Commonwealth Bank of Australia was interested in helping customers and businesses build close connections. They believed the way to do this would be by creating richer interactions around different forms of payment. The bank approached IDEO to explore these opportunities, and the result is a new retail business platform—Pi—and a portable payment device—Albert.

Pi brings a new level of flexibility, functionality, and customization to the face-to-face interaction between a cashier and a customer, improving everything from the process of splitting the bill in a restaurant to helping a guest find more personalized experiences at a hotel.

Insights

In the team’s research in Australia, the UK, and Germany, they found a few key insights that informed the design. First, they saw that an ideal platform should support the full spectrum of human behaviors around payment. Second, platforms can add value by improving the relationships among banks, merchants, and customers. And third, the payment experience should be customized to fit a specific setting, working one way in a luxury boutique and another in a gas station.

IDEO, CBA, and Wincor Nixdorf worked together closely to steward the design of Pi And Albert through product development and implementation, and to gather feedback from merchants during rapid, iterative cycles.

Results

The platform is flexible enough to benefit organizations of all sizes: Larger merchants can incorporate Pi as part of their existing network, while smaller merchants can grow their business using powerful business tools. And customers of all kinds can easily access a variety of payment methods and helpful applications.

Albert offers a large touchscreen that’s intuitive to use, the safety of virtually encrypted PIN entry, and a variety of ways to access data connections. A large battery provides power when retailers are on the go, and a modular housing means that Albert can be used in all kinds of situations. The device is built to handle current card payment methods but can also adapt to how cards might be accepted in the future, and even eliminates the need to swivel a screen from cashier to customer during the payment process.

Forty million Americans became newly eligible for health coverage when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was fully implemented in 2014. Some enrolled in health insurance for the first time, while others were able to get better access to affordable health coverage.

In preparation for the millions of applications, states were required to develop ways for people to sign up for health insurance online for plans that were operated by state and federal governments under the ACA. To help public and private agencies to meet the requirements, a coalition of nine national and state-based foundations, led by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) developed a digital enrollment prototype, and hired IDEO to lead the consumer research and design effort.

After a yearlong collaborative process, the resulting 300-page design manual and design reference prototype illustrates a customizable approach to public and private health insurance enrollment.

The flexible set of design standards developed for Enroll UX 2014 aims to make online health insurance enrollment simple, intuitive, and easy to navigate at scale.

To encourage PhD candidates to think differently about how they tackle tough science problems, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and IDEO embarked on a fruitful collaboration.

Three PhD candidates were tasked with the following challenge: Cultivate new audiences and uses for a microscope. Drawing inspiration from cell phone microscope CellScope, the trio arrived at a prototype that was less reliant on technology and easily disassembled and reassembled. How? By using the most basic building blocks: Legos.

Made of custom 3-D-printed parts and standard toy building blocks, the LegoScope, which functions as a microscope, can easily snap pieces in and out to hold different components. Both the device and the team-based process are now being used in various other campus projects to change how researchers think about conducting and advancing scientific research.

“The best work in the future is going to be done by teams of people with very different expertise, who know different things and think about things in different ways, who come together to focus on one big problem,” said Keith Yamamoto, vice chancellor of research at UCSF, who led the initiative.

Arye Barnehama and Laura Michelle Berman wanted to take their invention—a headband that measures brain wave activity, focus, and concentration—to the next level. As a part of IDEO’s startup-in-residence program, Barnehama and Berman collaborated with IDEO on the product’s rebranding, hoping to refine and emphasize the product’s promise: When people improve their focus, they feel more mindful, confident, and productive.

With IDEO’s help, the company changed its name from Axio to Melon, delineated their brand, refined its product, developed its user experience, and prepared a Kickstarter campaign that garnered considerable press coverage. The new name, Melon, reflected the friendly, scalable character of the company. The name also suggested the intent of the product—using neuroscience data to inform a personal activity.

To distinguish Melon as a standout in the crowded quantified-self category, IDEO designers made the logo a faceted orb that references the gear-shifting mind, with “Melon” written in a distinctive font born from that same logo. The team went with fruit colors—cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon—to evoke the sweet, refreshing experience the Melon headband promises.

Together, the Melon and IDEO teams also developed an app that shows increases in concentration after performing certain tasks and features a game in which you “fold” origami through mental focus to hone concentration.

Melon’s new brand strategy and UI set it apart from your typical fitness tracker, engaging the user in an elegant, joyful, and customized experience with every interaction.

Melon: a headband and mobile app to help you measure focus.

10 graphic novels to read right now:

1. Fred Korematsu Speaks Up (Fighting for Justice) by Laura Atkins (Author), Stan Yogi (Author), Yutaka Houlette (Illustrator) profiles a Japanese-American man who went into hiding to avoid being relocated into an internment camp, and was later arrested and put in a camp until 1945. (For 10 - 13-year-olds)

2. The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation by Jonathan Hennessey (Author), Aaron McConnell (Illustrator) breathes life into our nation's central document of values and principles.

3. March by John Lewis (Author), Andrew Aydin (Author), Nate Powell (Illustrator) chronicles the life of the Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis as he fought to end segregation.

4. The Complete Maus, 25th Anniversary Edition by Art Spiegelman tells the tale of a Holocaust survivor and his son and how they grapple with the past.

5. Palestine by Joe Sacco is an eyewitness account of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s.

6. Economix: How Our Economy Works (and Doesn't Work) by Michael Goodwin (Author), David Bach (Author), Joel Bakan (Author), Dan Burr (Illustrator) is an accessible, eye-popping guide to understanding the economy.

7. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi is a memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

8. The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes (Author), Chuck Dixon (Adapter), Paul Rivoche (Illustrator) is the graphic version of Amity Shlaes's nonfiction book. It highlights the struggles of the men and women of the Great Depression, and argues that the New Deal actually prolonged it.

9. Climate Changed: A Personal Journey through the Science Paperback, by Philippe Squarzoni is a stark, black and white depiction of our dependence on fossil fuels and how that's affecting our planet. French author Squarzoni sweeps through the science, economics, international policies, and politics that influence our climate.

10. Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm is a historical glance back at the race to build and decision to drop the first atomic bomb during WWII. (For young adults)

A spread from Fred Korematsu Stands Up about the daily grind of discrimination.

We spoke to Laura Atkins, coauthor of the new graphic novel for 4th-6th graders, Fred Korematsu Stands Up (#1 in our list, above). Google put Korematsu, the Japanese-American civil rights figure who went into hiding to avoid being relocated into an internment camp, and was later arrested, on its U.S. homepage yesterday to commemorate what would have been his 98th birthday (he died in 2005).

IDEO: Why were you drawn to the topic?

Laura Atkins: It’s such an important theme for us to pass along to kids today. I was an activist growing up, arrested twice in high school protesting against apartheid and nuclear weapons. We are entering a renewed period of activism and protest. I feel honored to have been part of a creating a book that introduces young people to a remarkable man who stood up when it was so hard to do so.

I’ve worked in the children’s book world for over twenty years on the editorial side, and with a focus on multicultural children’s books. So a book, and series, focused on people who fought for their rights, was a perfect project for me. Fred Korematsu stood up against Japanese American incarceration when very few people did. He was ostracized within his own community and rejected by his family at the time. He shows the courage needed to stand up for your beliefs. But people did rally around him over time, and he was not the only person to fight.

Why are graphic novels good ways to deal with complicated historical, cultural, and political subjects?

This isn’t quite a graphic novel, though we were definitely influenced by the graphic novel look. We did want to create a book that used visuals in a predominant way, in an effort to make the book attractive and inviting for young readers. My nine-year-old daughter will always choose a graphic novel first. And I’ve found some graphic novels that introduced me to socio-historical contexts better than just fiction (Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Palestine by Joe Sacco come to mind). John Lewis just received multiple awards from librarians for his March graphic novel.

I actually wrote my MA thesis on graphic novels that depicted personal memory and collective history, focusing on WWII (coincidentally). Drawing from Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, I looked at how the interaction between text and visual elements can create a deep and complex reading experience. This is true for readers of all ages. I think graphic novels offer some of the most innovative and exciting reading opportunities today.

What did you look at for inspiration? Are there other great examples of graphic novels or other graphic treatments of historic figures/movements that you could point us to?

I read a lot of children’s book depicting history, especially in terms of our diverse country. Voice of Freedom, a picture book biography about Fanny Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist, was a big influence. I love how the author, Carole Boston Weatherford, wrote in a first person present tense voice to bring us deeply into Hamer’s experience. Marilyn Nelson writes powerful poetry to introduce us to historical figures and events. Her biography, Carver, is one of my favorite books of all time. She uses photos and a variety of voices to introduce readers to George Washington Carver, going way beyond just inventing peanut butter. Her picture book, A Wreath for Emmett Till, shows how deep and complex picture books can be. Ashley Bryan just won awards for his gorgeous and moving book, Freedom Over Me. He deals with the lack of primary source records from slave times to create and give voice to several enslaves characters, along with transcendent artwork. Freedom in Congo Square by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Gregory Christie, Javaka Steptoe’s recent biography of Basquiat, Radiant Child—so many great books out there. Kids can learn about Josephine Baker and the Shackleton expedition. I could go on and on…

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When trying to gain empathy for people unlike you, panels can be more powerful than headlines. Some of the best books published in recent years have used comics to crack open sensitive political, cultural, and historical topics. You'll note that this list isn't without bias. Graphic nonfiction is a tool more frequently used by the left, and it's hard to find many examples with a more conservative outlook—trust us, we tried. But we believe that all of the books on this list have a different perspective to offer, and can help us look at the world in a new way. Did we miss any others? Tweet us. We'd love to hear what you think.

Fifteen years have now passed, and in that time, I’ve developed a sincere passion for the medium. I’ve worked with many photographers both in the studio and on location, and also have shot my own work, both at IDEO and personally. Though I consider myself a designer first and a photographer second, I realize now just how much this art form has influenced the way I work. The overlapping values in each discipline have sharpened my focus and demanded a constant reassessment of line, color, and composition.

Here’s how photography can help you become a better...

1. ART DIRECTOR

Being able to identify not only the subject but also the photographic styles that will work with your concept adds richness to the message. For example, is the experience that you are creating intended for families or teenage fashionistas? Should the audience feel like they’re part of the story, or like they’re being challenged by the subject? Does the graphic design feature geometric lines or organic shapes? Try answering questions like these and choose appropriate imagery with consideration for lighting, color, tone and camera perspective to help define the experience.

2. UI & UX DESIGNER

Photographic composition translates well to design composition. In photography there are many ways to draw the viewer’s eye to the intended subject or to communicate a message. In UI/UX, it is often beneficial to limit your color palette and reduce visual noise. In photography, creating an image with areas of equal tonal values or color helps to simplify and focus. You are making conscious decisions to help the viewer (or user) make choices. Interestingly, when photography is used in conjunction with UI elements, designers often have to figure out how to maintain the legibility of text, important links, and buttons. You can sometimes get away with using a dark tint (usually an opacity of black) over the image, although this can appear dark and muddy. Use a gradient overlay rather than a full tint. It will look less heavy. Video tends to be more forgiving as your eye can distinguish the type more easily against the moving content.

3. DESIGN RESEARCHER

Most people aren’t comfortable in front of the camera, and I don’t blame them — it can feel awkward and vulnerable. Creating a good rapport with a subject can ease their stress, and is essential to capturing their true character. This is my favorite aspect of portrait photography — connecting with people — and it can be hard to do in a limited period of time.

Getting to know a person before you just start shooting away is a lot like breaking the ice before diving into an interview . As Ann Kim, a design researcher at IDEO, says, “Building trust is essential to successful design research.”

As an exercise, try photographing a colleague or acquaintance. Spend time getting to know your subject before shooting their portrait. Share your final image with a few people. Ask them who they think your subject is, and what they are like. It will be interesting to compare their feedback to the experience you had with your subject.

4. STORYTELLER

Use photographs to document each stage of a design project to visually enhance your story. Capture images of your experiences during research and inspiration trips. Record user interactions through video and photography. These tools build trust by placing the user front and center, bringing focus back to the intended audience. Build your narrative by introducing the components of your design first. For the big finale, show the human response to the product or prototype as a holistic system or journey.

Photographing your process also ensures that you have assets for sharing work with colleagues or collaborators which helps to inform and inspire.

I would love to hear how other designers and creators connect with photography — both the process and the perspective it gives. How has it influenced your work? What has it helped you to see more clearly? What hurdles has it helped you to clear? Direct message me your responses on Twitter.

Have fun shooting!

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Many moons ago, when I was a couple of years out of college working at a digital agency in London, they handed me the responsibility of directing my first photo shoot. Cue anxiety. As a junior designer, I had limited experience with professional photography. I didn’t understand enough about the medium to give adequate direction to a photographer. On the day of our shoot, it seemed like magic watching the photographer and his assistants make it happen — the combination of their technical knowledge and efficient process was fascinating.

Kelly masterfully weaves together what he calls the 12 forces, tech trends driving us into the future. In Kelly’s view, the forces—Becoming, Flowing, Filtering, Remixing, etc—lean on and reinforce each other. Each is a combination of technologies and societal factors that give us a preview of what the future will look like. In the Cognifying chapter, Kelly details the ways artificial intelligence is already catalyzing technological disruption, and imagines the infinite ways it will continue to change our experience. What happens when physical objects aren’t just smart, but also constantly learning? Like many of the chapters in the book, Cognifying is both entirely relatable and totally mind bending; you unpeel layer after layer, occasionally pausing to savor the individual seeds.

As Rodriguez notes in the episode, each chapter almost seems like a book unto itself. “It feels like what we get here at IDEO with a group of people in a project space for six months.” It turns out, some of these chapters started 10 years ago as blog posts, then went through ruthless revisions by magazine editors, and were rewritten again over the years, eventually ripening into this multifaceted fruit.

Some business books are like bananas: easy to consume, bland, too mushy. But when IDEO Futures host Diego Rodriguez dug into podcast guest Kevin Kelly’s latest book, The Inevitable, it felt like something entirely different. Kelly’s book outlines the technological trends that will drive every aspect of business going forward. It’s no banana. It’s more like a pomegranate—layered and fractal. Peeling back the layers requires work, but the rewards are juicy.

That’s the radical promise of the Circular Economy: moving from our traditional take-make-dispose economy, to one that has a closed loop, where materials, nutrients, and data are continuously repurposed.

Working with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which aims to inspire a shift to that new model, we’ve designed this guide to meet an emerging need among industry leaders: an alternative, restorative, and regenerative approach to business, one that creates new value and delivers long-term economic, social and ecological prosperity.

Transitioning the Circular Economy into the mainstream will be one of the biggest creative challenges of our time. But we believe design thinking is an ideal approach for tackling this complex, systemic, ambitious challenge.

Created for innovators, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, the guide aims to raise awareness of the Circular Economy, nurture a systems perspective, and share practical innovation methods.

We hope these ideas will galvanize readers to start designing tomorrow’s breakthrough businesses.

Get started at circulardesignguide.com.

What if we had a new way to design products, services, and businesses that were good for people, the planet, and business?

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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.