Looking to understand the role of instant noodles in middle-class Chinese life, the IDEO team conducted in-home research with consumers across a range of life stages and levels of attachment to noodle culture and convenience foods. The first finding was reassuring: Everyone kept instant noodles at home. The category still had a place in middle-class kitchens. But beneath that was a more complicated, emotional story—and an unmet need for convenience and quality to coexist in a single product.

The team discovered that instant noodles are more than just a quick, on-the-go meal; they are a nostalgic comfort food that evokes fond memories. But since their heyday, their role in daily life has evolved. Once a complete meal in itself, instant noodles now often function as a versatile flavor base or culinary accent in other dishes. Because they don’t align with the healthier, higher-quality, and more novel food choices that middle-class consumers aspire to, noodle shops, delivery noodles, or fresh-cooked instant options often win out. Yet, even these alternatives come with trade-offs. Delivered noodles lose texture during transport. Sit-down noodle shops preserve quality but offer limited flavors.  Cooking from scratch meets the bar for both texture and flavor, but requires a significant time investment. As one young mother said, “If I could get the texture of fresh-cooked noodles without turning on the stove, I’d buy that instant noodle for sure.”

The research inspired the creation of a new category, which the team termed “fresh-brewed noodles.” More than just a noodle or broth upgrade, Master Kong’s fresh-brewed noodles would offer the speed of instant noodles with the quality of freshly cooked options, plus flavors not found in traditional noodle shops. The strategic positioning was clear. Executing it by making fresh-brewed noodles mass-producible, affordable, and eventually profitable presented a category-innovation challenge. To get there, IDEO designed a series of dual-track co-creation workshops with the Master Kong team and consumers.

One track focused on prototyping the core product experience: noodles, broth, and toppings. IDEO and Master Kong’s R&D team began by studying the traditional craft of Chinese noodle-making, starting in Shanxi, a region renowned for its noodles. Through successive rounds of prototyping and consumer tasting, the team identified a critical insight: for “fresh-brewed noodles” to be convincing, the innovation had to be centered on the noodles themselves.

Texture alone was not enough. Consumers needed to see a meaningful difference before they tasted the product. IDEO translated this insight into a distinctive noodle profile: irregular, dimensional shapes designed to remain springy, hold sauce and broth, and mimic the resilience of freshly cooked noodles using only hot water. Because this visible shape represented the product’s core value proposition, it became a hero feature on the packaging. The graphic design made a bold visual statement about the noodle form, turning a technical R&D breakthrough into an immediately legible consumer promise: these are not ordinary instant noodles.

A parallel track explored the broader commercial experience: trend-forward and reimagined classic flavor profiles, light yet deeply satisfying broths, carefully selected toppings, and packaging that signals a new level of quality on store shelves. One key insight was that utensils carry meaning. Conventional instant noodles are often associated with disposable plastic forks, while higher-quality noodles are eaten with chopsticks. IDEO translated this cultural cue into the design of the bowl’s lid.

Instead of treating utensils as an afterthought, the team designed a solid, rounded, heat-retaining lid that embeds a pair of small wooden chopsticks. The gesture creates a small ritual of anticipation and reframes the product—not just a convenient instant meal, but a more considered noodle experience. Once opened, the product fulfills that promise with satisfyingly bouncy noodles, a rich liquid broth pouch that replaces the traditional oil-and-powder packet, and a vegetable packet reformulated with more premium whole ingredients.

The first batch of “Te Bie Te” Fresh-Brewed Noodles—Chinese wordplay that emphasizes “special”—launched in August 2025 with three trendy and tried-and-true flavors. Within just three days, sales exceeded 100,000 bowls. Within a week, “Te Bie Te” topped the instant noodle category sales ranking on Douyin, China’s domestic counterpart to TikTok. The outcome was bigger than a product launch—it served as proof that a mature, declining category could be fundamentally reinvented to meet consumers’ real needs. For Master Kong, the project became a North Star and a model for internal category innovation in beverages, ready-to-eat foods, and beyond.

Once a popular, affordable staple, the instant noodle category in China has been declining rapidly due to shifting demographics, rising food delivery options, and increasing customer demand for healthier, more nutritious meals.

‍

According to the World Instant Noodles Association, between 2020 and 2023, China’s instant noodle consumption fell by 4 billion packs.

100,000+

“Te Bie Te” bowls sold in the first 3 days on the market

#1

on Douyin’s instant noodle category ranking within one week of launch

Taylor’s legacy began in 1969 with the founding of Taylor’s College and soon expanded to include Taylor’s University, one of Southeast Asia’s top private universities, as well as many other institutions that serve 35,000 students per year. The family-owned group also operates Taylor’s International Schools, Garden International School, and Nexus International School for students ages 4 to 18. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital city, annual tuition at premium private schools like these ranges from about $10,000 to $25,000 USD. Taylor’s wanted to do something different: provide the same level of academic rigor and immersive learning experiences at one-third the cost.

IDEO began by speaking with over three dozen students, parents, teachers, and experts across the capital to understand what was working, what wasn’t, and what was missing from such moderately priced international schools.

A few themes quickly emerged. Families, students, and teachers were worried about the stability of these new private schools, which tended to have higher-than-normal teacher turnover rates and were plagued by financial instability, negatively impacting talent attraction and retention, as well as student learning. Parents appreciated that the schools offered holistic learning experiences, such as field trips to rural areas, including jungles, but wished they were more consistently part of the curriculum. And now, the looming challenge of AI—how to use it, how to teach it, and how to teach with it—was in the background, a persistent cause for concern. The big unmet need? Reassurance that Taylor’s was thinking long-term and systematically about developing the skills, knowledge, and mindsets that would prepare students for an ever-changing world. Parents wanted a school that measured growth in academic, social, and character terms over generations, not just school semesters.

With these insights in hand, IDEO began developing a design Playbook for Taylor’s new brand—Lexel International Schools. A combination of “lexicon” and “excellence,” Lexel’s mission is “building what lasts, learning for life.”

The schools are centered around three key differentiators: 

• Always Ahead: Lexel schools commit to staying current with the topics and subject matter they teach, as well as the tools they provide to students, parents, and teachers.s.  
  ‍
• Learning That Builds for Life: The schools ensure programmatic, systemic, and consistent learning experiences from Pre-K to Year 11. Interested students can even continue their post-secondary journey in partnership with Taylor’s University and other higher education institutions within the Taylor’s ecosystem.
  
  
• Educators for the Long Run: These schools commit to ongoing investments in professional growth opportunities for teachers and stable learning environments for students.

Four Lexel Literacies—AI, Digital, Financial, and Nutrition—integrated into the Cambridge Curriculum bring the school’s vision and mission to life.

By systematically integrating AI literacy into its spiral education framework, in particular, an approach where major topics are revisited multiple times through a curriculum to build fluency over time, Lexel ensures parents that the school is thinking a decade ahead from Day One, setting the school apart. In addition to enhancing AI fluency, Lexel offers unique end-of-term experiences called Jungles & Junctions.

Combining three important strands of learning—community engagement, nature-based personal and interpersonal development, and career and university exploration—Jungles & Junctions leverages Taylor’s extended educational network and Lexel’s strategic founding campus within the Gamuda Gardens development in Selangor. Surrounded by tropical rainforests, the township’s residential neighborhoods, theme park, and various sports facilities, including an Olympic-length swimming pool, are transformed into an extended Lexel campus, with a GenAI-driven planner to help teachers streamline the organization of class outings. “The Township is Your Campus” became the tagline for this approach.

In September 2025, just months after IDEO’s collaboration ended, Taylor’s began classes at its first Lexel International School. By mid-year, the new school had achieved 115% of its year-one student enrollment target, with significant inbound demand for Year 2 already demonstrating the school’s market resonance.

The modern campus features spacious classrooms, science and technology labs, a library, a multipurpose hall, and a canteen. Annual tuition ranges from about $2,800 USD for pre-K students to about $6,100 USD for secondary students.

Most importantly, by combining Taylor’s deep academic expertise, Gamuda Land’s development prowess, and IDEO’s innovative design Playbook, Lexel brings quality, affordable international education closer to home for Malaysian families. According to one parent, “My daughter looks forward to going to school every day … and has a lot of opportunities to express herself. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give [Lexel] an 11.” Based on the IDEO Playbook, a second flagship campus in the Southern Klang Valley, which is scheduled to open in September 2026, has already exceeded its year-one target enrollment expectations, with plans to continue extending the Lexel network to other parts of Malaysia and the wider Southeast Asian region in the near future.

Malaysia’s private international school sector has grown significantly as parents seek quality English-language education. However, high tuition fees and limited access to reputable schools are continual challenges for those in the emerging middle class.

115%

of Lexel’s student enrollment target reached during the launch year of its first campus
‍

Year 1 enrollment target exceeded

at Lexel's second campus several months ahead of classes commencing

‍

The American news industry has long been a competitive and saturated market. This has only intensified with the emergence of social media outlets and AI-generated news. Even so, SAN’s rigorously unbiased, fact-based reporting style and rich video storytelling had enabled the ambitious startup to rise above the media fray in just three short years.

With a strong foundation to build on, IDEO sought to further differentiate SAN’s cutting-edge news product and build deeper engagement with a wider audience through a new user experience.

‍Collaborating closely, IDEO and SAN began by delving deeply into media consumption habits. They met with early SAN superfans, news consumers who spent hours a day absorbing content from traditional outlets like Fox and USA Today, and those who looked to their Ring doorbell app or Reddit for news. The takeaways? People were tired of clickbait and clunky interfaces. They sought clear, factual news that was easily accessible, with additional context to help them interpret events and understand their significance. They craved more than one perspective on important topics, so stories felt balanced rather than polarized. They also valued having control over how they consumed news, so making it easy to switch between text, video, and audio formats was crucial.

Together, IDEO and SAN created features across SAN’s website and app that put facts, trust, and transparency at the core of the product experience. Fact Cards distill key data points into clear, shareable units, while the Sources feature allows readers to trace information directly back to its original source. To make complex stories easier to grasp, Big Picture insights drill down into why events matter, surfacing underlying themes, historical parallels, differences in reporting, and common ground. The Why This Story Matters section provides readers with clear framing and sets the story within a broader context, while the Timeline illustrates how events unfold over days, months, or even years. An antidote to news polarization, See All Sides presents left, right, and center narratives for key topics side-by-side, and Media Landscape visualizations reveal how coverage varies across outlets. Finally, to ensure SAN fits seamlessly into readers’ daily lives, the redesigned Today Page is organized into three highly scannable sections: Latest News, Top Stories, and SAN Originals. The combined features create a balanced, clear, and non-polarizing news experience, making it easy for readers to delve deeper into the sources of their news.

SAN now delivers a news experience as modern, dynamic, and trustworthy as its journalism. A month after its debut, the SAN app’s page views increased 1,170 percent year over year compared to June 2024, while active users rose 700 percent. Readers also give the updated mobile experience a 4.8 rating on the Apple App Store. “Our team is delivering reporting that’s both deeply factual and accessible,” said Derek Mead, SAN’s Chief Content Officer. “This redesign is pivotal to the direction journalism needs to take and the leadership role Straight Arrow News is taking on as we help guide the news industry into a brighter future.”

SAN built a loyal readership and gained recognition for its unbiased reporting. To expand and stand out from legacy media, SAN  wanted a redesigned user experience that reflected its commitment to fact-based journalism.

1,170%

increase in app page views YoY 

700%

increase in active users

4.8 rating

on the Apple App Store

Sanofi was the first company to supply the polio vaccine worldwide. Because of the global fight against the disease, endemic wild poliovirus transmission is now limited to just two countries. However, attitudes toward vaccines and immunizations have shifted significantly. To ensure a smooth launch of Beyfortus in a time of increased vaccine hesitancy, Sanofi asked IDEO to conduct research across four important and very different healthcare markets: Germany, Spain, China, and the US.

IDEO worked with parents, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and healthcare administrators to identify potential barriers to vaccine adoption and understand the emotional needs of all stakeholders involved in the immunization process. Navigating cultural differences and diverse healthcare environments, the team uncovered a set of insights.

For healthcare professionals, the team discovered there was no one-size-fits-all approach to immunization training across Sanofi’s 20-plus global markets. While consistency of key information was important, trainings needed to be flexible and customizable. This way, regardless of whether the vaccine was administered by midwives, OB-GYNs, nurses, or doctors, they could  confidently discuss the pros and cons across cultural contexts and administer the drug correctly.
‍
For new parents, receiving information about a new immunization immediately after giving birth could be too stressful. But simply leaving pamphlets about Beyfortus in waiting rooms didn't address their real concerns, either. Caregivers needed to engage in conversations earlier in their pregnancies and continue them after leaving the hospital, when they might have additional questions.

IDEO translated these research insights into a highly accessible global communication toolkit that uses simple, straightforward language, metaphors, and illustrations to support informed conversations between healthcare providers and parents before, during, and after a child is born. IDEO then conducted a series of market-fit co-design workshops with representatives of Sanofi’s global immunization business to iterate on the print and digital tools, make them more resonant with regional customers, and ensure compliance with local regulations. IDEO handed the toolkits over for development to support the launch of Beyfortus in January 2024, just in time for RSV season.

Beyfortus saw enormous demand in its first year, demonstrating strong efficacy in real-world applications and achieving blockbuster status as a $1.8 billion therapy. Sanofi’s global launch team credits the patient-centric toolkit with increased requests for communication materials from its regional markets as well as from healthcare and government organizations that have typically been hard to reach, key goals of its global-local launch strategy.

Since its development, Beyfortus has received swift regulatory approval from the US, EU, China, and Japan, with patient demand causing Sanofi to triple its worldwide manufacturing capacity to meet the needs of the 2024-25 RSV season. Ahead of the larger global distribution of Beyfortus, IDEO and Sanofi partnered with equity expert consultants, Fearless Futures, to conduct a DEI review and worked with doctors and nurses who participated in the initial drug launch to make the materials even more accessible, relevant, and successful for 2025 and beyond. To date, six million babies—and counting—have been immunized with Beyfortus.

Worldwide, childhood vaccination hesitancy among parents fluctuates between 25-45%, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), a trend it considers one of the biggest global threats to public health.

85.9%

‍reduction in hospitalizations for infants who received Beyfortus compared to those who did not (2023–24 RSV season)

$1.8B

in first-year sales of Beyfortus

‍

And unlike things that have been around just as long—Pepsi Clear, the Delorean, the Discman—it’s just as relevant today, for making everything from medical devices to emerging technology products.

By making things tangible early, we can explore the edges of what a product could be, prove something that hasn’t been done before is possible, or reduce risk by strengthening an idea before investing in it.

Our maker-first approach applies to everything we do—even when we’re designing for a future we haven’t seen yet. Because if you can’t click it, touch it, taste it, smell it, or hear it—how can you believe in it? It’s how we designed the first mouse for Apple back in 1980, helped create the all-electric Ford-150 Lighting, and the method that guided our research into what Gen Z really wants from AI products. 

Here are five reasons we get tangible early and often. 

‍

To solve a problem

When we approach a new problem, our minds are swirling with possibilities. Immersing ourselves in tools, materials, and mindsets can inspire us—often unexpectedly—turning our nascent thoughts into cohesive ideas. Working with our hands is often faster and more rewarding than turning straight to spreadsheets, computer models, simulations or CAD, and can add a little confidence, too. 

When IDEO started a program with Pluto Pillow to reimagine the travel pillow, jumping right into 3D CAD modeling didn’t make any sense.

It’s hard to define what makes someone comfortable enough to fall asleep on an airplane. So many factors play a role in finding that perfect position. So we gathered tons of relevant materials—from different density foams to variations of fabric softness—and kicked things off by using this array as inspiration. The result was dozens of simple prototypes that helped us identify and explore key themes we knew this new travel pillow would need to address to resonate with consumers; things like packability, cleanliness, re-positioning, and privacy.

To learn and test

How could this work? How might we interact with this? How do these parts fit together? The act of making lets us learn by doing, kick off conversations, and answer tough questions. Whether we’re making a wireframe, a mechanism, or formulas in a spreadsheet, tangibility accelerates our learning.  

In our decade-long relationship with the Ford Motor Company, we built numerous vehicles ranging from rough truck-shaped 80/20 frames to fully-custom commuter vans. These test beds of varying fidelity let us explore LOTS of new ideas—from maximizing storage space, laying out reconfigurable seating, or providing real-time progress communication along a route. Whether it was a big screen digitally tied to a seat and steering wheel to test a new driving experience, or stadium seating and a live progress map in a ride-share commuter van, getting tangible allowed us to test our ideas at the right level of fidelity, and learn what was working and resonating with our audience quickly and efficiently. 

To prove something is possible

When we’re solving really hard and complex problems, viable solutions often feel too daunting to even consider. But by making something, we can break these problems down into more manageable parts—be it a node in a complex network, a critical screen in a workflow, or a complicated part of an interaction. Thus we can explore things we might have dismissed as impossible—and prove a potential solution is worth continued exploration. 

IDEO worked closely with a pharmaceutical company to develop a first-of-its-kind autoinjector, an easy-to-use system that delivers a variety of drug products to people suffering from autoimmune diseases and other ailments. These complex mechanical devices rely on springs to do a lot of work: inserting the needle, pushing the drug into the body subcutaneously, and safely retracting the needle for disposal. IDEO built hundreds of prototypes to prove we could use two springs to accomplish these tasks, starting by repurposing simple found objects, then developing custom 3D printed parts to prove out specific functionality, and finally creating thousands of injection-molded prototype devices to convince ourselves and our partner that our design was robust and reliable. The result is a product our partner not only uses to deliver multiple drugs to a wide array of patients, it is the delivery device for three out of four of their best-selling drugs, which account for nearly $15 billion in annual revenue.

To try specifics and reduce risk

We often ask our clients to place big bets on our designs—both financial and strategic. Making something early on can help everyone test the risky or complex parts of a design, building consensus and confidence that it’s the right answer before investing too much time, energy, or money. Picture a new retail interaction, click-through prototypes of a workflow, or a functional mechanism that demonstrates a core functionality of a complex product. 

This was particularly helpful on a project we did with Teal Health. Cervical cancer screening saves lives. But the tests are uncomfortable at best and inaccessible at most, and screening rates have been on the decline, Teal came to IDEO for help designing a device and testing experience that would allow users of all body types to safely and accurately collect a sample at home—and be inclusive for anyone with a cervix. The wand was incredibly challenging to design, as the user has to find their cervix, collect the sample, and remove the wand without contaminating it on other parts of the body—all without looking and probably while standing. Considering the complexity of the task, we knew it would be critical for Teal to test the design in real people. In an initial study with 220 participants varying in age, race, socioeconomic status, and geography, Teal found that not only were participants able to successfully self-collect samples, they also preferred our design over the speculum, the device doctors typically use during a screening. Now, Teal has launched a nationwide clinical trial and is on the path to FDA approval, not to mention its ultimate goal, catching cervical cancer earlier and saving lives.

To tell stories

When we are designing the future, we have to find ways to help people experience something that doesn’t exist yet. Sometimes that means renting a warehouse to build out a full retail space and actually go shopping in the future; sometimes it’s a life-size game of chutes and ladders that helps admissions officers understand how complex the college application process can actually be. Making allows us to tell the story of a better future state, and inspires our clients to design that future alongside us. 

It’s hard to use schematics and spreadsheets to show the executives of a supersonic flight company what the customer experience of sitting in the cabin will actually feel like. So we built our clients at Boom Supersonic a full-scale prototype out of two by fours and plywood, adorned with foam core walls and custom-machined foam seats. When those executives can actually sit in the seats, walk around, and even feel what it would be like to visit the plane bathroom, the future aircraft experience comes to life in a whole new way. When you layer on actual flight moments like boarding, beverage service, and in-flight entertainment by leveraging VR headsets, the future becomes so tangible and real that everyone can get behind making this new aircraft a reality. 

Stuck working to solve a problem of your own? Prototyping can start with something as small as a sketch or a folded piece of paper—even if what you’re making is the size of a jet. All you have to do is start making.

At IDEO, we have a classic saying: Never show up to a meeting without a prototype. And unlike things that have been around just as long—Pepsi Clear, the Delorean, the Discman—it’s just as relevant today, for making everything from medical devices to emerging technology products.

Some of these aren't words we hear a lot about AI, particularly not in online conversations. Instead, when we conducted an experiment to synthesize general sentiment about AI, trends, and emerging AI case studies, we found a mixed review. 

Posts about the rabbit r1, HumaneAi pin, and other AI assistants offer enthusiasm, but also skepticism and concern. Popular technology Youtuber Marques Brownlee titled his review of the Humane Ai pin “The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed... For Now.” But some commenters were really positive. One wrote, “If someone can make an AI OS that works like this rabbit r1 demo, there’s another empire waiting to be built.” On Character.ai’s TikTok account, people most frequently commented about feeling an obsessive love for the app, or even an addiction. 

Different people have different needs and expectations, and the future of AI is not one-size-fits-all—or even custom in the way we understand it today. Instead, it will be defined by the proliferation of personalized, adaptive, and specialized solutions to a broad range of needs defined for each individual user. Today, users turn to AI assistants to explore, with an understanding that the outputs need to be reviewed with a critical eye. Widespread adoption of AI assistants in everyday life will require that users can have confidence in their output and actions.

To succeed, we believe these products will need to be five things—intuitive, social, trusted, multimodal, and nurturing.

With some inspiration from products we admire on the market, and signals about what’s coming, let's explore some early concept provocations for how each of these principles could make AI feel great to use and deliver on its promise—in the near-term and farther down the line. 

Intuitive entry points

Technologies that rely on AI promise to streamline our lives, but the current AI landscape is overwhelming. From choosing the right tool for a task to learning how to properly prompt it, the barrier to entry can be daunting for casual consumers. AI is ripe for an evolution into truly intuitive modes of interaction that make it easy to use and accessible for everyone.

Near vision: An AI platform that bridges multiple AI providers and tools with an added layer of automation that picks the optimal toolset and flow for a user.

Products like Perplexity AI show early visions of this style of simplified entrypoint, by offering several large language models (LLM) as options in their search tools. Their focus on mapping sources of data allows users to further explore information, pointing to a future where the AI can take further steps within that data for the user.

Far vision: A product that serves as the conductor of an orchestra of specialized AI agents that work together to accomplish complex tasks on behalf of the user—with minimal prompting and no need for detailed instructions. It would have holistic platform integration through a dedicated app, Siri, Hey Google, text, phone, or email, and be able to do things like schedule vaccine appointments for the whole family. 

‍Inspiration: Forethought, AI-first customer support service; Simplified, a specialized AI suite of marketing and collaboration tools; and Arc Max, an AI-powered web browser that seamlessly integrates LLMs and AI tools with the website browsing experience.

‍

Social goals

Across our work, we are seeing that people are more connected to technology, but less connected to ourselves and to others. AI technologies are a unique addition that can help people engage with technology in healthier ways. Instead of adding to the digital noise, new AI tools should help people engage with technology in ways that align with their values and lead us to healthy human connections.

Near vision: Opt-in AI assistants that use the data already on our phones to offer nudges and assistance on actions that support their social goals. They can do things like check users’ step count and the weather, to nudge them to get outside with friends on a sunny day. 

Far vision: An AI-powered journal that acts as a digital mirror. It gently nudges users toward their goals and helps them reflect on their day. They decide what data to share with it and which areas of their lives they want it to help with. It can provide support by, say, telling users it’s proud of them for chatting with their mom today when that was a hard thing to do six months ago, and offering to send her flowers as a follow-up.

Inspiration: Character.ai, which is attracting a younger demographic with its offer of human-sounding virtual characters that offer social enrichment and companionship; Journal, Apple’s new iPhone app, which helps users reflect and practice gratitude; Hume AI’s Empathic Voice Interface (EVI), which interprets emotional expressions and generates empathic responses; and ETHIQLY, which is a startup IDEO helped create that aids teachers as they scale (and deepen) connections with their students with the help of generative AI.

Trust and safety

We are living in a data-driven world, where fear and skepticism of AI and fair data use prevails. For users to truly embrace AI, it needs to move toward building trust in the safety, accuracy, and intentions of these applications. Only then can all people use them with confidence.

Near vision: Governance projects that scale safety and compliance solutions for business and consumers. When users interact with a new AI tool, they can see the safety rating and a detailed report, as well as flags about AI-generated content. 

Far vision: AI models are subject to a robust AI safety pipeline before being used by people. Once approved, consumers can feel confident that their data and accounts are secure and information provided is true.  

‍Inspiration: Credo AI, which provides an intelligence layer that tracks, assesses, reports, and manages AI systems to ensure they are effective, compliant, and safe; IBM’s investment into R&D on human-centered AI (HCAI) solutions that amplify and augment human capabilities; and Anthropic, which provides visibility into its models and oversight into AI governance.

‍

Multimodal interactions

We are already seeing significant advancements toward multimodal AI, with OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Gemini, but most AI technologies still rely on voice and text AI interactions, which limit the richness and convenience of inputs. We believe the ideal future AI technologies will offer a variety of less disruptive ways to interact with and seamlessly integrate into humans’ daily lives, through visual, tactile, and even emotional inputs that create an intuitive synergy between humans and AI.

Near vision: For work, build on existing AI Assistant services of call summary and call interpretation by providing live call outputs that include a mix of audio, visual, and text summaries. 

Far vision: Wearable and ambient tech powered by AI assistants that are made aware of the user and their surroundings through sensory and multimodal input, allowing for short and seamless prompts that enrich their life on-the-go. Imagine being at a networking event and getting a reminder of a name or face you might have forgotten. 

‍Inspiration: The AX Visio AI-powered binoculars, which blend analog viewing with AI for bird and wildlife identification; Fireflies, which joins your meetings to automatically take notes, capture, and transcribe voice conversations across various platforms; rabbit r1 and the Humane Ai pin, which aim for a more intuitive and app-free online experience​; and MIT-developed technology that translates subvocalization signals to words.

‍

Nurturing and wellbeing

Content generation and execution of simple tasks are just the beginning of what AI can help us with. Future AI solutions will need to be able to keep track of the never-ending list of to-dos involved in managing our current busy lifestyles—so we can have time to care for ourselves and each other.

Near vision: A sleep device company creates wake up and sleep routines customized to personal calendars, health needs, and family routines. Picture a smart speaker and light that calibrates to your bodily needs, supporting your sleep and wake up routines, to help you get a great night’s rest before and after any day.

Far vision: An AI assistant integrated in your household that supports smart devices and communication channels for the entire family. It can order groceries and craft recipes based on everyone’s preferences, schedule maintenance, book catering for birthdays—anything a busy household needs. When you need some off-AI time, all you have to do is unplug it.

‍Inspiration: Aura, a specialized machine-learning platform that can be paired with ordinary microphones and understand more than human voices—like dogs barking, babies crying, and doorbells; the “mui Board Gen 2,” a Kickstarter project for a smart home hub; and Assistant with Bard, which combines Assistant’s capabilities with generative AI to help you stay on top of what’s most important, right from your phone.

‍

These provocations are driven by our research and signals we’re seeing in the world. For us, the next step to creating human-centered AI products is testing the value of lo-fi prototypes with real users, to find out which products or features are worth our development resources and which map to true needs. After all, we’ve seen companies in the space rush to build a product and get it out the door, before they even test it with potential users. You can make something that seems super futuristic only to find out that no one wants it, or that it can’t really do what you promised. Forty years in, we’re big believers in the power of human-centered design to help us craft audacious futures with technology that people actually want.

Intuitive. Social. Trusted. Nurturing. Multimodal.

I was there as part of the IDEO Play Lab’s ongoing work to leverage design to create digital spaces that help people thrive. We believe that thoughtful digital design is critical, especially as advocates argue there is a correlation between unregulated social media platforms and an ongoing mental health crisis. (In 2021, the CDC found that 42 percent of high school student respondents “experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” a rise from 28 percent in 2011.)

‍At the event, I was really struck by what Khoa-Nathan Ngo, a psychology major at UCLA and a member of #GoodforMEdia, a youth-led group at the Stanford Center for Youth Mental Health & Wellbeing, had to contribute to the conversation. “You really can’t talk about youth, mental health, and well-being in this day and age without also talking about our relationship to social media,” he says. Ngo and his peers advocate for informed social media use and regulation; They’ve created tool kits for parents, led workshops at schools, and testified to support the Age-Appropriate Design Code Act in California. And they also regularly advise private companies and industry leaders, bringing student voice into the design process. After the event, Khoa-Nathan and I reconnected to talk about the importance of co-designing with youth to create a healthier future that includes digital tools and social media.

Michelle Lee: Nathan, you’re incredibly passionate about your work around social media and mental health. What drew you to this space?
Khoa-Nathan Ngo: During the Covid-19 pandemic, I realized that online, pushback against misinformation mostly happens within English-speaking spaces. In my Vietnamese community, and in Spanish- and Chinese-speaking communities, misinformation around where Covid-19 came from and the safety of the vaccine was rampant. That obviously has huge implications for health outcomes. I realized that what I was seeing on social media affected the health of my community and the nation. I couldn’t ignore that.

ML: We met at an event on digital thriving at the Stanford Internet Observatory, where you were part of the youth panel. Why is it important for companies in the private sector and advocacy groups to involve the youth voice in co-design?
KNN: The best argument for the importance of youth participation in co-design is when you look at what happened when they weren’t part of the process. Youth weren't considered in the social media design process at all, and that led to the situation we’re in now. Youth were only considered consumers, a demographic to engage and profit from. Technology could have been created to promote our well-being and interconnectedness, but what we value wasn’t centered in the design process, which has created a major crisis in terms of our mental health.

ML: You mentioned that the legislative work is very rewarding for you. Tell us more about that.
KNN: In our conversations around social media and mental health, there’s a lot of condemning individuals: Kids are addicted to their phones and they don’t know how to hold a conversation, or parents should control privacy settings. But at the legislative level, we’re able to have bigger conversations: How are these tech companies collecting data? How do they design these products to be addictive? How do they radicalize kids by exposing them to echo chambers? How should children’s data be stored? You can really only have those conversations at the policy level.

ML: What are your thoughts about policymakers? What advice do you have for people in positions of governmental power?
Khoa-Nathan Ngo: My advice is to bring in experts who so badly want to be a part of this conversation. The Age-Appropriate Design Code Act in California did that — part of the policy involved bringing together people from fields including computer science, mental health, and children’s rights to figure out a shared vision. This is a complex problem, and it deserves comprehensive solutions that involve going after companies and their practices directly, not just empowering parents and protecting kids. 

ML: I’ve heard you talk about the difference between privileges and rights in the digital space. Can you explain that distinction?
KNN: Of course. Because we all have these apps on our phones, social media platforms can feel like a public and shared space. But at the end of the day, these are private companies, and they can choose what they want to show us. If they privilege popularity-driven content over factual content, that’s their right. The opposite is also true: If their algorithm doesn’t privilege your post, you were not denied your First Amendment right. If you want to post something on your personal account, you have that right, but you don’t have the right to my attention. You have the right to speak, but it’s a privilege to be listened to.

ML: One word that came up repeatedly at the Stanford event was “nuance.” While many focus on the harms of digital media, there are also good things that come out of social media and digital presences, and I’d love for you to touch on that. If I were to say, we’re going to take away all social media, what would your response be?
‍KNN: If you remove social media because of the harm it has caused, then you’re indicting the people who use social media rather than the people who created these platforms to be addictive. No one said that the most popular content needs to be Photoshopped images or Breitbart. That comes from the platforms’ design, and shutting down social media puts the blame on individuals when it should be on companies. Don’t compromise our ability to politically mobilize, or for marginalized youth to find community. There are so many young people who find joy and love on social media—I don’t think that removing it is better than reforming it.

ML: Given how deep you are in this space, what are your thoughts on flipping social media from a tool that can cause harm to one that can lead to self-acceptance and more authenticity? What are some ways that we could approach that?
KNN: I really like this question, because I like to talk about concrete solutions. I think the biggest way we can make social media a place for self-acceptance rather than self-harm is to give autonomy to the users. Let people determine if they want their feed to only consist of people they actually follow, or only show their close friends. Let people determine what healthy social media looks like for them, and give them the ability to design social media for themselves. We know better than anyone else what’s good for us. We should have the ability and tools to act on that knowledge. 

ML: But there’s a certain level of education that goes along with that, to help people be more informed as they make these decisions for themselves, right?
KNN: Definitely. We need to regulate social media, but we also need to teach media literacy. It starts with making sure that mental health education is available in all schools, where children learn about how to protect their emotional health, including on social media. There are ways that we can make social media a better place, but at the end of the day, we also have to communicate to kids that having social media is a massive responsibility.

ML: What might tools to help youth understand that responsibility look like?
KNN: I think it’d be great if there was an online resource that helped parents and kids determine what level of vulnerability they have to online harm. Do I feel connected to my community? Do I feel understood by my peers? Have I developed interests and hobbies of my own? Maybe that can give a measurement that helps kids understand whether they should be online, based on how vulnerable they are to online addiction and harm. 

There also need to be conversations that happen at school. When students learn to navigate research online, we need to teach more than, “Don’t use Wikipedia, kids.” I’m really a fan of assigning an essay and asking students to cite five sources—one of those sources has to be from Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok, and you have to verify it as a credible source. What are the credentials of this TikToker? Are they an MD, are they trying to sell you something? Did they cite anyone in their video? We need to train media analysis and literacy to include social media platforms. 

ML: If you were a parent, what would you do to set rules or guidelines for your kids?
KNN: If I were a parent in this day and age, I would be a bit more humble about how social media is affecting kids’ brains, because it’s rewiring adult brains as well. Our parents say don’t believe everything you read online, but then they believe Facebook conspiracies. Social media addiction is very different from other types of addiction. Gen X and Boomers have seen alcoholism, drug abuse, and the opioid epidemic. My parents can talk to me about that and draw on a rich body of experience. But all of us are experiencing social media at the same time. They don’t have a wealth of experience to draw from. How do you warn kids about sexual predators, if you don't know that is happening online? Or warn them about becoming radicalized? My job is not to inform my child, but to be informed with my child. We’re in this messy digital world together. Can we work together? Can we share tips and tricks about how to have a healthier relationship with social media? 

It definitely has to be a much more egalitarian partnership than it used to be before. It has to be an equal partnership. We’re all going through it together at the same time.

ML: What advice would you give to designers in this space?
‍KNN: If you’re designing a product that will be used by or affect youth, then you should engage youth. That requires a special skill set, because for a young person, it can be really intimidating when an adult asks for your thoughts on an issue. You need to engage them, ask the proper questions, and make them feel comfortable being vulnerable. That’s a different skill set than being a good UX designer or engineer, so if that ability isn’t on your team, think about bringing in people who have experience with youth participation.

Are you asking the right questions about digital thriving? How are you working to understand Gen Z? Tell us how we can help.

A few weeks ago, I attended an event at Stanford University held in collaboration with the Biden-Harris Administration’s Kids Online Health and Safety Task Force.

Only 13 percent of women in Pakistan have a bank account, so they designed their product to be easier to use than traditional banks. Still, many women struggled to use the service, especially low-income women and first-time internet users.

What was happening? Why was it so hard to connect with customers?

The answer was always in front of them: male defaults.

The invisible made visible

Even though Oraan was built by women, for women, the startup struggled with the pervasive problem of male-centered norms. 

Male defaults reflect biases deeply ingrained in our society. They allow institutions to build products to fit the way men inhabit the world: the kinds of jobs they have; how they use phones; their available free time; and even their ability to move around in public. At best, this hinders women's access to financial systems, forcing them to jump over extra hurdles. Often, it means low-income women must rely on men as proxies, having to ask a husband to save money in his bank account, and then needing his permission to access that money. At worst, it excludes women from the financial system, robbing them of opportunities entirely.

Male defaults aren't just bad for women, they're bad for business. Globally, women are 31 percent more likely to have an inactive financial account than men, and banks and fintechs wonder why. Are women just not interested in saving money? Are they not educated enough to understand new products? Are they stuck in the past? Attempts to adapt existing bank products to appeal to women have often fizzled, and many new women-centered products have tried and failed to reach product-market fit. 

Why is this problem so hard to solve? It’s difficult to fix what you don’t see—and male defaults are so prevalent that they’re nearly invisible unless you know how to look for them. Anyone who has set up a bank account or used digital financial services has probably encountered them:

• Account sign-up processes that require customers to fill in their occupation in the first few questions (something mothers, caregivers, and the unemployed may not have, and can lead to dishonest answers)
• Marital status (which can can disadvantage or raise stigma for women who are single, separated, divorced, or widowed)
• Property ownership (which can disadvantage low-income women who rent, live with family, and women who do not have deeds or documents in their own names) 
• Mobile number, especially for account verification (which can immediately cut off women who don't own a mobile phone or share one with family members) 
• Annual income (which can make it very difficult for informal workers with multiple income sources to open a financial account or qualify for a loan)

With gender-intentional design, IDEO is pushing back against these practices, and challenging the reign of male defaults. Already, we’re starting to see how even small shifts can create outsized impact for women. 

An addressable opportunity

Today, more than half of the world’s 1.4 billion unbanked adults are women. At IDEO Last Mile Money, we believe the solution to filling this enormous gap in financial agency and social equity lies in better design, with products and systems made for and with women, not just adapted after the fact. 

Over the last five years, we’ve brought together gender experts, banks, institutions, and fintechs to co-design what women-centric financial products should look like.

Together, we’ve uncovered male-default design patterns and developed design principles to disrupt them. We’ve updated our Financial Confidence Playbook with a new section dedicated to women and finance, with examples of products, features, and best practices for designing for underserved women. It’s all in service of helping teams question and ditch male defaults.

Here are three key shifts that can help companies build products designed for women:

1. From invasive to inclusive

If you sign up for any financial service, you’ll often see the same standard questions. While they are meant to build a user profile and increase security features, diving straight into these questions about occupation, income level, or home ownership can quickly make underserved women feel unwelcome, and push them to abandon the process altogether. 

Luckily, small design changes can transform the experience. In Pakistan, we explored how to make a rigorous financial account sign-up process more inclusive. We asked Oraan: What is the information you actually need? How might we reframe data requests in ways that feel empowering for underserved women? This helped Oraan rewrite those standard questions, from “What’s your occupation?” to “How do you spend your days?” Simple, but effective: 50 percent more women signed up for Oraan’s service. And the changes also reduced the load on Oraan’s back-end systems. Because Oraan articulated its requests more clearly, women submitted higher-quality documents, which meant Oraan’s team spent less time on follow-up calls. Win-win.

2. Let’s get ‘phygital’

For women at the last mile, the journey to adopt digital finance begins long before they pick up a phone. Yet, many new products default to engaging customers via digital-only channels. So, we propose going “phygital,” connecting physical and digital experiences to meet women where they are. 

Why? Many underserved women live in a world that’s mostly person-to-person and not very digital. They’re more likely to share a smartphone, and  they juggle so many responsibilities as mothers, caregivers, and informal workers, they have limited time and bandwidth to try and learn new digital services. 

These factors affected product use at Wagely, a startup that digitizes wages for women factory workers in Asia. Many women in Bangladesh had signed up for the service, but their accounts became dormant quickly. In a country where just 21 percent of women own smartphones, Wagely needed a phygital approach. 

Together we expanded its service blueprint to include a few key physical touchpoints. Our goal was to increase trust in Wagely’s service by showing up at familiar spots like community centers, building tangibility with physical collateral like membership cards, and creating a reward system that’s tailored to women’s everyday purchases like groceries and health items. 

Designing for phygital might seem less cost-effective than going digital only, but it opens doors for female customers, can supercharge usage, and improves long-term retention. 

3. No pink products

We believe that to truly include women in finance, their needs have to be prioritized from initial research all the way through to the future roadmap.

In partnership with Mansi Gupta at UnConform, a women-centric design consultancy, we created a Gender Evaluation Framework to help companies build a more gender intentional strategy that guides teams from discovery all the way to outcome measurement. With four pillars—Intent, Capability, Commitment, and Impact—teams can use our  prompts to reflect on their own gender practices throughout the product cycle. 

Last year, we also used the framework to choose which of the more than 300 startups that applied to Last Mile Money's 2023 gender and finance accelerator to accept. Our portfolio startups took the Framework a step further to generate insights and ideas to improve everything from product features to strategy for the future, as well as how to measure their impact on women's lives.  

We’re sharing these design principles in hopes that financial institutions around the world will reconsider how they are designing their products, and include women’s needs in the process from the start—whether they’re unbanked women at the Last Mile in emerging markets, or women who have been kept out of financial systems in the U.S. Not only is it the right thing to do, it’s a way to reach the next billion women coming online. 

Already, Oraan is seeing the benefits of the shift it has made to center the needs of women in Pakistan. With 50 percent more women accessing digital financial services through their platform, IDEO and Oraan are demonstrating that gender-intentional design benefits both financial providers and underserved women themselves.

‍

Dive deeper into the Women x Finance section of the Financial Confidence Playbook.

In 2023 the team at Oraan, a women-led fintech startup in Pakistan, was facing lower signup rates than they expected.

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.

Cas Holman and IDEO Partner Michelle Lee answer questions about applying playful thinking when time is short and stakes are high, including how leaders can create psychological safety, use constraints to fuel creativity, and model vulnerability.

Play isn’t the opposite of serious work. It’s a leadership mindset that helps teams stay curious, creative, and effective under pressure. In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, host Mina Seetharaman is joined by Cas Holman, play designer and author of Playful, and Michelle Lee, IDEO Partner and Executive Co-Managing Director, to explore how play supports better questions, psychological safety, and innovation at work.Why playfulness can improve collaboration, experimentation, and creative quality.

IDEO CEO Mike Peng returns to the Creative Confidence Podcast to answer questions from listeners about modern creative leadership. Building on his previous episode, Mike goes deeper on how to lead creative teams when organizations resist change, how to reduce fear and build trust, what failure has taught him about leadership, and how to stay inspired in a fast-moving world.

The creative leadership advice continues. In Part 2, creative leaders including IDEO partners, alumni, and IDEO U instructors share hard-won lessons on relationships, reflection, and staying human as we move into 2026. Host Mina Seetharaman and IDEO Partner Ilya Prokopoff share reactions and build on each leader’s advice. Many of the leaders featured on this episode have been guests on the podcast.