Keeping diabetes in check isn’t easy. Between checking blood sugar multiple times a day, keeping a detailed activity record, and logging food intake, staying healthy can be daunting.

But a recent advance in smart diabetes management—Ascensia’s CONTOUR NEXT ONE blood glucose meter and the CONTOUR DIABETES app—can give patients more clarity and control.

The CONTOUR NEXT ONE is the latest product to spring from a multi-year collaboration between IDEO and Ascensia Diabetes Care (formerly Bayer Diabetes Care). In 2009, Ascensia and IDEO developed the award-winning CONTOUR USB blood glucose meter—the first meter to plug directly into a computer, providing patients and their doctors with instant access to blood sugar data and personal trend reports.

Buoyed by the success of the first collaboration, Ascensia asked IDEO to help design a next-generation diabetes management system (and the company’s first internet-connected device).

To help reduce the stigma of checking blood sugar in public, IDEO designed the CONTOUR NEXT ONE to look and behave like today’s modern tech devices. The highly simplified, seamless system allows patients to upload blood glucose readings automatically to the app, which helps guide informed, real-time decisions. The meter’s red, green, or yellow smartLIGHT feature gives instant feedback about whether blood sugar levels are below, within, or above the target range.

Seeing contextual data, which includes physical activity logs and photos of meals, paired with recent and historic blood sugar levels, nudges patients toward healthier lifestyle choices and better control of their condition.

For doctors, the accuracy and quantity of the data combined with the app’s easy-to-read pattern views invites more comprehensive, actionable conversations with patients.

The CONTOUR NEXT ONE hit shelves in Europe in 2016 and is now available in the U.S. Ascensia is poised to develop more products enabled by rich, personalized data to help people with diabetes live longer, healthier lives.

What if we could use the sky to provide alternative solutions to these problems, creating more space for living and transportation? What exciting future awaits us?

At JAXA’s Aeronautical Technology Directorate (ATD), researchers are conducting research and development on aviation science and technology for the future. They are working to affect positive impact through research like noise reduction of airframe and an integrated aircraft operation management system for disaster relief and crisis management.

Normally, JAXA begins their projects by examining the needs of the aircraft industry or comparing themselves against global technology standards. This approach often leads to ideas that are merely an extension of the current technology. JAXA needed a new approach in order to create radical ideas and real change.

The key question was: What solutions would emerge from prioritizing people’s needs over the most advanced technological possibility—taking a human-centered approach to tackling the most pressing societal challenges?

JAXA ATD voluntary partnered with IDEO to attempt to answer this question, identifying new research areas by envisioning people’s needs in the near future. Together, JAXA and IDEO developed four scenarios of future societies.

The scenarios do not necessarily focus on technologies. Rather, the focus is on telling stories that help readers put themselves in the shoes of the four personas. At the same time, the team worked with industrial designers to illustrate convincing demonstrations of the vehicles and machines of the future.

JAXA’s team embraces the belief that “technologies developed at JAXA should incorporate emotional aspects to blend seamlessly into people’s lives.” Driven by this philosophy, the visual design of the four scenarios used a friendly illustration style intended to be approachable and understandable for people of all ages.

In order to develop human-centered concepts from scratch, the IDEO and JAXA team first undertook research and inspiration-gathering. They skydived, observed cities from above, brainstormed with students from the department of architecture at Waseda University. They interviewed airline employees, a former Judo world champion, skyscraper lovers, a business producer who focuses on new working styles. Throughout the research phase, the team explored the possibilities of the sky as a “living space,” not just a place for transportation.

The team was surprised and excited when they learned from a former fighter pilot that old cockpit designs were inspired by the Japanese tea room, highlighting a historic precedent for taking inspiration from real life to inform new technology designs.

The team synthesized their research and developed several concepts, each informed by a different social issue or pressing concern. Each issue was brought to life through a fictional personal narrative.

How might we relieve city congestion and pollution using the sky, while still keeping it clean and blue? Floating public lights, a skyway that regulates air traffic, camouflaged planes that keep the sky blue—concepts introduced in this scenario were the closest to the technologies already being researched at JAXA ATD. They show us how the sky could become an infrastructure that supports our daily lives. Meet Ayame, a girl from Gunma prefecture, ready to begin her college life in Osaka.

How might we make travel feel easy for people of all ages, no matter how far they need to go? While the researchers at JAXA ATD are working to improve the mobility of aircraft, like reducing air friction or increasing the engine efficiency of aircraft, this scenario explored how people could travel door-to-door through the sky with or without aircraft. A day-in-the-life of Naoto, a 72-year-old man who commutes twice a month from Tottori to Tokyo for medical checkups.

How might we leverage the sky as a resource for reusable energy and economic growth? One of the criteria of JAXA’s R&D activities is to improve the environment. While JAXA has been focusing on “protecting” the environment, this scenario focused on “creating” new environments. A day-in-the-life of Toshi, who runs a “sky-to-table” farming business.

How might we help people live with peace of mind, even during a disaster? JAXA’s disaster relief technologies have been extremely valuable in countries like Japan, which frequently suffers from natural disasters. In this scenario, we approached the problem from victims’ point of view while exploiting the potential of a network of aircrafts and other flying objects. Here's the story of Yuri, a victim of an earthquake in Tokyo who reunites with her family after evacuating to the sky.

The purpose of the project website is not to present answers, but to introduce new directions towards an exciting future. By presenting JAXA ATD’s vision through these four scenarios, the team invited people from all industries and of all ages to participate in co-creating the future.

Just like movies, cartoons, and novels from childhood stimulate the imagination, this project aims to spark new conversation and vision for a radically different, positive future.

By illustrating and communicating a more human-centered future to a wider audience, Japan’s top aeronautical technology development agency may already be changing the future of the sky for the better.

The speed and scale of change in our world are unprecedented. As more people relocate to cities, our lives are impacted by urbanization problems such as pollution, congestion, depopulation of rural areas, resource, and energy deficiencies.

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For factory operators, a smart valve is a game-changer. It gathers data on how smoothly the system is running and feeds it to an app, making it easier to troubleshoot from anywhere. And when things get overheated, it can automatically shut down the machinery, avoiding a meltdown.

Georg Fischer (GF), the Swiss-based, B2B industrial manufacturer collaborated with IDEO to design that valve, along with a system that adds value for generations of engineers to come.

And there were some surprises along the way. When the team set out to interview customers, they learned a lot about their real needs. “We showed a customer a sacrificial concept of a smart valve and asked, what do you think about this?” says Laura Barrabia, GF’s Head of Corporate Design Thinking. “The customer answered, we don’t want your valve to be smart, we want to be smart. If GF is providing a smart valve, where is my value?”

For GF Piping Systems, these insights helped shape initial prototypes and guided the direction of the design to something that would tie parts together into smart systems and more efficient industrial facilities—a competitive advantage.

Yves Serra, GF’s CEO, recognized early on that his company needed to strengthen its customer-centricity and digital capacity, so he approached IDEO to begin shifting GF’s culture from engineering-led and procedural to customer-focused, multidisciplinary, collaborative, and flexible. That kicked off a decade-long relationship that would help GF take a design-based approach.

Learn what it means to move from being technology-driven to being truly customer-centric.

To help GF identify clients’ pain points and address them with new digital offers, IDEO proposed three “lighthouse” projects, one for each of GF’s divisions: Piping Systems, Casting Solutions, and Machining Solutions. Lighthouse projects (also called “Beacons”) are proofs of concept that light the way for an organization and help it shift its way of working.

For example, GF Machining Solutions built a prototype for an application that uses real-time data to help customers identify and fix problems in the machines, laying the foundation for truly predictive maintenance. Making data streams more transparent for customers also simplified life for the GF service engineers, who keep the machines running.

Learn how Georg Fischer is moving from hardware offerings to digital solutions.

For GF Piping Systems, the design team developed the GF Digital Line, a set of products, apps, dashboards, and other services that help customers plan, install, and maintain water and chemical piping systems. GF teams went back to customers to test several prototypes and gather feedback on the Digital Line and make sure it addressed current and future needs. They also built internal capabilities to support product development, laying the groundwork for future innovation.

Lastly, IDEO helped GF Casting Solutions escape the “commodity trap” of competing with foreign automotive suppliers. To better understand the pressures car manufacturers face, the design team explored the development cycles of two car manufacturers. They learned how challenging it is to implement solutions to reduce vehicle weight—essential for cutting fuel consumption. As an expert in aluminum die casting, GF was well positioned to help manufacturers meet that challenge, not just with quality parts, but also with digital engineering to deliver cutting-edge lightweight casting solutions, which are harder to replicate.

By the end of these lighthouse projects, GF had rolled out a global design thinking training program that had touched more than 1000 employees. After the training, employees throughout the organization adopted a new way of working and became passionate ambassadors. The enthusiasm spread from the R&D department to HR to finance and many other departments.

Today, GF has permanent design thinking and digital teams to continue this work. All three divisions aim to launch the first releases of their lighthouse projects by early 2019. And with every project, GF’s business—and solutions—get smarter about how to meet the needs of a fast changing world.

IHG’s ambition is to grow in service of its guests around the world. IHG’s Atlanta-based team had identified a major opportunity for hotels in the midscale space—a market segment known for its inconsistency.

Alongside colleagues at London-based forpeople, IDEO was invited to help IHG shepherd that business opportunity into a human one, by asking how IHG might reimagine the everyday travel experience for people relying on this category of hotel. What kind of offer might resonate equally with guests and with the owner/operators who’d need to buy into a new brand and bring it to life?

IDEO began by talking to travelers to better understand their lives, values, and needs—travelers who spend one or two nights on the road a few times every year; travelers who regularly take short trips to small cities or away from city centers; and travelers who live on the road, moving from hotel to hotel. These included court stenographers, medical technicians, consultants, conference-goers, and more.

Early research insights evolved into two distinct concepts for a new hotel brand, which were built out into two full-scale physical prototypes at IHG’s design center in Atlanta. Over three weeks, IDEO and its IHG partners led potential guests and hotel owners through each model, gathering their feedback on new formats for breakfast offerings, service details, booking experiences, and overall tone.

The investment in prototyping paid off with surprising and actionable insights. Despite wide variation in occupation and income, these guests are sophisticated and self-reliant; they know what’s out there, and they know what’s reasonable to expect. In fact, many describe a syndrome IDEO dubbed “anticipation anxiety:” the sense of dread that comes from not knowing whether a lower-priced hotel is going to be clean or safe, or provide a bed that enables restful sleep. Many have so little confidence in the cleanliness of hotels in this price range that they travel with their own packs of wet wipes.

IDEO, along with the IHG team, recognized these behaviors as an unanswered cry in the market. The purpose of the new brand crystallized around extinguishing that anxiety and rewarding guests with something much better. avid hotels exceeds its competition by doubling down on quality in just a few select areas: an extraordinary mattress; rigorously high standards of cleanliness; a focused, high-quality, grab-and-go breakfast and coffee experience; and an overall tone of warmth and straightforwardness.

These guests made clear that for trips like this, they aren’t interested in bells and whistles, or communication that isn’t frank or to the point. That led to an insight that upends an industry truism: for these guests—and there are many of them—choosing a hotel is rarely only about the price of the room. avid guests can often afford to stay in a more expensive place for a honeymoon or a vacation or a trip with friends; they’ll spend more when they need more. But for functional stays of one or two nights, it just feels wasteful. It goes against their values and their principles.

IHG and IDEO heard a clear call for a sense of focus and affordability—but never at the expense of quality. Guests should be able to access a simple booking process, rooms designed for sound sleep, and a quality breakfast, all at a fair price. And hotel owners ought to be able to deliver that experience with confidence and consistency, at costs that build a compelling case for their own business.

That’s what avid hotels is designed to deliver, every single time. Early traveler reviews have been exceedingly positive and have noted specifically the unique differentiating offers avid brings to the market.

Within a year of partnering with IDEO, IHG had issued 150 avid hotels licenses to franchisees in the US, Mexico, and Canada, and announced a development deal for 15 avid hotel locations in Germany over the next five years—a scale of success that came at unprecedented speed for the industry. The collaborative, inclusive design process is now serving as a model for how to develop robust, guest-centered hospitality brands that deliver where it matters for people.

The winding streets in the medieval city fabric, the long lunches with wine followed by a nap, and all the built-in transitional time and spaces choreograph a unique quality and pace of life that defy our usual sense of urgency. The city forces its inhabitants to slow down, creating opportunities for the unplanned to unfold.

It’s this intangible quality that has drawn and inspired generations of artists and scholars, and what motivated my partner and I to apply for fellowships to study the act of wandering in Rome early in 2020. Curious about the truth behind the city’s lore, and believing it’s only possible to study wandering by wandering ourselves, we spent three months thinking not too hard about the things that make a place great for wandering and conducive to moments of serendipity.

Our days of wandering concluded when Rome locked down for the pandemic, and our lives shifted from the physical city to virtual space. Most of us have discovered benefits to this new way of working and living, and many elements are likely to remain. But in the rush to replicate the functional aspect of daily life online, we’ve also lost a bit of the spontaneity and chances of encountering the unexpected. Through this project, we want to champion the irreplaceability of physical spaces, and articulate a few design principles that take us beyond the typical pursuit of productivity and efficiency, and toward making environments that encourage and reward wandering.

1. Meta orientation

Rome is built on seven hills. Each day, we would wander from our apartment at the British School on the eastern edge of the city, up and down a hill, across a river, and up another hill to our studio at the American Academy on the west side. Setting out in the morning, we would often arrive just in time for lunch, and take the whole afternoon getting back just in time for dinner.

Curiously, after only a cursory glance at the map upon arrival, we were able to make the trip every day via constantly evolving routes. In the medieval city, the slight inclination of streets offered a meta sense of direction, allowing us to know roughly which way to go even when venturing into previously unexplored areas. In fact, many streets follow old streams; a local rule-of-thumb for when you’re lost is to pour water on the street and follow it down to the banks of the River Tiber.

The joy of wandering comes from its unpredictability, which is always delicately balanced against the fear of being completely lost. Subtle spatial cues such as the street sloping up or down, or glimpses of a monument when you’re crossing an axial boulevard, can offer a meta sense of orientation while preserving the excitement of choosing different paths to explore.

2. Built-in intermissions

At the risk of perpetuating stereotypes (both about Rome and about designers), our days were often strung together by coffee breaks, whether a quick pick-me-up before an appointment or to while away an afternoon. To our surprise, the same cup of coffee in a Roman cafe has two different prices depending on whether you are drinking it standing at the bar (about one Euro), or sitting down at a table (about six Euros). It’s perhaps the clearest evidence that coffee is not only a drink, but also a duration of time—the cheaper option gets you a short respite standing at the counter, while the more expensive option gets you an afternoon watching passers-by sitting at a street-side table.

The caffeinated intermissions provide in-between time to remember what we have just seen, and anticipate what we are about to see. It shifts our experience from distinctive blocks of activity to a gradated spectrum that fades in and out, creating opportunities for different ideas to overlap. The bitterness and heat of the coffee, pleasurable to sip but difficult to gulp, establishes a minimum amount of time between things, allowing our thoughts to wander without the need to be somewhere.

Perhaps what the physical environment can better offer and should be designed for is the gentle spacing between things: a short walk to lunch, a stroll from home to work, or some distance between the desk and fridge. That’s often when inspiration strikes.

3. Anchoring ambiance

Visitors to Rome often note the distinctive quality of the city’s light. With its dry and arid Mediterranean climate, the bright and sharp light plays off the solid architecture of stone and concrete to create deep contrasts and shadows. It dictates and changes what we can and cannot see at different times, often revealing only a small fragment of the overall picture.

A quirk of the human mind is its tendency to sprawl. We are overwhelmed when exposed to too much information and bored with too little. What holds our attention best is a partially-revealed picture that anchors parts of our imagination while allowing the rest to hover freely to fill in the voids. The ambiance of a place is often defined by what is concealed—a noisy cafe shifts our focus to the sight and smell, while a dimly lit street might foreground the sound and chill.

The physical space can offer an anchoring ambiance. Instead of the floor-to-ceiling glass walls favored by luxury developments, perhaps a few well-placed windows may allow us to see the outside more closely. By editing what our mind can see and perceive, we leave space for our imagination to roam and wander.

4. Loosely-defined uses

For a city famous for its walkability and public spaces, Rome has an unusual lack of public benches. But there’s always a place to rest, whether you’re sharing a podium with a Roman God, or leaning against the inclination of a once-impenetrable fortress. People intuitively adapt, exploit, and react to the spaces around them as they navigate and occupy the city.

Most modern buildings and spaces are designed for specific functions—a meeting room for meetings and a classroom for classes. Some are even designed to discourage unintended uses, such as segmented benches that prevent people from lying down. In a historical city like Rome, with its accumulated layers of architecture, landscapes, and urban form, few things are used for their original functions, and nothing fits precisely.

While the dictum of form follows function has an alluring logical clarity, it’s also a self-fulfilling prophecy, with the function constrained by the tight-fitting form. When we design our spaces to loosely fit their intended uses, we naturally invite exploration and appropriation. As any parent knows, a snowy slope entertains a child for longer and in more ways than a purpose-designed playground slide.

5. Intentional collage

A Roman walks into a bar, holds up two fingers, and says “Five beers please!” The joke works by connecting two previously separate frames of reference: two fingers for two, and V for the Roman numeral five. Inspiration works in a similar way, by revealing a previously unnoticed relationship. We never quite know which two things will resonate, so one of the best ways to generate inspiration is to be constantly exposed to new collages of things and ideas.

Rome is in many ways the perfect collage-generating machine, where the ancient coexists nonchalantly inside, around, above, under, and next to the cutting-edge. Walk past a classical facade marked by graffiti, and you might notice the original Latin inscriptions under the latest tag, both created by the same human impulses. Experiences like these recalibrate our sense of perspective in the vastness of history, while at the same time affirms the universality of our human instincts.

Despite the urge to categorize and organize, we could allow some messiness of life to spill through. In our spaces, instead of insisting on a uniformed look where all the furniture must conform to a color or style, a diverse collection accumulated over time often inspires more stories.

My partner and I have always been drawn to certain spaces with a special spark—places where we feel relaxed, inspired, and curious, and can wander freely. While an anecdote from Rome or other exotic locations often serves as a shorthand for this spark, this project is our attempt to pin down this elusive and intangible quality, so that we may discuss and design for it more intentionally and precisely.

Now, as we emerge from the pandemic, we are presented with the rare opportunity to re-examine the value of our physical spaces. Perhaps we can draw on some of these principles to design future environments, not only as something to be optimized for productivity and efficiency, but as pleasant and inspiring spaces to be in, wander around, and maybe encounter the unexpected.

As a city, Rome is measurably inefficient; the concept of finding the quickest route between points A and B is almost non-existent.

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

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

Embrace the cacophony

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

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

Find serendipity through structure

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

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

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

Make the most of digital tools

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

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

Developing your own rituals

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

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

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

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

Adamu Chan, Writer, Filmmaker, and Community Organizer

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

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

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

Kimberly Ang, CEO and founder of of KAYA

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

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

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

Anupama Rao, Communications Designer and Behavioral Science Practitioner

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

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

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

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

Michelle Lee, Managing Director, Design For Play at IDEO

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download and share Emergent Futures here.

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

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.