Giving food assistance is about more than handing over a box of groceries. It’s about allowing people to make their own choices.

But the pandemic only narrowed people’s choices. Undeterred, Northern Illinois Food Bank (NIFB) put people’s needs above everything else, leading to innovations that could improve food banks everywhere. IDEO recruited neighbors to co-design a new digital tool intended to improve people’s access to food. Local residents provided more than insights—they steered design decisions and helped transform the relationship between NIFB and the community.

Northern Illinois Food Bank’s My Pantry Express app allows people to browse and order groceries online and to choose a pickup time and location that works for their schedule. We designed the app to provide useful information on dietary preferences and to be inclusive of cultural differences. The result allows choice and flexibility, helps prevent food waste, and preserves the dignity of shoppers throughout the process by making My Pantry Express feel like any other grocery site.

Ultimately, Northern Illinois Food Bank and IDEO’s strategy for success relied on new metrics. In addition to measuring effectiveness in pounds of food distributed, we found new ways to measure shoppers’ satisfaction—a solution that works better for all parties involved because it was designed by all parties involved.

An estimated 1 in 8 Americans experience food insecurity.

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The food insecurity rate is 2-3x higher for persons of color than for white households.

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60% of food insecure households do not use food pantries.

1.9M

meals distributed through My Pantry Express in 2021

50%

increase in distribution from prior year

To create Bendable, IDEO worked alongside the people closest to the problem, so every important decision grew out of their experience.

IDEO and the Drucker Institute aligned with the library system and city leaders in South Bend, Indiana, on a single objective: build a learning platform that offered education opportunities to people affected by the decline of manufacturing in the region. But even the earliest phases of research revealed that there’s no common profile that matched the diversity of learners. There are innumerable reasons why people seek to learn and as many barriers holding them back.

Knowing this, South Bend residents were the acknowledged authority for this work, and a design consultancy all their own. This radically simplified crucial decisions. Negative associations around traditional education led people to seek knowledge from those they already trusted. And they often lacked awareness about or the ability to access the many free resources already available.

The residents of South Bend helped the entire consortium see that the city wasn’t under-resourced but under-connected. That insight, and the power the community and the library system held to rectify it, made Bendable into the people-driven, connection-based learning platform it is today.

By 2025, as many as 85 million jobs will be displaced by automation, yet 97 million new ones could emerge.

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More than a third of adults pursuing postsecondary education before the COVID-19 pandemic were forced to abandon those plans.

25

programs and other resources offerings are now available to residents of South bend

4

states have begun to integrate Bendable into library systems

Protecting the right to vote means ensuring that all citizens can cast their ballots privately, independently, and easily.

With that principle in mind, Los Angeles County sought out a design strategy firm to create a next-generation, customizable system that would meet the needs of its large and diverse voter population while satisfying myriad voting regulations. The result: an accessible, self-enclosed ballot-marking device with a touchscreen that allows any voter to easily navigate, mark, verify, and submit a paper ballot. We also worked to improve the entire voting experience, including vote-by-mail ballots, interactive sample ballots, and the tally process.

As with any inclusive design, details matter. Voters with vision impairment or reading disabilities can opt for audio and tactile experiences with the push of a few simple buttons. And for voters who prefer to read the ballot in their native language—Spanish, Chinese, Korean, or any one of the 11 others supported by the county—the device lets them select their preference.

After extensive research and testing with constituents, we designed a solution that makes voting easier for anyone. And knowing that the only constant is change, we made the system flexible enough to adapt to emerging needs and technologies, protecting voters’ rights now and in the future. Read the full case study here.

26% of American adults have some type of disability. In the 2020 election, 18% of disabled voters nationally reported difficulty voting, about twice as many as non-disabled voters.

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In 2020, national voter turnout among disabled people was 7% lower than among non-disabled people in the same age group.

"Intuitive & secure"

was the sentiment most Los Angeles County voters expressed about the new voting system after the 2020 primary election

Conservation International is made up of conservation experts. To bolster its work, we bring a focus on scale, speed, and the human element to every project.

How does that look in the field? To restore the forest of Fiji, Conservation International paid a cash incentive to the community to buy, plant, and care for new trees and foliage. But once those cash incentives stopped flowing, the work ground to a halt. Taking a human-centered-design approach, one employee uncovered an insight: Fijians are more motivated to help in exchange for longer-term, noncash incentives like building infrastructure in villages. Small projects such as footpaths, repairs to communal trucks, beehives, or sports programs for youth continually reminded the community that the environment is a provider for their families, imparting a feeling of shared ownership in its conservation.

Stories like this, repeated around the globe, are how we hope to help Conservation International find sustainable outcomes. Our work together, including a six-month fellowship to help emerging leaders develop new capabilities, and a series of strategic, future-focused events for executives, has brought more tangibility and deeper collaboration to the organization.

Together we hope to create businesses, food solutions, and energy alternatives that conserve nature, and improve human health—because humans are a part of nature, too.

The scientific community overwhelmingly agrees that we have ten years to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions or humanity will suffer devastating consequences.

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We need to conserve one third of the global ocean using area-based measures and ensure at least 75% of seafood is harvested using socially responsible, environmentally sustainable methods by 2030.

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75% of the world’s poor rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, which in turn depends on nature for pollination, irrigation, and soil replenishment.

20

leaders integrated human-centered design into annual goals, project pipelines, and fundraising efforts

20%

of the organization is now involved in design-thinking projects

As a writer, I’m particularly interested in getting to know IDEOers on a personal level. By seeing what makes us unique as individuals, I can tell better stories about the company as a whole—people from very different backgrounds and perspectives coming together to design for systems change around the world.

As a queer woman, I’m especially invested in seeing how that work drives equality and acceptance for all vulnerable communities—helping to make the world a place where we can all live as our full selves. To learn more, I reached out to IDEO’s queer employee resource group, PRIDEO, and interviewed the community. I asked about the ways in which they bring their LGBTQIA+ identities to work, the trends they’re starting to see emerge because of it, and the hopes they have for the future of queer design. Here’s what they had to say.

Access is the next wave of design

Historically, queers have had to fight for access. Access to freedom, to healthcare, job security, and a place in society as a normal human being. The fight is far from over, but that is something that all queers remember when they take on a design project, whatever it is. When I was designing brand strategy for a recent client website, I had to ask, “Why is there only one type of person in the room?” (White male.)

My queerness gives me the language and the “radar” to sniff inequalities out with a vengeance. Knowing we have to fight to “redesign” systems to accommodate and accept all types of queerness, it helps me see beyond the demographics listed in the brief, and to know that access is the next/current wave of design. There is a global reckoning for racial equity within design, for our entire process to change, for leadership to perhaps step down to make room for actual diversity at the top, and all of that is just so much more glaringly obvious when you are queer in this world—and in the design field.

—Stuart Getty, Design Lead and Writer, San Francisco

A focus on removing barriers

Being queer, I think a lot about how I might design to remove barriers. I have the opportunity to update outdated language and to create environments that celebrate the beauty of diversity. I can facilitate new cultural habits to bring in needed voices into a conversation. My role as a designer at IDEO is to listen and set aside my assumptions and my ego. There is always a need for collaboration. It takes many of us, with different lived experiences, to see a multitude of barriers to remove.

—Alan Ratliff, Senior Lead, Inclusion, Culture and Change, San Francisco

Choosing pride as an act of rebellion

Being a Black woman in today’s society is hard. Adding queer to the equation makes it even harder. However, I choose pride as an act of self-care. I choose pride as an act of rebellion. It’s extremely important for me to show up to every space, bringing my full self to every conversation, and a company like IDEO provides a space for me to do so. I am extremely grateful for the employee communities I’ve been able to join during my time here. Freely engaging with those who understand and support me is a gift that has helped me bring my full self to work.

—Emanie White-Heard, Coordinator, New York

Moving away from “the way things have always been done”

When you come out, you're recognizing your difference and you choose to express that difference openly. In coming out, you are born into bringing a diverse opinion either with your family, your friends, or society on the whole.

When I came out pre-gay marriage, it was still a quiet thing to be gay—very little representation in the media, The L Word wasn't even out yet. It was in this moment that I embraced my own voice and its ability to create reality.

In that way, I realized that I got to design what sexuality meant to me. It was like I had been given a blank canvas. I could choose what, if anything, I wanted to bring from mainstream interactions into my own perception of what relationship, gender and sex meant. I learned that nothing is 0 or 1, all male or all female, but rather it was a spectrum of choice that could be tweaked from moment to moment if I wanted to. In that effort, you realize that everyone will approach this balance differently for themselves as well. In work, I could hold my “design” as valid just as much as someone else's “design.” Two things, or more, could be true at the same time—none any more “right” than another.

As a designer, you have to be willing to put your ideas out there even if they differ from the status quo or the way things have always been done, you need to cultivate a willingness to question assumptions, even your own, and you have to be able to do all that in the context of others who will bring their own realities to the table as well—being gay helps me do that every day.

—Meg Rice, Lead Learning Architect, San Francisco

The importance of visibility

Queerness at work can have different levels of visibility—and for me, it’s important that I show up visibly queer at work. Growing up gay in Bolivia, I rarely crossed paths with openly queer people. The culture is conservative, and was even more conservative back then. I present as gender fluid, and it was difficult to believe I’d be able to express myself in an authentic way while still having a chance at success. However, feeling free in my expression is really important for my creativity. So, when I started working, I decided to not hold back—even in professional settings—in hopes that at least one queer kid would see visible queerness in the context of work and feel like it means they, too, can express themselves authentically—especially within my Latinx community.

—Bruno Olmedo Quiroga, Senior Design Researcher, Cambridge

Creating your own playbook

I came of age in the 1980s. My introduction to being “gay" occurred when I was an 11 year-old paperboy, made apparent through the headline: RARE CANCER SEEN IN 41 HOMOSEXUALS. Thus began my fraught sexual awakening: panic, self-loathing, and, most importantly, secrecy. The realization was significant and isolating, prompting me to turn inward, a years-long journey of self-reflection. Emerging from this, I saw everything differently, structurally: the world was wrong—not me.

When the world doesn't reflect you as you are, you have to manage the cognitive dissonance creatively, sometimes in bespoke and idiosyncratic ways. When no playbook exists, you create everything from scratch: norms, family, a sense of safety. You have to work hard to find your people. Coming up as a gay man was my test to pass—and it turned out to be a blessing.

On the iterative path to accepting my identity, I grew aware of the contradictions swarming around me, around all of us. I became comfortable with ambiguity. I learned how to compromise, to collaborate, to be flexible; how to celebrate small successes. I tuned into the inflections in people: what they say and what they do, and could see opportunities. I learned how to listen, to be pragmatic, to be resilient. This is design.

Nothing is ever perfect. And a lot of things are still very much lousy. But everything can be improved upon. Design guarantees this. And it's my life's work. I'm living the dream that my 11 year-old self could never have imagined, that many 11 year-olds can now see writ large: you can love who you want, you can be loved, you can do this without shame. I think of all my brothers and sisters who didn’t make it through their struggle unscathed. For them, pride and progress are things I’ll never take for granted. It's not perfect, but perfecting. Somebody pinch me. How could I not be optimistic?

—Mark Del Lima, Interaction Designer, San Francisco

Having greater empathy for others

Growing up gay in a small town in China has been a rather lonely/alienating experience. From being bullied at school because of my femininity, to being screamed at by parents because they found texts on my phone implying my crush to a boy in class, everything felt like it was denying my existence. Being in that environment, I experienced a lot of emotional pain and it made me into a very sensitive person. I’m now more able to recognize and empathize with someone who is going through emotional turmoil. It gives me the ability to be comfortable around someone who is expressing emotional pain. I’m able to handle the depth that a lot of people are uncomfortable with—meaning that I can better comfort that person, or turn emotion into action to drive change.

—Anonymous IDEOer, Chicago

Recognizing your own privilege

Once I was out with a friend when she had to go to the restroom. Then the police arrived: someone had called security on her. While I was shocked, my friend was not. As a trans woman of color, she was used to being policed for the smallest everyday action, like going to a public restroom and nearly being arrested for her gender identity.

This is an example of how being part of queer and trans communities taught me how systems have failed us. I quickly learned to have empathy for my friend who not only had a different experience than me but faced more barriers as a trans person. I realized how I take things for granted, like the simple act of moving freely or feeling safe as a cis gender person with male privilege. Being queer and a designer, it’s made me want to turn that empathy and realization into actions. I can see how we can redesign systems big and small—from supporting the overhaul of broken social systems to being mindful everyday in how I use gender pronouns to be more inclusive.

2020 marked the 50th anniversary of the first Pride protest following the Stonewall riots in response to police brutality. And since then we’ve had many months of protests against police murders of black people. As a queer person of color, I am deeply saddened by the persistence of anti-blackness and racism, as well as violence against Black trans folx and anti-trans Bathroom Bills that perpetuate harassment like my friend endured. And yet as I look back over the decades of movement building and the past months of action, being queer also gives me hope to envision that another world is possible.

—John Won, Last Mile Money Co-Lead, San Francisco

Illustrations by Cassandra Fountaine

One of my favorite things about IDEO is the people. There is a culture of creativity and openness here that encourages people to really see one another as whole humans, beyond their title or credentials.

Her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” concluded with a galvanizing call to Americans: “We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. There is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it.”

Gorman’s passionate delivery was a reminder of the power of poetry to captivate an entire nation, invite a collective pause, and inspire both reflection and action.

2020 was a year of reflection and action for business, too. Taking a moment to process it all, IDEO and SYPartners—two of the creative firms that make up the kyu Collective—hosted a virtual gathering called “Poetry Rx” for employees to share their original poetry, recite their favorite works, or simply soak in the pleasure of rhythm and verse.

To kick off Poetry Rx, Lisa Maulhardt of SYPartners said, "Poems are us singing to one another about our shared humanity. And poems are valuable in business because business is simply a context for a bunch of us humans to play out our shared humanity: Our bravery, ego, our ambition, our greed, and even our love, are ultimately what make business run. That's why poems belong in business.”

Here are three of the many beautiful poems shared during the session. We hope they lend some relief, rejuvenation, and inspiration.

divine flow, by Alysha English (IDEO)

flow is supreme truth
flow is intuition
flow is raw sugar
flow is honey
flow is manifestation
flow is freedom
flow is presence
flow is patience
flow is activism
flow is truth to power
flow is 'you are the power'
flow is divine

sometimes flow is an accident that finds us,
and when it does – flow is sitting with it, letting it stick

flow is play
flow is feeling it
flow is rhythm
flow is dance
flow is grace

flow is watching the pieces shatter and then
picking each piece up with love and trusting that every piece will land
exactly where it’s meant to be
a mosaic, a masterpiece

flow is art
flow is ritual
flow is an invisible pulse, a heartbeat
flow is that feeling when you lose track of time
and remember that you are divine

flow is a moment
flow is a breath

flow is me. flow is you. flow is us. flow is energy.
flow is me. flow is you. flow is us. flow is energy.
flow is me. flow is you. flow is us. flow is energy.

Infinite Definitions of Birthright, by Lauren Ito (IDEO)

Infinite definitions of birth right

Is it place
Or people
Or textures
Or graves
Or lullabies caressing cheek
Or…
afterthought

Or contorted masks in shapes we can’t bring ourselves to recognize anymore

I hitchhike towards mirages
Count mile markers in what grows beside the road
Who destroys it
How the invasive species are named
Where resilient blooms atop fault lines keep extinction at bay

And poetry becomes wills only some can inherit.

Tucking affirmations beneath toes at each bend
I ground prayers for cocooned comfort in given skin
As if we were destined to belong here
After all.

Originally published by the San Francisco Public Library

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry After Whitman, by Michael Juretic (Sid Lee)

1.
You are the patient laid out on the table.
Your eyes are peeled fruit,
brimming with low bruised sky.
The butcher ghosts are working.
No anesthetic, no disinfectant,
no intention of stitching up that hole.

Heart specialists. Their pinprick eyes,
their gore-knotted fists, the nylon swoosh
of bloodstained scrubs.

And deep in that bone white cage,
what is it?
Naked, lurching; what a terribly
obvious muscle.

You are laid out on the table.
The butcher ghosts are at work, and,
working, the butcher ghosts
change

2.
You know who you are
I wake up to thoughts of you.
I reach for you like skyscrapers reach
in the pink-bricked morning.

This map is the map of the universe
is the map of time.
It is your stars that dot
my molecule’s chart.

We are fish that swim
in the rivers of our blood.
We thrash, we sound and breach.
We jump or heaven, dripping blood,
we reach for the waters above.

If you'd like, take a few minutes to share your poetry with us on Instagram—we'd love to hear from you.

Amanda Gorman, the United States’ first National Youth Poet Laureate, left many of us awed during her reading at the 2021 presidential inauguration.

I met him in 2005, when he became the art director of my crafty, grassroots Berkeley magazine, ReadyMade.

In the years that followed, we laughed and wept through one of the most fruitful creative collaborations of our lives. Then, in 2011, George strapped on a jetpack, waved goodbye to publishing, and lit out to start his own eponymous juggernaut, McCalmanCo. Aside from his fertility as a creative director, illustrator, and artist, 2020 was a year of honing “Observed,” his column for the San Francisco Chronicle, into a razor-sharp instrument of cultural commentary. One of his pieces shares the backstory behind his exhibition, “Tell Me Three Things I Can Do/Return To Sender,” a collection of bold, typographic renderings of messages he received from white acquaintances in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. I caught up with George in January, 2021, to hear more about an eagerly awaited new project: Illustrated Black History: Celebrating the Iconic and the Unseen, due out from Amistad/HarperCollins in October, 2021.

In one sentence, who are you?

A polymath trying to simplify his life.

What do you do? How did you learn it?

Too many things for this format! I’m a fine artist, illustrator, art director, cultural critic, editor, writer, and professor of graphic design. I also run McCalmanCo, a design studio that does branding for companies, books, and individuals. I learned all of those things through magazine military training. I started at the peak of magazine publishing in New York and left right at the sunset in San Francisco.

One story that sums up that experience was my very last day atEntertainment Weekly. I put in an all-nighter designing the cover story on Heather Locklear at Melrose Place. I had already cleared my desk, but I needed to be there to get it done. I came in at 8 a.m. and left at 8 a.m. the next morning. I said to myself, I never want to do that again. And I never did. San Francisco offered a version of that life without ever getting to that level of insanity.

What are your 3 favorite possessions?

My home is filled with art that my friends have created. This year represents the most time I’ve spent at home, and I realized I’ve constructed my home as an altar—a totem to both friends who have passed and those who are living. So, my entire home is my favorite possession. Also, my studio. And my friendships.

What does a typical work session look like?

Communication. A lot of communication. Because every day is atypical. What is consistent in how I approach anything I do is I try to make sure I have a perspective on what I’m doing first. Whether I’m starting an illustration, painting, doing a shoot for a book, if I don’t know what I’m doing, I stop. I’ve stopped meetings, conversations, illustrations, I’m always like, Wait what am I doing, who am I talking to? It makes everything I do better.

How do you get over creative block?

If I’m having difficulty it has to do with everything outside the creative process. It’s an emotional or somatic block. When I listen to my emotions or body, all the information is there. If my body is tired, I won’t draw for a week, rather than powering through. I am prolific because I’m tuned into the lessons I’m getting from my emotional or somatic state and I don’t challenge those things. But this is not something I knew when I was younger, only in the last 10 years. I think back and my body was sending me all those signals all along.

What was the last item on your to-do list?

I’m directing a photo shoot for Bryant Terry’s new book, so I’m currently organizing a zoom call with the team. The truth is that I’m never not working—I’ve fused my personal and professional life. I learned that from James Lord and Roderick Wyllie of the landscape architect firm Surfacedesign. They are a couple who are very different people, but inseparable. They move through life with no break between work and life—they will work through a glorious dinner and while traveling—but it’s not work that’s breaking them, it’s work that’s energizing them. That joyfulness in treating their work like it’s their choice rather than their burden inspires me.

How do you see the world in 2078?

I think the U.S. will still be a messy, unsatisfying experiment. The pandemic has transformed much of this world and it will be years before we see how that’s manifested. Two words thrown around a lot are hope and optimism. That’s a very American position. I don’t really think in those terms. Do I believe we are going to make progress? Yes. But we live in a country where people don’t want the progress, so we have to figure out how to live with those who don’t think treating people of other races equally is a good idea, or that paying for the health care for everyone is a good idea, or that letting people who enter this country become citizens is a good idea. How do we reconcile these polarities? It’s not optimism or pessimism, it’s just work. My white lady friends say “I’m so hopeful now,” and I think, how wonderful for you, what a luxury that you get to be hopeful.

What's your number one bucket list item?

I’m doing it! To write and illustrate and design my own book. Much of Black history is reduced to 10 people, but the book I’m working on tells the story of 400 years of American history through the eyes of 150 Black pioneers. Their biographies are historical allegories in that you’ll see how the Black community, unlike the white community in this country, is very much a continuum of our ancestors passing down knowledge. It’s a contemporary telling, devoid of the dryness of historical writing. It’s celebratory of the sacrifices that some of these pioneers of business, film, art, writing and science made to enhance our ideas of democracy and justice. I’m treating them like they’re the Avengers. I hope everyone reads it. It’s a gift you can send to your slightly racist cousin, your republican father, and your apathetic aunt. I want it to be read by students and teenagers and 80-year-olds and also by those who don’t care about Black history.

Who are you creative crushin' on lately?

A short list of iconoclasts who are in their own lane:

• Bryan Stephensen of the Equal Justice Initiative
• The illustrator Lauren Tamaki
• New Yorker food writer Bryan Washington

‍

George McCalman wasn’t always a multi-hyphenate. The art director-writer-illustrator started out as a traditional graphic designer, earning his stripes through the “military training” of New York magazines in the aughts.

To think back on how we “prepared”—as individuals, organizations, and communities—is a lesson in hindsight. Who could have imagined the new vocabulary, behaviors, and habits we’d all acquire in one short year?

In New York and New Jersey at that time, more than 280,000 people traveled each day on the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) train, one of the region’s most important public transit systems connecting New Jersey and New York. Squeezed into metal cars, commuters scrolled through headlines suggesting that an unremarkable trip across town might be unwise, if not dangerous. Transit agencies scrambled to establish new guidelines and produce communications to keep riders safe, but the virus was outpacing people’s capacity for behavior change at this scale and speed.

By April, the pandemic had gained a threatening grip on the New York City region, and PATH ridership had fallen off by nearly 95%. Stay-at-home orders took effect, and daily commuters hung up their office attire to the sound of sirens cutting through vacant streets. It wasn’t clear at the time how the disease spread, and how safe mass transit was. All the while, essential workers continued to pass through stations and trains each day, and their lives were on the line.

Transit operators have many contingency plans, but this unforeseen crisis required quick action: at PATH, leaders quickly implemented safety protocols such as overnight train cleaning, and posted signs and messages to let riders know what was being done to protect them, and what new behaviors they'd have to adopt to make sure those protocols actually worked. Everyone’s cooperation was essential, yet not all forms of communication are equally effective.

Try, try again

Inside The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), which operates PATH, one small department specializes in thinking about innovation within the institution and—critically—in how riders engage with the system. The Office of Continuous Improvement (OCI) had already been exploring and applying design thinking strategies when they decided to call IDEO to see how a more immersive, design-led approach could yield quick, effective solutions to the challenges COVID had delivered to the PANYNJ systems.

Lisa Dewey-Mattia, who heads the small OCI team, initially connected with IDEO Director Randy Plemel to develop a plan for an immersive, rapid collaboration that might yield some new ideas for communicating with PATH riders and facilitating behavior change. “It was a time when everyone in every industry was trying to figure out, how do we adapt?” Dewey-Mattia recalls, “We had this conundrum with regard to customer confidence and safety, and the physical design of our space. We were asking ourselves, how can we best meet the needs of the agency and our riders right now?” The small team worked remotely to workshop the highest-value, shortest-term problems identified across the whole Port Authority which could fit in a two-week sprint. Plemel remarked, “The OCI team has deep connections across the Port Authority’s different units. Designing for PATH riders and operators allowed us to focus on the most acute issue—confidence in using the system—and the learnings could be transferred to other Port Authority units like the airports and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.”

Large transit agencies aren't typically known for rapid innovation, but the only clear approach to such an unprecedented challenge was a willingness to experiment. When IDEO team members joined OCI and other subject matter experts from across the agency, the product they were working toward was not yet defined. What PATH leaders were looking for was an outcome: all riders wearing their masks properly, maintaining social distance, and heeding public messaging. How to get there wasn’t yet clear. “At that point in time, what we needed was to be able to simplify our communication to our customers. We didn’t need fancy or clever,” says Clarelle DeGraffe, the Director and General Manager of PATH, “But there’s also fear of backlash from customers that it’s too simple.”

With lockdowns and distancing preventing on-the-ground research, the team had to nix in-person interviews and spontaneous conversations, instead establishing remote communication that still yielded candid, comfortable interaction. “This was a very different project for Port Authority,” explains Morgan Keane, DeGraffe’s Chief of Staff. “So much was produced over two weeks’ time, and it was really driven by people being able to collaborate with each other, even remotely.” What became clear was that riders and workers needed to feel confident and safe on the train. Boosting confidence depended on communication strategy.

Over two weeks, IDEO and PATH staff immersed themselves in a design sprint to come up with nine concepts for solving their core challenges, from masking and safety information, to operational changes to the trains, to touchless payments. The large sprint team reviewed these concepts with a panel of advisors at PATH and the greater Port Authority, then pared them down into a series of three prototypes, which hinged on the critical behavioral mandates of COVID: 1.) Stay masked up; 2.) Maintain distance where possible, and; 3.) Practice compliance with stated guidelines.

Live prototyping in a high-stakes environment

PATH and OCI approached Port Authority leadership and asked for permission to use one of the smaller train stations as a place to test ideas. At Grove Street Station in Jersey City, signs went up alerting riders that they’d be seeing some changes around the station, and QR codes on the posters invited real-time feedback as riders passed through. “At every point our customers really understood that we were doing proof of concept,” says DeGraffe, “And that turned out to be positive. Our customers took it as a reassuring indicator that we were looking to pilot new things to keep them safe, and they appreciated us looking outside the box.”

The most successful prototype was a “mask-up zone” at the station entrance, where riders could pause, outside the flow of travelers, to properly cover their faces before descending to the platform. People immediately adjusted their flow through the station to make use of this preparation area. IDEO Senior Design Lead Jeff Kessler, who led the PATH collaboration, points out that the most enduring concepts are the ones that can survive many rounds of doubt. “There’s a balance between protecting new ideas as they emerge and letting them take enough criticism to improve and work. Ultimately, the concepts that survive rounds of testing should improve the long-term operations of the system.”

Down on the platform, a concept designed to keep people apart didn’t prove as effective. Riders provided feedback that they didn’t want to comply with signs directing them where to stand while awaiting the train. Yet, many added, they were reassured to know that new safety measures were under consideration.

That insight led PATH to think beyond posters and signs, to what other means might be used to disseminate their messages. One team member, noting that there’s limited space for signs on trains, was inspired by the “I Voted” stickers people don on their shirts on election day. “Why not be a little cheeky and make stickers to hand out along with free masks? That way passengers themselves become communicators of the message.” The idea was relatively cheap to test out, and it was a sign to riders that the agency was thinking about their well-being.

Although the train is part of many people’s everyday lives, DeGraffe says it still comes as a surprise to some that train operators and leadership are truly listening to what they have to say about their experience. “Everyone thinks of it as their own little train,” says DeGraffe of PATH’s rider culture. “They post things to Twitter about their experience and we respond.” That personal, human outreach has the benefit of building trust and connection between riders and their transit system—a better way to foster adherence than by cracking down on non-compliant individuals. DeGraffe points to the increased tension around police interaction during this time. “We’d rather give out a mask than a summons.”

Lessons for the future

More than a year after COVID first rolled into New York and New Jersey, ridership on public transit hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, but residents are slowly resuming routines and vaccination rates are raising a little hope into a shaken city. At PATH, the spirit of exploration and willingness to prototype have remained. In late January 2021, PATH announced a new diplomatic corps called the Mask Force Ambassadors, “a group of volunteers whose daily mission is to help keep riders masked, socially distant, and able to travel in the safest possible environment.” On those volunteers’ bright yellow t-shirts and in large lettering around the stations, riders see the simple message developed during the IDEO sprint: “Mask On. Ride On.”

PATH Chief of Staff Keane reflects on how similar adaptive responses have appeared in other areas of the city, and where she sees the impact of institutions that are slow to change and accommodate their communities. “During COVID, the streets are being taken over for outdoor eating, distanced interaction, bookstores with takeout windows. It’s interesting to think about new ways to do things,” says Keane, “And it’s important to test for the extremes: Say okay, can a really old person do this and a child do this? Can you get from an underground station to an outdoor plaza while pushing a stroller? The way to really bring this home for people is to have them walk through with a different perspective.”

That constructive empathy is exactly what Kessler hoped for from the PATH and IDEO collaboration. “This was a moment when if we got the nuances right it would keep people healthy and taking care of each other and giving each other respectful space on the train,” he says, noting how bravely PATH stepped into experimentation as a new route to safety. “It’s a good thing for design to be working on.”

Illustrations by Ran Zheng

In January 2020, news of COVID-19’s approach was building like a looming storm. That the pandemic was coming seemed clear, but when it would arrive, where it would appear, and how bad it would be, nobody could yet predict.

I help organizations cut through complexity by shaping how they show up, through brand strategy, identity, and storytelling.

Working at the intersection of brand and business, I bring an editorial eye and a bias toward making—turning ideas into tangible experiences that people can understand, trust, and believe in.

My work spans government, healthcare, financial services, media, and consumer goods, from launching Gen Z-focused ventures to building innovation labs and reimagining legacy brands. I relish moments of ambiguity and enjoy translating across teams, perspectives, and priorities to move ideas forward.

I started my career in editorial and digital design, shaping cross-platform experiences and identity systems in publishing and agency environments. That foundation still shapes how I work today: I’m detail-oriented, collaborative, and overreliant on the Oxford comma. I hold a BFA in Visual Communication from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

For 25 years, I've asked the same question: Who does this design exclude—and what are we going to do about it?

My work spans human-centered strategy, inclusive design, and qualitative research, with clients ranging from Microsoft, Google, and Verizon to the National Science Foundation, and San Francisco Unified School District.

Before IDEO, I taught elementary school in East Palo Alto and spent a decade doing design work with social service organizations—where I learned firsthand what it costs people when systems are built without them in mind.

I am currently writing User Error, a nonfiction book about digital access and the design decisions behind it. I live in Oakland, California.

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My expertise spans brand, communication, and product design across tech, education, the arts, and social impact.

I believe great work demands both high-level vision and obsessive attention to detail, and only happens through collaboration.

I bring an inclusive, hands-on approach and a deep understanding of business, which enables me to consistently deliver excellence while always asking why.

Before joining IDEO, I worked at the brand firms Pentagram and VSA Partners. I began my career as a designer, leading teams at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Milwaukee Art Museum. I hold an MFA in graphic design from Maryland Institute College of Art and a BFA in communication design from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, and have taught at some of the best design schools in the US.

I am responsible for IDEO’s long-term success in China and working with clients to use design as a tool to enable growth. Specifically, I have helped Chinese companies design holistic brand solutions through the development of their products, communication, services, and innovation teams, and I have helped multinationals expand their presence and influence in China.

I advise global leaders on developing China-led innovation and capabilities.

In over 15 years in IDEO Shanghai, I have worked on projects that use design to elevate the quality of the experience of healthcare products and services, streamline processes that increase productivity, create spaces and programs that promote and enable inclusive communities, and build next generation mobility solutions that are planet-positive.

Before joining IDEO, I worked at Philips Electronics and the Electrolux Group in Italy, the Netherlands, and Singapore on a number of breakthrough commercial products. I am a member of the Young President Organization in Shanghai.