When Brooks England decided to design its first new bike saddle in decades, it was essential that the design pay respect to the company’s heritage. Known for its craftsmanship, durable products, and quirky British insistence on doing things differently, Brooks has earned fierce loyalty from cyclists. But IDEO discovered a group of riders who were more in love with the idea of a Brooks saddle than the reality of having to earn a perfect fit on leather seats for your derriere over time.

Together, Brooks and IDEO created the Cambium C17, a seat that provides the same durability as traditional Brooks leather, but offers instant comfort and weather protection with a new material made of vulcanized natural rubber with a layer of woven organic cotton fused to the top. The winner of the Eurobike Gold Award upon launch in 2013, the C17 respects the essence of Brooks while reawakening the company's inventive spirit.

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AliveCor asked IDEO to help design a monitor that fit into the user’s lifestyle and would make collecting information effortless.

The final result, the AliveCor Heart Monitor, is 50 percent thinner and 40 percent lighter than the earlier version, with all of the same medical-grade functionality. Today, patients use the monitor to record ECGs, detect AF and normal rhythms, and track a comprehensive list of symptoms, medications, and activities, putting their health and peace of mind into their own hands.

In the early 1980s, IDEO designed the first notebook-style computer for GRiD Systems, helping computers make the transition from bulky portable/transportable models to sleeker, more businesslike laptop machines.

In addition to sales revenues from the product, GRiD also received significant licensing revenues based on its ownership of the patented IDEO-designed configuration for laptops.

Over 2 million Americans contract hospital-acquired infections (HAI), resulting in 100,000 deaths and over $30 billion in costs to the healthcare system per year. Experts agree: Simply improving staff hand-washing habits could prevent these needless infections.

SwipeSense, a healthcare startup founded by two Northwestern University graduates, aims to incentivize good hand-hygiene via smart, wearable alcohol-based gel dispensers that clip easily onto scrubs, with a web-based monitoring platform that records every time users disinfect their hands. Together with wall-mounted proximity sensors, the system wirelessly tracks hand-washing practices, allowing doctors and nurses to see and download daily, weekly, or monthly reports.

SwipeSense founders Iseri and Malina had developed a working prototype of the hand-sanitizing device and needed help pushing it to the next level. Together with IDEO, the teams evolved and refined the final physical and digital experience, and examined how an expanded data offering could provide added value to their business and the healthcare system at large.

After more than 70 design iterations, SwipeSense landed on the current sleek, modern, user-friendly design. The eventual goal: Make the patent-pending system ubiquitous in America’s 5,700 hospitals, much like wall-mounted hand-sanitizing devices are today—and save 100,000 lives each year.

In one sentence, who are you?

I'm a creative jack of all trades, I guess, which can be useful but is often frustrating, especially because I'm surrounded by very talented people with a depth of skill and knowledge that always feels out of reach for me.

What do you do? How did you learn it?

These days, I mainly make music and podcasts. I write and sing songs under the name The One AM Radio, I've scored some film and TV, and I make beats in a project called Moors. The podcasts I make are called Song Exploder, in which musicians trace the creative decisions that went into a song of theirs, and The West Wing Weekly, in which the Aaron Sorkin TV series is discussed in detail. As far as how I learned—I studied graphic design in school and I think that had a big influence on how I think about things. With music, I mainly learned by listening to others talk about what they do. That became the basis for starting a podcast, too; Song Exploder is about listening closely.

3 favorite possessions?

1. My computer (whatever it is at any given time, it's my way into everything)
2. My custom Healy electric guitar (it looks and sounds beautiful, and it's the first time I'd ever had anything custom-made)
3. My house (it's small but peaceful and cozy, it's where I live and work, and it feels like an extension of who I am).

What does a typical work session look like?

Part of the garage at my house was converted into an office, which I use as a makeshift recording studio. I have my computer, my piano, and my guitars in there. I sit in front of the computer, and usually work in two-hour bursts until my focus runs out. Then I pace around the backyard and in and out of the house for a while until my ears and my brain settle back down, and then get back to work. I usually start in the early afternoon and work until pretty late into the night.

How do you get over creative block?

I'll let you know once I figure it out. I started Song Exploder in part because of writer's block in my own songwriting…and I'm still not sure that I've gotten through it.

How do you see the world in 2078?

At this point, I'm just hoping there will still be a world left to see in 2078.

What’s your number one bucket list item?

One casualty of my dilettantism is that I don't have a a number one bucket list item. I have three items that might rank at number four, though: I'd like to produce a feature film, design my own house, and see all seven continents. But if none of them happened, I'd find something else.

Who are you creative crushin’ on lately?

I am in love with the music of Grouper and the prints of Phil Chang, who is pushing at the edge of what photography can be.

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Podcasts are the most important medium of our time. That’s right. They provide a meritocratic platform, and the best of them verge on art. One such podcast, Song Exploder, introduced me to the creative talent of Hrishikesh Hirway about three years ago. Since then, Hrishi and I have kept in touch—he even gave a visiting lecture on the intersection of sound and graphic design at our San Francisco studio. Like all of us at IDEO, Hrishi approaches every project as a design problem. I was thrilled to again catch up with him in this installment of Creative Crushes.

I’ve always been a self-taught coder, so a few months back, I decided I’d get a jump on AR by playing around with 3D coding. What better way to figure it out than to create 3D dancing avatars of my friends so I can host virtual dance parties? (The idea may have been inspired by some of my previous work.)

So I went around asking my colleagues if I could 3D-scan them. I know what you’re thinking: How did I get anyone to agree to this? When I asked people to be scanned, they were so excited to "be 3D" they didn't even ask what I was going to do with the scans.

Left: IDEO CTO Tom Eich IRL. Right: Tom's 3D model mid-groove.

Once I got the scans, I "rigged" them—meaning, I gave them bones. Once they had bones, I could assign motion capture dance data to them that I pulled using 3D software. Finally, I loaded them into my code, which I had written with the help of countless tutorials on three.js, an API for 3D graphics. I created a desktop, AR, and VR version so that people could experience the dance party in the reality of their choosing. (3D assets in motion are surprisingly easy to transition between realities.)

The IDDDEO New York dance floor.

Tom Eich dancing in AR.

When participants saw their avatars in motion, they were definitely confused; for many, it was their first time seeing themselves in 3D. Being able to rotate a camera 360 degrees to see yourself from every angle is just not possible in reality, especially when you’re in motion. Most people immediately pointed out all the color/modeling imperfections in their 3D likenesses that resulted from my use of (what is clearly) an off-the-shelf 3D scanner.

Once the studio saw their coworkers’ 3D models dancing, everyone wanted an invite to the dance party. My fellow tinkerer Danny DeRuntz even brought the party to IDEO Cambridge, where he had long lines of people waiting to be scanned in.

The IDDDEO Cambridge dance floor.

My next endeavor will be creating an audio-visual beat machine that lets anyone sample and manipulate YouTube clips using my own pseudo format, AZZ. (Here’s a demo for the curious.) In the meantime, I’ll be fine-tuning the 3D dance code in hopes of eventually bringing this experience to real life parties in NYC. Sadly, elegant and portable 3D body scanning does not yet appear to be a thing. Hopefully soon?

Check out the dance floor and create your own party here.

Want to follow the project? I’ll be posting updates on my Instagram.

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As an interaction designer, I’m always testing my limits and teaching myself new technologies. And whenever possible, I like to use those new tricks to make people smile. My projects often have no purpose other than giving me an excuse to play on the computer. But I’ve found that combining my passion for the absurd with my passion for learning new tools can lead to glorious outcomes.

As designers who have worked on multiple preparedness and relief projects, we start by understanding why people choose not to prepare, then identify ways to make resilience easier.

Just like buying life insurance, or saving for a rainy day, a future emergency is an abstraction that’s hard to connect to our day-to-day priorities. And unlike seeing everyone else’s trash cans line the curb once a week, preparedness doesn’t have any visible prompts to encourage all of us to get with the program.

Symbols of participation can be powerful change agents, and we know that something as simple as filling out a checklist or talking about a plan can make the abstract tangible.

So what can you do today, for tomorrow?

Break down the process into bite-sized tasks, attach them to a concrete timetable, and connect with the people around you. By building strong connections with your community and taking the time to create a plan, you’ll be more equipped when the big one hits (whatever the big one might be.)

Here are a few simple steps to get you started—collaboratively—in just a week. Share this with your family, your roommate, your colleagues, or your book club.

Now: Follow Local Alerts

Make sure you know what’s going on around you. Follow local emergency alerts from the Fire Department and/or your local Department of Emergency Management on the social media platform you use most (Twitter, Facebook, NextDoor, etc.).

Tomorrow: Copy Your Documents

Scan and store a copy of your important documents. Take a photo of or scan your driver’s license, passport, lease/ownership documents, social security card, and other important documents. Save them (somewhere safe) in the cloud.

This weekend: Gather Your Stuff

Start assembling an emergency kit. Print out a of essentials, useful stuff, and personal items to get started. You’ll be surprised at how much you already have—it’s just a matter of getting it all in one place. And when it comes to supplies, a good rule of thumb is to have enough for three days.

Next week: Make a Plan

Make an emergency plan with your people. Have friends or family over for dinner and hatch it together. It’s like giving a spare key to a neighbor. Do it once, and hopefully, you'll never need to use it.

Cross these four things off your list, and we’ll all be better off when the next wildfire or bomb cyclone hits.

This winter, wildfires raged across California. The air has been heavy with smoke and thick with the power of Mother Nature. And the Left Coast isn’t the only place to be hit by a natural disaster recently (Hello Eastern Seaboard, Houston, Puerto Rico, Florida). As climate change accelerates, getting prepared is on all of our minds.

I took this picture at the beach festival in Chiba, Japan. Sudden rain is hard to avoid in the Japanese summer. When it started pouring at the beach, a man covered himself with the tarp he had been sitting on. After about five minutes, a bunch of people joined him under the tarp, which had been turned into an improvised umbrella. I loved that the man helped his fellow festival-goers escape the rain without a second thought.

Human-centered design requires us to observe human behavior with beginner's eyes, so that we can spot the innate ways people interact with the world around them. We call these intuitive and unconscious reactions Thoughtless Acts, and IDEO designers collect photos of them to inspire their work.

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.