then worked in several galleries and museums.

3 favorite possessions?

1. A pour over coffee maker
2. A pair of small ink drawings of imaginary landscapes
3. Handwritten notes tucked into my suitcase from my sons and husband

What does a typical work session look like?

A typical work session includes too many people and little is accomplished, but a productive work session includes 1-2 colleagues, an inspiring setting, and a knotty idea.

How do you get over creative block?

Deadlines. My father always said to think of a deadline as an opportunity to submit a draft. If you are truly interested in going further you will or you may never return to a subject, but one shouldn’t think that you need to know everything at the time of a deadline. It is a moment that reflects what you do understand at that time.

How do you see the world in 2078?

More tax money is spent on public education and the arts than on the military. Society needs to value education and the arts. SFMOMA understands the value of arts in culture, in making sense of issues, as well as complicated issues. I am hopeful humanity will come to its senses on what to prioritize.

What is the biggest challenge in curating "design"?

I’m not sure there is a singular big challenge to curating design. There are smaller challenges, such as how to exhibit interactive software or ubiquitous commercial products or representations of buildings meant to be experienced in person, etc, but no one specific challenge. Challenges make work interesting, no?!

What’s your number one bucket list item?

I don’t have a bucket list, but I understand the concept and my interests are always shifting, but this week, I’d like to be sure to experience:

• Space travel
• De Maria’s Lightning Fields with my family, New Mexico
• Piamio Sanatorium, Finland
• I am too late since it is destroyed, but would have loved to have visited the Operations Room for Project Cybersyn, Chile

Who are you creative crushin’ on lately?

The ladies of today—Neri Oxman, Tatiana Bilbao, Nathalie du Pasquier, but especially ladies who paved the way, Esther McCoy, Lina Bo Bardi, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, Susan Kare, Ruth Asawa, Anna Halprin, Clara Porset, and the list continues

‍

Capturing the world of design is a tall order. It means constantly considering the now, questioning the promise of future technology, and looking across the historical register for patterns and mishaps. Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher does just that, and as the curator of Architecture and Design at SFMOMA, she goes one step further and puts it all on view. Her work asks tough questions for us and, in turn, to us. I took a moment to catch up, get a bit of background, and figure out what motivates her day to day.

Smartly curated by Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, the show features objects dating back to the late 1950s, from the Eames Office to the first iPod to a home CRISPR kit.

I've now seen the show twice. Here's what’s stuck with me:

So much of what comes out of Silicon Valley today has its roots in the DIY utopianism of the Whole Earth Catalog. Founded in the late 60s by Stewart Brand and a bunch of Stanford longhairs, the Catalog promised “access to tools" that would equip us to break free from our hidebound culture.

The title was inspired by Brand’s 1966 campaign to have NASA release a satellite photo of the Earth as seen from space—the first image we’d see of the "whole Earth." That picture, he believed, would unite humans in our belief in a shared destiny and encourage more peaceful, ecological, and holistic thinking.

When I was in my 20s, the Whole Earth Catalog spurred me to start my own DIY design magazine, ReadyMade, in the back of a used furniture warehouse in Berkeley. Whole Earth made designing a life on one's own terms seem within reach.

That spirit shines through in another standout of the exhibit: the recreated office of Charles and Ray Eames, down to the posters on the wall, the kilim rug, and a looping projection of their film for the World’s Fair (a serenade to industry and systems design). Everything they laid their mid-century paws on exudes a kind of singing-nun joy. Two things I love most about them: their philosophy that “Eventually everything connects—people, ideas, objects,” and that they employed the people they were designing for—Los Angeles locals, war veterans, and housewives.

There’s also the agitprop hijinks of Ant Farm; the stained leather scrappiness and propaganda of Marin’s craft guilds; and Heath Ceramics—the tableware preferred by my avocado toast.

And for us outdoorsy types, the centerpiece of the exhibit is a Bucky Fuller-inspired North Face tent, pitched alongside radically new 1970s climbing equipment made by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia.

I had a feeling the iconic "one laptop per child" by fuseproject would be on hand (check!), and was excited to see my friend Eric's (of Stamen Design) dazzling data visualizations.

Having done a tour of duty at WIRED in its third year of publication (1995), it was great to see their eye-popping cyberpunk spreads on display, and I'm always happy to learn of companies like D-Rev that care enough about social impact to design an $80 high-performance knee (80 percent of the world's amputees have no access to modern prosthetics).

California design got swept up in the digital tsunami that WIRED was chronicling and all those "new tools" for connected living now look quaint. The first Apple desktop computer and Handspring Visor sitting under vitrines look like beige relics from a technocrypt.

IDEO’s Dennis Boyle, who led the Handspring Visor design team, told me that its eye module accessory is credited as being the first digital camera on a handheld electronic PDA. "It’s the precursor to today's cell phone cameras," he said.

I'm drunk on Kool-Aid, no doubt, but I walked away from this show marveling at how IDEO appears to be the aortic valve of California design. There are no less than five examples of our work on display: The prototype for the first Apple mouse, Thoughtless Acts? and Method Cards, the Handspring Visor, and the prototype for the Q Concept workstation, designed by David Kelley and Jim Yurchenco, Jane Fulton Suri, Dennis Boyle, and Martin Bone, respectively.

Yurchenco, who repurposed a butter dish and a roll-on deodorant ball procured at a local Palo Alto drugstore to make the earliest mouse, is struck by the crude tools designers had at their disposal back in the day:

“It was done using old techniques: a pencil and paper on a drawing board instead of 3D solid CAD to design the parts; manually machined injection molding tools and pieced together check models instead of 3D printed models. Of course, everything designed at that time was done the same way.”

Though it seemed impossible to design a mouse for less than $10 when Steve Jobs first proposed it, IDEO founder David Kelley and Yurchenco alighted upon a crucial insight:

“The most surprising thing that happened during the process was we were able to make [the mouse] low-cost by realizing it didn't have to be as precise as we first thought," Kelley says. "Because the user's human brain would intuitively move the mouse to exactly the right spot."

Jane Fulton Suri still expresses surprise that a simple deck of cards (Method Cards), which were published in 2003, became the foundation for IDEO's design approach:

“At the time it wasn’t obvious that sharing information about our approach and sensibilities would be a powerful way for IDEO to lead the way. It's now core to IDEO's strategy to create design tools and empower others in the world at large.”

Three of the four designers quoted above still work at IDEO. And that reminds me of another thing I love about California designers:

They never stop trying to make things better by making better things.

Next up: Nick Pajerski interviews "Designed in California" curator Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher.

If my heart were a painting, it would be on permanent loan to California. I love its shaggy optimists who turn drained swimming pools into skate parks. Its fog and fearless politics. Its pioneers and garage inventors and beat poets who came in search of a Golden State. I'm a big believer in the design that was born here, too, which is on display at the SFMOMA’s "Designed in California" exhibit through May 27, 2018.

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.