Fevers. Boogers. Yucky meds. IDEO Play Lab designers dove deeply into the challenges of sick days and doctors’ appointments through video diaries, online surveys, and in-person interviews with parents, healthcare providers, and small children in homes and pediatric offices across the US. They heard about the struggles of giving medicines, wonky thermometer readings, kids having “stethoscope scaries,” and, worst of all, what happens when kiddos hear the “s-word”—shot.

‍‍The research confirmed Sydney and Kaitlin’s initial hunches about playful healthcare products and provided the team with insights on how to move forward. The answer was a formula of sorts. To help reduce kids’ anxiety and keep them calm at the doctor, give them a choice in their care whenever possible. Build familiarity with doctor’s visits and medical devices through playful moments at home. Redirect their attention away from fear. Design for multisensory richness. And provide age-appropriate narratives about healthcare experiences.

Inspired by this kid-centric formula, the IDEO Play Lab team worked closely with Sydney, Kaitlin, and their co-founder, Michael Kamins, to iterate on several designs, winnowing down more than 150 brainstorm ideas into a dozen tangible prototypes (or tinker models) that were shown to doctors, nurses, parents, and young kids for feedback. The designs—a rocket ship medicine dispenser, an elephant-shaped nose aspirator, and a narwhal nasal bulb, among others—were intended to evoke a sense of playfulness, comfort, and familiarity, with features designed for maximum cuteness. Some even lit up and played sounds, like popular toys.

While the designs passed the fun test with kids, they also needed to be functional for parents, trusted by doctors, easily manufactured, and affordable. Eventually, they would need to be approved by the FDA as regulated medical devices. Playhouse MD also requested patentable innovations to help protect their products from imitation.

With these constraints in mind, IDEO Play Lab delivered a collection of nine unique, high-fidelity prototypes that add a dose of fun to caretaking challenges in homes and doctors’ offices. The final designs were durable, medically sanitizable, and safe for testing with real kids, which helped the startup secure multiple rounds of funding and bring its first products to market in 18 months.

Playhouse MD began selling its first four direct-to-consumer products on its website in June 2025: two Medicine Buddies (medicine dispensers shaped like a rocket ship and a butterfly) and two Booger Buddies (a light-up nasal aspirator elephant called Luna and a light-up nasal bulb narwhal named Noa, which was named one of The Best Inventions of 2025 by TIME). The products are available at Target and Babylist stores, and on Amazon through leading medical distributor McKesson Medical-Surgical.

Most companies design child healthcare devices with parents’ or doctors’ tastes in mind; none, however, focus on what will make kids smile, too.

TIME Best Inventions of 2025

in the Parenting Category, Playhouse MD's Light-Up Nasal Bulb

1 ½ years

from initial brainstorms to in-market launch of 4 kid-centric medical products

Verathon offers one of the broadest portfolios of video laryngoscopes on the market. While these life-saving devices increase the likelihood of successful first-time intubations, reducing trauma and speeding recovery times, they are more costly and can be more challenging to learn how to use than traditional mechanical ones, which rely on directly looking at the vocal cords. Wanting to make it easier for cost-conscious hospital administrators to transition from traditional laryngoscopes to Verathon’s video systems, the medical device manufacturer asked IDEO to technically and visually unite its next-gen reusable baton and stats, ensuring they worked together seamlessly, flexibly, and intuitively during the most routine and demanding healthcare moments.

‍The IDEO and Verathon teams used a prototype-led approach to safely gain feedback from anesthesiologists and emergency physicians. Research participants were given various intubation models to simulate surgical use cases and understand ergonomic trade-offs between different design directions. Insights from the field led to design principles such as prioritizing device balance over weight reduction, providing flexibility to accommodate a variety of gripping positions, making connection points between various parts clear, intuitive, and secure, and ensuring the device was easy to clean.

Inspired by physician feedback, the team designed an innovative video baton that felt both familiar and new, supported the ergonomics of diverse holding styles, and fit Verathon’s wide range of stat sizes (one of its competitive advantages). To prevent accidental disconnections, users receive clear tactile, visual, and sound feedback when the monitor and cover are correctly attached to the baton. IDEO chose color, materials, and finishes to help clinicians quickly distinguish between parts of the system and easily identify reusable components from single-use ones.

Verathon’s new GlideScope ClearFit stats-based video laryngoscope hit the market in August 2025. Combining one reusable baton with an industry-leading selection of six single-use stats, it’s compatible with both the GlideScope® Go™ 2 handheld and GlideScope® Core™ cart-based systems. Magnetic QuickConnect™ technology allows doctors to seamlessly switch between platforms, giving hospitals a standardized airway management solution that simplifies workflows, streamlines inventory, enhances medical education and training, and promotes cost-effective care.

Verathon invented video laryngoscopy technology. Twenty years later, the COVID-19 pandemic spurred more competitors to enter the market.

‍

Cutting-edge technologies like video laryngoscopes are critical—and costly—devices. Hospital systems want to invest in the most comprehensive, flexible, adaptable, and affordable tools for quality patient care

6 shapes and sizes

of single-use covers fit one video baton, enabling health workers to quickly access different throat anatomies

Since its founding in 1992 by the Gokongwei family, which also operates one of the nation’s largest conglomerates, JG Summit Holdings, GBF has supported Philippine education through student scholarships, teacher training funds, and donations to top universities. Over its 30-plus-year history, GBF has reached more than 200,000 teachers and impacted over 1.5 million learners nationwide. When the foundation approached IDEO in 2021, it wanted to move the needle on STEM education in the country’s struggling public schools.

The IDEO and GBF teams interviewed more than 100 subject-matter experts across various government agencies, leading technology companies, and top national universities and educational institutions to build a comprehensive understanding of the current state of STEM in the Philippines. To experience classroom struggles firsthand, the team also shadowed STEM educators and principals. The research revealed that time-strapped teachers needed help mastering overall STEM content, preparing for their classes, and selecting the most suitable activities for their students. They also didn’t always feel supported in their own career development journeys. But the burden of daily responsibilities didn’t leave them any time for outside learning opportunities, either. 

Recognizing that empowering teachers empowers students, the team created an innovative lesson prep tool, the GBF Class Builder, that's based on these insights. Using existing technology and course materials designed to align with school curricula, IDEO developed a working prototype of the Class Builder in under a week, with minimal investment. The team then systematically improved it over several “build-test-iterate” feedback cycles in real classrooms over the course of four months.

The final GBF Class Builder is a targeted program that helps STEM teachers deliver compelling lessons for their students, learn new teaching strategies, and build content mastery along the way. In addition to helping design the Class Builder, IDEO continues to advise GBF on key aspects of the program's piloting and rollout. This includes advising on how to implement the content development, think through the curriculum development process, support in designing feature iterations, define metrics for success, and decide which additional roles GBF will need to support the ambitious program going forward. 

The foundation launched the GBF Class Builder at its 30th-anniversary celebration in 2023. Feedback from pilot 3,500 public schools and 15,000 teachers has been overwhelmingly positive. “Through the GBF Class Builder, we envision our teachers to be more confident and effective in class, more ready to face the challenges of the future, while enjoying every class—feeling proud to be a teacher, " says Grace Colet, Executive Director of GBF.
‍
The ambitious program continues to scale and is on track to be rolled out in public schools nationwide by 2029.

90% of 10-year-olds in the Philippines can’t read a simple text, according to a Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics report. Eighty-three percent of Filipino 10-year-olds lack minimum proficiency in math.

More than 15,000 teachers in 3,500 public schools

are now using the innovative GBF Class Builder program
‍

94%

of teachers report the GBF Class Builder has improved student engagement, while 89% say it saves them 1-2 hours in prep time per lesson

Fizik came to IDEO with the aim of entering the helmet market with a range of high-end performance options fit for road racing, mountain biking, time trials/triathlons, and everyday cycling. Fizik planned to use its world-class production and engineering capabilities (the company is part of the Selle Royal Group, which has over 1,400 employees and manages five other cycling brands, including Crankbrothers and Brooks England). IDEO’s task was to develop an on-brand design language that would unify its new helmet line and integrate seamlessly with the sleek, modern aesthetics of the company’s other products.

The design sprint began with in-context interviews with avid and professional cyclists to learn what they wanted—and didn’t—in a helmet. Unlike other accessories, such as shoes or shorts, riders viewed helmets as a necessity rather than an exciting or aspirational purchase. They also wanted a helmet that complemented their overall style, rather than standing out, and had a flattering silhouette. Avoiding making a cyclist look like a “mushroom” was key.

‍

Different cycling styles involve varying riding postures, ranging from a dropped and horizontal position (time trial/triathlete) to an upright and vertical position (mountain biking). IDEO proposed a family of helmet designs that correspond accordingly. On the horizontal extreme, the time trial/triathlete helmet has the most fluid, organic, aerodynamic shape. A statement of refined simplicity and speed, it features minimal venting and a magnetic wrap-around visor to reduce drag that can be exchanged for the rider’s own cycling glasses.

On the vertical extreme, the mountain biking helmet features a more rugged, angular form with an adjustable brim, rectangular venting, and boxier, back-of-the-head protection. It also offers affordances for goggles, sunglass storage, a GoPro mount, and an optional integrated rear light.

In between, a compact helmet for road racing features evolutionary variations on these design extremes, with more venting as well as a front glasses holder and integrated rear light. All four helmets strike a balance between lightness, comfort, safety, and performance, embodying Fizik’s signature modern style.

In April 2025, Fizik launched all four helmet models simultaneously: Kassis (mountain biking), Kunee (trial/triathlon), Kudo, and the more aerodynamic Kudo Aero for road and gravel. The helmets were greeted with critical acclaim from the cycling world, while Virginia Tech’s independent helmet-safety research lab gave them five-star performance ratings for their strength and durability.‍

‍

Legendary cycling company Fizik was known for its high-performance bike seats and shoes, but wanted to be a fierce entrant in a challenging product category—helmets.

4

new helmet designs

1

new product category

Recently, IDEO founder David Kelley and CEO Derek Robson sat down to chat about the importance of human-centered design in creating impactful, useful AI products, the flaws of vending machines, how to bring naysayers along on the innovation process, and much more.

For the last 40 years, you've championed the use of human-centered design, helping clients weather seismic technological shifts. As AI stands to bring massive change, are there any examples of other technological shifts that could help provide a roadmap for what’s coming?

David Kelley: The world has been through all kinds of shifts. The personal computer. iPhones. The internet. AI. And in each one, the technology was the shiny, exciting thing, but it took some insight, some creative leap to figure out how people would actually interact with it to make it successful. The one that was most impactful in my life was the move toward personal computing. When I was young, computers were these big machines in the basement. But as they became more accessible and more human-centered, they made explosive inroads into people's lives.

The most famous piece that IDEO worked on was the Apple mouse. The concept of pulldown menus and mice were developed at SRI and Xerox Parc. IDEO invented the technology and did the human factors and industrial design. The fun part was figuring out how people would use it. On the engineering side, we were trying to make it very accurate. If you moved the mouse one inch on the table, it would move an inch on the screen. But as we did more and more user testing with different kinds of people, it became clear that that was a complete waste of time. The human brain understood what was happening—you didn't have to make it the same distance. And because of that insight, we were able to make the mouse very cheap. Which has a lot to do with why it's successful—the cost is inconsequential.

Do you see parallels between that moment in time and today, when so many technologists are trying to deliver on the promise of AI?

David Kelley: Yes. We're just at the beginning. It’s going to be wildly useful, but at the present time, AI products are going to be hit or miss. It feels like a lot of other technologies we witnessed that didn’t find widespread adoption until someone discovered the right use cases.

Derek Robson: At the same time, AI is with us already, in products we use every day, like Netflix. Right now, AI is very prominent without necessarily having the use cases that you can point to and say, “everyone is using this” or “this is changing the world.” To David's point, we're at the start of a journey.

How crucial is it to implement human-centered design in the creation of AI products?

Derek Robson: It’s fundamental. How many things were meant to be great big breakthroughs, but they just don't work because they don’t take into account what humans want from the technology? In our own AI projects, we co-design with users early in the process, testing concepts to see what they want and need long before a product hits the market.

David Kelley: It reminds me of when Bill Moggridge, one of IDEO’s leaders for many years and a champion of interaction design, was working on the first laptop computer, called Grid Systems. He took it home one night after it was functional, and he came back and he said to me, “This software stuff is way too important to leave it to the software people.” At the time, it had that feeling that you had to be an insider to know how to use it—it wasn’t for the general public. Similarly, AI is far too important to leave just to the technologists—human-centered design is a crucial part of it.

Is part of that the engineering mentality—that the question is often, “can we do that,” rather than, “should we?”

David Kelley: We do see that in a lot of companies, especially when they’re designing for people like themselves. But 99 percent are designing for customers who are not like them.

Over the years, IDEO has worked with thousands of clients. What have you learned from them?

Derek Robson: If you go back through the history of the company, there's a type of leader that has a clear vision of what they want—a sense of bravery, a purpose. They have a dream of how they see the product and their brands evolving. Often, they’re on a path at odds with the rest of the culture. It started with Steve Jobs, and we’ve now had many wonderful clients over the years.

The best ones really get involved with us and embrace the process. And when they do, you find at the end that they've changed too. As much as we are a design and innovation company, we are also an experience company. We take you on a journey of looking at something in a new way and helping you to see the potential of things that aren’t there yet.

‍David Kelley: In the early days of IDEO, we'd send a proposal that included phase one, the human-centered design part, and the client would come back and say, “Could we just skip that first phase and get going?” But that is where our big ideas came from—from understanding what's meaningful to people. Eventually I had the guts to say, “Nope, we can't cut phase one.” That's what we're good at, taking all that information, all those interviews, all those observations, and making a creative leap to a new place.

Where did your confidence in this approach come from? Are there moments that solidified just how important it is?

David Kelley: Early on, we were working for Pepsi, and Jane Fulton Suri, who really pioneered empathy in design research, went to a place with vending machines. After watching people use them, she said, “Do you think it's right that the soda comes out at your ankles?” And that's so obvious, right? But the people who built the machine didn't see it. The rest of the team didn't see it. That wasn't how product companies were thinking back then.

Derek Robson: When you work on something for a very long time, you can start to believe that you know how your product works, and how people use it. And that's not necessarily the case. There are so many things that I've worked on in my life where people use products in a different way than they were intended to be used. And if you don't look at it anew, then you will never be able to move something forward.

Long ago, I worked for a company that was responsible for the Got Milk? ads. And the insight behind them was that people don’t think about milk until they don’t have it—they realize its value in its absence. It’s an insight that can only really come from being deeply connected to what humans want.

Aside from AI, what factors do you see influencing design in the foreseeable future?

Derek Robson: Climate. Human-centered design doesn't mean the human at the expense of everything else. We need to design things so that we’re not destroying the planet. We have to think about not just the composition of materials, but actually how people use those materials. What is going to happen to those materials over time? There's a never-ending list of things we are considering as we design.

David Kelley: As pedestrian as it seems, it all boils down to humans. Even with these big systems problems, you have to ask, what could we design to help people do their part? Think about recycling. It was a systems problem, but also a human problem. Once you had curbside and they came and picked it up, people got behind it.

Derek Robson: We also have to keep in mind that different people have different requirements from the things that we design. Not just from a climate perspective, but also from an ethical perspective. My two daughters think very differently about which companies they engage with than I did at their age. I didn't think about where products were sourced from, or the labor policies for the company. And while that's not for everybody, it is for many young people, and companies need to consider those factors. If they don't, they might not be able to generate the kind of demand they are looking for.

Four decades in, what are you most excited about for IDEO’s future?

Derek Robson: The best work for IDEO is still ahead of us. The mindset of this place is that the next project is the most important project. We're about solving problems, but we're also about asking bigger questions. And we're at a moment where there are so many questions that I think we are perfectly placed to help people answer.

David Kelley: I'm really looking forward to the variety. We're being trusted to do more interesting, diverse things than we ever have before. The mashup of what we learn in all those diverse places and putting that together gives IDEO a kind of database of insights that’s extremely valuable.

Derek Robson: When I joined, we had one team working on the collection of poop for a medical company and another redesigning a government system. The compounding effect of working on different things is what makes us unique. And the kinds of people that work on those problems are probably the most interesting and diverse set of creative people you are ever going to meet. We often say that the team of an IDEO design project sounds like the start of a joke. A mechanical engineer, an ethnography PhD, a physicist, and a doctor walk into a room to solve a problem. I don't think there's any organization on Earth with the diversity of creative talent and working on the variety of work that we have. And I’m excited for what we’ll do next.

Need help with a design challenge of your own? Get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.

Earlier technological shifts have a lot to teach us about the futures we're designing for.

At the time, even telehealth appointments were a rarity, until COVID-19 forced us to adapt. We brought human-centered design to the front-lines of the pandemic, helping design and launch new virtual care platforms, patient health and education platforms, and smart at-home diagnostics. Since then, digital tools have become a normal piece of the toolbox for providers and patients.

Now, digital health is shifting into another new era. M&A is accelerating, AI is shifting from back-office automation to real patient care. And a new administration is actively reshaping the regulatory landscape at a moment where patients are craving choice and transparency.

We’ve been designing for healthier human futures for over 45 years, shaping everything from patient therapeutics like digital diabetes programs to connected medical devices like smarter drug injectors, and clinical software like drug discovery tools. As part of that work, we’re always tracking the signals for what’s coming. Here’s what we see on the horizon in 2025.

1. Co-design is the key to M&A survival‍

Many digital health ventures that raised post-pandemic bridge rounds or early AI funding are running out of capital, which will trigger a new wave of mergers and acquisitions. The companies that survive won’t be the ones with the best tech or the most funding. They’ll be the ones that have built deep, system-wide relationships with health systems and payers.

Too many startups fail because they design for only one stakeholder—patients, providers, or payers. But viability only happens when all three are aligned. And the only way to achieve that is by designing at the intersection of desirability (what people want and need), feasibility (what is technically and operationally possible), and viability (what is financially and systemically sustainable). The solutions that last won’t just check one of these boxes—they’ll be deeply integrated into the way healthcare actually works. And to do that, the companies behind them will need to co-design with all three categories of stakeholders.

That’s what we did in 2024, when we partnered with the California Department of Mental Health and Kooth to create and launch Soluna, a free mental health and coaching platform for youth across California. To create a resource young people would actually use, we worked with more than 150 youth between 13 and 25 across the state to understand their needs, habits, and wants, shaping a platform that felt accessible, engaging, and supportive. To ensure Soluna could scale and actually work within the behavioral health system, we also navigated the constraints of government needs and co-designed with mental health practitioners to create back-office tools adapted to existing workflows. This is what co-design looks like—not just designing what’s desirable for users, but making sure it actually fits into existing systems.

2. Trust is crucial for high-stakes AI products

Some 70 percent of payers and providers have invested in AI to help with documentation, scribing, and automatable admin work. But the true potential lies in patient-facing care, like diagnostics, care delivery, and even clinical trials—but only if we design AI tools that providers and patients actually trust. This year, AI will  increasingly move into at-home care, especially in metabolic health and mental health. With GLP-1 drugs and metabolic surgeries on the rise, patients are going to need long-term personalized behavioral support. AI is perfect for that. In mental health, AI could help close the massive access gap by offering real-time support where no providers are available.

But none of this will happen unless AI is designed with patient trust in mind. We’ve seen firsthand how hesitant health plans are to extend AI beyond internal operations. But AI in healthcare isn’t just a data problem—it’s a human problem. The companies that figure out how to make AI feel safe, clear, and integrated into care delivery will define the next era of digital health.

3. Point solutions are great—but human-centered integration will make them more effective

Digital health is full of point solutions—condition-specific digital therapeutics like in diabetes, sleep issues, and brain health. These solutions have been critical in proving that traditional models of care can be improved with technology. But now, patients are juggling a phone-full of apps; a patient who downloads an app for meditation might need another for virtual primary care, another for weight management, and still another for chronic stress, each siloed in care team, data, and clinical recommendations.

The real opportunity lies in figuring out how to integrate these point solutions into conservative care models, trusted patient-facing brand names, and existing technology/EHR workflows. That means linking them to primary care, specialty care, and the broader health system—not expecting people to manage their own fragmented ecosystem of tools.

‍Maven Clinic does this well. Its mental health offering isn’t just a standalone app; it’s a wraparound service that connects to broader care. That’s the kind of design work we are hoping to see across digital health. As funding tightens and patient adoption slows, the future of digital health will be defined by integration.

4. AI-driven tools will soon replace entire departments

Digital health companies aren’t just pitching software anymore; they’re pitching end-to-end replacements for what were once human-run functions. Startups like InpharmD are using AI to deliver pharmaceutical recommendations at the clinic level, while Hippocratic AI is exploring drop-in AI nursing roles. These aren’t just AI-powered tools—they’re AI-powered workforces.

This isn’t just a shift in technology; it’s a shift in how healthcare organizations operate. If AI agents are going to supplant entire human functions, we need to think beyond just efficiency and automation. What happens to oversight? To decision-making? To the patient experience? The challenge is no longer just about designing better workflows. It’s about reimagining the future of work in healthcare.

5. New consumer choice offers a design opportunity

As people lose trust in the system, they’re looking for ways to take control of their healthcare choices. The question is: How will they actually make them?

With pricing transparency, new payment models where employees buy their own insurance and get reimbursed, potential regulation of pharmacy benefit managers, and a growing dissatisfaction with employer-based insurance, consumers are increasingly getting to choose which provider to see, what treatment to try, and how much they are willing to spend. But the interaction for how that all happens is still up for grabs. Will it happen through provider-led conversations? Employer benefits and brokers? Text-based interfaces like ChatGPT? Or will a new wave of agentic AI help people weigh cost, risk, and treatment options in real time?

So far, no one has cracked the interaction model for healthcare choice. IDEO and Newton-Wellesley Hospital pioneered one method with a concept called “Care Modes,” that allowed patients to decide the approach for how they receive care. The chosen mode flowed into every interaction at the hospital, even adjusting how health information gets logged in the EHR. But options like this are just the beginning.  The future of how people interact with complex healthcare decisions is still wide open. The challenge ahead isn’t just about giving people more data—it’s about designing how they engage with it, trust it, and act on it.

6. Designing for behavior change is still the foundation

Designing for behavior change is one of the most competitive and well-researched areas in healthcare, but there’s still so much room to grow. For the last decade, I’ve taught a course on Designing for Behavior Change at Stanford, where students work directly with patients to develop real lifestyle changes. Over the years, we’ve learned that the most effective interventions involve more than just habit tracking or designing nudges; they also create systems of accountability, community, and self-awareness in a way that aligns with people’s actual lives. That’s why observation and in-context research matter so much.

There’s a big opportunity to rethink how digital health supports long-term lifestyle change—whether that’s reimagining SNAP and WIC programs, integrating AI into personalized coaching, or pulling insights from the most engaging consumer and social platforms.

Prioritizing human-centered design

With so many problems to solve in our health care system (not to mention new ones popping up), there’s no limit to the possibilities for innovation in digital health. But our job as designers is bigger than just making things work; it’s to make a healthcare system that prioritizes user choice, deepens trust in the system, and uses the newest cost-saving technology, while integrating into the existing ways patients access care. That’s how we can drive radical transformation, by putting people—not just business or technology—at the center.

Thanks to Jennifer Lo, Ari Adler, Juho Parviainen, and Jesse Fourt for suggestions.

Four years ago, my colleagues and I were frantically working to bring the promise of digital health to a world in crisis.

What really brings value—and for what purpose—particularly in an era when budgets are tight? Similarly, folks focused on UX research argue that we are in the middle of a “reckoning,” questioning its ROI in certain contexts. Others disagree.

As this tension builds, the world of generative AI offers a new proposition: AI-generated—aka synthetic—users. Here’s the pitch: Are you sick and tired of going through the cost, time, and difficulty of crafting a research plan, finding participants, and creating thoughtful questions? Are moderated exploratory sessions and usability tests taking too long to conduct and synthesize into something actionable? There is a solution: generative AI tools that will simulate what real people might say and then feed it back to you instantaneously. Perhaps even synthesize it automatically!

The synthetic users proposition is meant to be a silver bullet. Already, folks are using it, skipping the time, cost, and hassle of doing research with real people. As leaders in this space, we felt obligated to take it seriously enough to try it out (with a healthy mix of skepticism and optimism).

As one of our teams kicked off a project to improve rural healthcare, they decided to enlist the help of ChatGPT to provide synthetic patient and practitioner insights, using several GenAI tools to create artificial users to interview. It turns out, after three weeks of swimming in a lukewarm sea of AI-generated information, all we needed was one hour with one real flesh-and-blood patient and a human physician who works with marginalized communities in rural areas to show us just how deep and complex real human experiences are—far more than our artificial users could convey.

What design research accomplishes vs. what LLMs can deliver

Relying on synthetic users—really just a lot of data in an LLM model—isn’t just bad for practitioners; it’s bad for business outcomes, and the people we’re designing for and with. AI is unable to provide the key ingredients of research that are critical to our work:

‍Important tangents‍

In open-ended interviews, we follow the lead of participants, inviting them to take us on their journey, even when—or especially when—it seems to deviate from what we thought we were going to talk about.

‍Unexpected insights

Looking at something from research participants’ points of view leads to things we never would have learned otherwise, and creates sparks of insight that help us shift priorities or radically reimagine the problem we’re trying to solve, as well as potential business outcomes.

‍Context clues

When you spend time in someone’s home or place of work, their artifacts, photos, prized possessions, accidental intrusions from family members—and a host of other things—can dramatically alter the course of a research experience and lead to new insights.

Contemporary generative AI products enshrine design principles and methods of working that run counter to what we know about good research practice.

‍People pleasers

They are designed and trained to please you and be helpful. Sometimes participants try too hard to be helpful as well, but researchers are trained to sense this and dig further. There’s nowhere to dig further with a synthetic user.

‍Emotionless entities

Contemporary LLMs lack authentic emotion. They don’t leave the markers and cues that participants often drop to signal there might be more to learn. And if you want a more emotional response, then it’s up to you as a researcher to prompt it—which defeats the whole purpose of doing research in the first place.

‍A shallow context pool

LLMs have to be fed the right context. They can’t say unexpected things beyond what you’re already asking about. Meanwhile, researchers are only able to define what’s relevant as the process unfolds.

‍Forced assumptions

Actually writing a prompt that gets you meaningful answers requires you to make a ton of assumptions about what you might learn.

A disembodied “person” composed entirely of data, which has been synthesized by an LLM looking at vast collections of other disembodied artifacts or words, simply cannot provide the insights and discoveries that research is designed to produce.

Others agree.  Even ChatGPT. When we asked it, “Is it ethical to use synthetic users instead of real ones?” ChatGPT told us, “Users provide valuable qualitative feedback, emotions, and insights that synthetic users cannot replicate. Overuse of synthetic users might result in missing these important human factors in design.”

Or, as researcher Christopher Roosen puts it, “Using synthetic humans for direct research is like navel gazing, but not at our own navels, but into the great messy, cluttered, and often- disgusting navel of the Internet-with-a-capital-I. The solution isn't to make up fake people. It’s getting better access to real people.”

Scrappy ways to accomplish the same goals

Design research can feel like it takes too long or is too speculative or unrewarding. Sometimes, it can lead to a lot of swirl, creating an anxiety gap between insights and the creation of new solutions. There’s also the real problem of resources. Or maybe your stakeholders are looking for immediate results. It’s reasonable for teams to wonder how they can take a more direct path.

But that doesn’t mean you have to discard human-centered research and design altogether. We too are often working on tight timelines, and having to find scrappy ways to get real data from real people. Here are some practical strategies for even the most shoe-string budget.

Friend and family interviews

You should strive to recruit a balanced sample of research participants and work to eliminate any bias baked into the sample design. But doing design research—especially in the early stages of the process—is different. At this stage, it’s actually beneficial to embrace the bias of the sample and use it as a tool to learn. Talking to friends and family to get feedback on early concepts is a viable way to recruit research participants—so long as those people care deeply about the subject matter and you understand the limitations of their perspectives.

Diary studies

When you want to quickly get data from people’s daily lives, often over a specific period of time, diary studies—having people log daily activity or respond to specific prompts throughout their day—come in handy. The size and scope of data you can study can be tailored to meet your immediate needs: You can ask participants to log their habits and thoughts throughout the day in a text or audio journal, take photos and videos, and reflect on your product or similar ones. There are even platforms like dscout that streamline the recruitment, data collection, and analysis process. In one diary study, we asked  a couple dozen participants to show us the moments that mattered in their week—which completely changed how we design for major TV moments in the streaming era.

Intercepts

An intercept is a quick conversation with someone in a physical context. Where better to discuss a hospital’s waiting room experience than in that same waiting room? While the insights from intercepts are often targeted and specific, they’re ideal for quick, actionable feedback—and relatively inexpensive, too. On one project, we showed up at a major home appliance retailer to talk to customers and associates about the problems they were trying to solve together. We discovered that people often came in for a face-to-face interaction that would help them decide whether to repair or replace their home appliance. But while associates were eager to solve the problem, they felt incredibly ill-equipped to do so and could only offer anecdotes based on personal experience.

Expert interviews

Experts not only bring knowledge, but also intuition that can only be acquired through lived experiences, critical perspectives, and sometimes even information that may not be widely accessible. When our colleagues worked on that project to improve access to healthcare for rural populations, talking to one expert in that field gave them the broadest view of all the challenges that population is facing and helped them design for it with greater empathy. Instead of trying to create something purely digital, the team pivoted to creating solutions that foster trust and understanding between the doctor and patient.  

Expert interviews are typically more expensive (they can range from $250 to $1000/hr depending on your expert) but luckily, you don’t need too many of them. You can also think broadly about what qualifies someone as an expert. Communities tied together by a common interest (e.g. Reddit) may get you a different kind of expertise than the capital E experts available for hire.

Social signals

If all else fails, sometimes it’s more impactful to hear the opinions of people directly through the data they leave behind online in the form of posts, comments, and reviews.  Subreddits visited by particular interest demographics, trending topics on social media sites, and product reviews can uncover deeper insights around people’s true feelings and experiences, both bad and good.  When we worked with a music gear manufacturer dealing  with increased returns and customer dissatisfaction, a simple analysis of their own review data helped us identify specific problems, and customers’ suggested solutions.

Looking ahead

Generative AI and LLMs are very useful tools that we’ve embraced in many of our distinct design crafts. And we still believe that there is an opportunity to use LLMs in design research. They can help us think about problems in new ways, help shape a research plan, and guide interviews. After all, LLMs do have access to a wide variety of material that could be quite inspirational in planning phases—so long as we realize they are not providing insights from real people. At least, for now. (We remain open to what the future might bring.) Because today, unless you’re designing for LLMs, not accounting for real human input is a shortcut to nowhere.

Design research is at an inflection point. Practitioners and budget-setters are going back and forth over whether it’s worth the time and money.

Her home page had been crowded with English content and an attention-grabbing hashtag: #TikTokRefugee.

For years, Chinese and American netizens have largely lived in separate digital spheres, playing within their own ecosystems. But thanks to the change in TikTok’s legal status in the U.S., all of a sudden, we’re seeing a digital cultural exchange. On Red Note, people from the two countries are helping each other solve math problems and complete English assignments. They’re sharing photos of their pets, homes, food, and cities. They’re even fact-checking with each other about life on the “other side”—like what authentic Chinese food looks like beyond what’s offered at Panda Express.

We don’t know how long this migration of users will last, but it hints at what could be the beginning of a social experiment that could reshape norms, trends, and the way global internet cultures interact.

For us, two technologists, one currently living in Shanghai, working on a project on Chinese content creation and e-commerce platforms, this digital mingling kicked off a big conversation about what designers from different cultures can learn from each other. After all, firewalls have led to us building our tech ecosystems in totally different ways, with different design sensibilities and cultural use cases. And it’s really fun to see these two digital cultures coming together in one app.

Here’s what we’re learning from exploring this cultural exchange.

💫 The power of shared digital spaces to bring people together

We’re always fascinated to see what happens when two people who are siloed connect with each other as human beings. On Red Note, people are finding ways to learn from each other, sharing photos of their pets and families, and asking  authentic questions like, “May I have the pleasure of seeing the streets of America as you see them? ” Meanwhile, the folks who came from TikTok are trying to learn Chinese terms, and even taking quizzes. These spontaneous exchanges are more than casual interactions; they hold immense potential to create a powerful inspiration pool for intentionally designing spaces for connection and positive interaction. It’s an opportunity to uncover design hints and signals for commercial and social innovations, inspired by shared values, behaviors, and the nuanced differences between users.

🔮 Cultural cross-pollination

Behaviors that developed organically in one context are already getting adopted by the other. For example, the "😺 cat tax" concept from Reddit—a friendly requirement to share a photo of your cat to participate—has made its way into Chinese social platforms, blending humor and engagement strategies from Western online spaces with local norms. Slang from both sides is proliferating; American terms like LOL, AMA, JK, as well as Chinese ones: XSWL (laughing to die), NB (really really good). This cross-pollination feels like a preview of a future where internet cultures from the U.S. and China become even more intertwined.

📲Shifting data privacy norm

On a recent project on interaction design in content creation platforms, we found that some users from China, the U.S., and the EU were unfazed by the idea that the platforms are collecting and using their data. As one participant told us, “It’s okay to use my data for training if it gives me a better experience as the payoff.” Meanwhile, some American users on Red Note said they were knowingly trading data privacy for community (in slightly less polite terms).

While this sentiment doesn’t align with traditional data privacy ideals—prioritizing minimal data collection, strong user consent, and transparent usage practices—it highlights how people crave connection and great experiences, and are sometimes willing to pay for that with their data. It’s a nuanced area that presents both opportunities and challenges for designers and tech creators—and one where they need to tread carefully. Consent is extremely important, and experiences need to highlight choices to opt in, surfacing microexplanations for new users clarifying how their data will be used or implementing scenario-based toggles that help users understand data sharing.

😻Unique engagement strategies

While researching Chinese digital products, we noticed a fascinating norm: many apps cultivate unique ways for users to address each other. On Red Note, for instance, users don’t call each other "bro" or "buddy" but instead use "sister." This stems from Red Note’s design strategy, which intentionally engages female users by fostering a female-friendly community that feels safe, authentic, and supportive. It’s a small detail with a big impact, shaping how users interact and building trust through thoughtful, culturally-tailored design. It’s also a great lesson in intentionality.

👥A wider range of features and use cases

Many apps created in Western context have one function that they do really well. Think Pinterest, Uber, Zillow.  But if you spend time using various apps in the Chinese tech market, you’ll discover there’s a lot more usability and depth to the products. For example, at face value, an app like Red Note could be seen as an Instagram-style app focused on real-life story sharing. But it also has a ton of deeper features: it’s heavily social, commenting with self-moderation on things like political speech, livestream, notes, and more. China’s UX designers have figured out how to distill the purpose of a product, and create deeper dimensionality in a way that aligns with user needs, and makes it easier to express yourself and accomplish goals on the platform..

🌎Protecting culture

The influx of new users and ideas is transforming platforms like Red Note into vibrant spaces for creativity, commerce, and cultural exchange. This evolution raises questions about how global norms and trends will influence—and be influenced by—local platforms, potentially reshaping the landscape for content creators and businesses.

As delighted as we are to watch and learn from these interactions, we’re very aware of the power of globalized social media to flatten cultures. Part of the fun and learning here is that they are so different. But that offers yet another design provocation: How can we balance connection and understanding and cat memes between people without flattening culture? That’s a question we’ll continue to explore.

Last Wednesday, when Zoey opened Xiaohongshu ( aka 小红书” or Red Note), her go-to Chinese social media app, to scroll through some of her favorite local food, fashion trends, and K-Pop content, she discovered something unexpected.

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.