Team Rubicon, formed in 2010 as a response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, is made up of former military veterans who swoop into help in times of disaster. The organization started with six vets in the US who were eager to transfer their battlefield readiness in to frontline relief efforts, and has grown to more than 28,000 volunteers across the world.

To explore its growing global effort and to shape the future of the organization’s venture, Team Rubicon approached IDEO for help. After an 11-week collaboration with government, military, and veteran groups, a vision for Team Rubicon Global emerged. Inspired by sources as diverse as TED and The Hell’s Angels, the three-tier model consisted of an anchor network to share best practices across the organization and two supporting platforms designed to help countries with varying capacity and needs.

Team Rubicon Global coordinated its first deployment in April 2015, when a quake struck Nepal, sending US and UK teams to double down on the rescue effort. According to Vince Moffit, Team Rubicon USA Incident Commander, that incident alone validated the network effect of IDEO’s work. “We couldn’t have done this without Team Rubicon UK,” he said.

And for the veterans who are part of Team Rubicon, the shared desire to serve—applying skills ideally suited for disaster response—creates a renewed sense of purpose, community, and leadership that helps reintegration to civilian life.

Midea, one of China’s largest appliance manufacturers, wanted to identify growth opportunities in the domestic consumer market, while focusing on people’s cultural beliefs around health and well-being. During the course of the project, IDEO found that Midea could play a key role in building a healthier nation.

The team set out to design potential future products for Tong (“through, whole, and to understand”) that are built around the basic themes of eating, breathing, and being: an easy-to-use, hassle-free herbal tea dispenser, an air balancer that improves and balances the quality of air in the home, and a body-balancing mobile phone app that encourages users to rebalance their body condition where needed, through movements created with the Chinese philosophies of well-being in mind.

The Tong project was featured extensively in the press, and opened further conversations with Midea about creating new value and extending into new markets.

Put food on the table or keep the furnace running on a frigid day? It’s an unfortunate choice many low-income families in Flint, Michigan, face.

To help customers in Flint and other Michigan towns stay on top of their utility bills and better understand the relationship between their energy consumption and the resulting costs, Consumers Energy partnered with IDEO and utility assistance provider The Heat and Warmth Fund (THAW) to create an innovative pilot billing program called Clear Control in late 2013.

The pilot was designed with three major human-centered changes to the traditional utility experience:

• Instead of monthly bills, participants received two bills per month. Shorter billing periods allowed for smaller, more frequent payments, helping customers match available funds with their ability to pay.
• Daily text updates on energy usage and bill amounts kept consumption top of mind.
• Consumers Energy offered personalized, in-home audits to help customers make low-cost, high-impact changes to their energy bills.

A year later, the results of the pilot are energizing. Clear Control participants accumulated no new debt, while the control group owed $300; pilot customers used 20 percent less electricity, reducing their bills by $200 per year; and 95 percent of participants paid their bills in full and on time, compared with 35 percent in the control group. The utility company simultaneously benefited by avoiding arrearages, late-payment fees, and shutoffs. Consumers plans to incorporate Clear Control lessons into its overall energy assistance program design and development moving forward.

"It’s no longer ‘me’ against ‘them’—now it’s ‘us,’" said one Clear Control participant.

In 1980, Apple asked IDEO to develop a mouse for their radical new computer, the Lisa. Previous attempts at mouse design, by Douglas Englebart and Xerox PARC, yielded results that were too expensive and hard to make. The Apple mouse needed to be more reliable and less than 10 percent of the cost of the earlier versions.

To start, the design team created a cheaper, much-improved mechanism that would operate the mouse, and found that a complex, plastic "ribcage" would hold the pieces together. The team similarly tested and refined the mouse’s other key components, from the audible and tactile click of the button to the rubberized coating on the ball. A record turntable spun for days, logging “mouse miles” to check the reliability of the electromechanical assembly.

The resulting mouse proved mechanically and economically sound and was changed only slightly when adapted for use with the first Macintosh computer. The basic mechanism design is used in virtually all mechanical mouses produced to date.

But when IDEO worked with the USGBC to come up with a new LEED certification plaque, it became clear that software design would be a fundamental part of LEED’s future: The idea was to replace the static plaque with a continually updated digital display. Initially, LEED only looked at a building’s performance at the time of certification. The USGBC has long been working on ways to evaluate what happens after certification, and a recertification program has been in place since 2004. The new plaque was conceived to go even further, monitoring a building’s sustainability in real time on a dynamic digital graph.

That sounds (and looks) pretty simple and intuitive, but to make it work, we had to bust down some interesting technical walls, in a way that nicely encompassed the breadth of IDEO's capabilities, from design research, business development, industrial design, shop building, and interaction design to the software I helped create with an incredible team.

I came on board after the actual visual design had been finished. A small IDEO team had already completed a concept video, unveiled at the 2013 Greenbuild conference, for a plaque that calculates a building’s ongoing performance in five categories: energy, waste, water, transportation, and human experience. For each of the five ratings, there is a curving pathway that gets longer as the score improves.

The team came up with this “racetrack” design to show real sustainability data in a way that encourages positive behavior change. Familiar graphics like charts and graphs tend to make people focus on the negative, whereas we wanted people to focus on progress. No matter how long the strip on the racetrack is, you can see that you’re on your way, even if you still have a ways to go. We weren’t sure we could achieve the requisite combination of elegance and functionality in the time allotted. But it was a good challenge, and that in itself was compelling.

The animation has a big purpose: Showing the building’s use of energy, waste, and water makes people more aware and more conscientious of their own use. I think that’s really positive. The plaque also shows how occupants travel to and from the building, as well as how comfortable and happy they feel when they’re inside, which are new ideas for what it means for a building to be “green.” I wouldn’t have thought, when LEED was introduced in 2000, that a software developer could have a meaningful impact on sustainable architecture, but the fact that I could really speaks to the opportunities that will be open to us in the future.

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Many folks helped to contribute to this post. Huge thanks to Scot Horst, Gretchen Sweeney, Jennifer Easton, Kim Cullen, Gerry Harris, Steve Bishop, Beau Trincia, Mark Harrison, John Stoddard, Alastair Warren, and Building Robotics.

I've always had a layman's interest in architecture and in LEED, the U.S. Green Building Council’s certification program for sustainable buildings. I’m a software developer, so designing buildings is well outside my area of expertise.

Nature Cards are a collection of cards featuring strategies from the natural world that inspire us with a new mindset as we approach design challenges. Use them to frame your design challenge, evolve your business strategy, brainstorm, teach, or simply to think creatively and holistically with nature in mind.

As human-centered designers and innovators, our work has always been inspired by observing people’s natural behavior in its physical, social, and cultural context. As we address increasingly complex and systemic challenges, recently some of us at IDEO have been exploring how human-centered design might broaden its lens to include observation of the natural world in which humans are an integral part. With the help of experts in biology and the life sciences, we are learning about the principles of successful strategies in living systems. This knowledge is inspiring new thinking about how and what we can create for a thriving future.

Download the complete set of Nature Cards here.

So why not have a camera provide a live feed of the spot where food is left when it’s up for grabs, so everybody can know when it’s time to raid the kitchen? Having recently worked on a project that explored embedding sensors and technology into living and working spaces, I was inspired by the Food Cam. I was also itching to learn how to prototype using a Raspberry Pi, so when I returned to IDEO Chicago, I hacked together a very similar version to install in our kitchen, with the addition of a fun little twist to make it our own.

I took a Raspberry Pi with a camera module and Velcro-ed it right above the kitchen counter where we typically put leftover food. I cobbled together some Python code from various examples I found online so that with the push of a button, the camera takes an image of whatever is on the counter and emails the photo to the whole office.

The signature twist was making the button wireless by hacking a remote doorbell chime I picked up at the hardware store. Then, in order to give this prototype some personality, I bought a stuffed banana and sewed the remote doorbell button into it. Behold, the BananaCam! Now, whenever someone leaves leftovers out in the kitchen, they can just squeeze the banana and let the office know exactly what’s on offer. It’s our version of ringing the dinner bell.

The best part about this was building something in the office just for fun, to see if people would like it enough to use it. As with any prototype, if people like using it, it will stick around. If it’s not that interesting or useful, it will collect dust, parts of it will get lost, and eventually, it will be taken down. We’ll see what happens with the BananaCam.

Everyone here likes to build things, and it's important that we don't see the office environment as too precious to tinker with. That's why we're always experimenting with new technologies and encouraging people to play around and see how they work.

Thanks to my BananaCam collaborators Garrett Winther, Emily Lam, and Julia Nacsa!

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On a recent recruiting trip to MIT, I took a tour of the Media Lab. There’s no shortage of cool things to see there, but what caught my eye was their Food Cam. The idea is simple: there are leftovers in the kitchen all the time, but people only notice them if they happen to wander past or if they see a colleague eating something tasty.

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To guard against tracking and malvertising, I use quite a few Chrome extensions:

1. uBlock
2. Collusion for Chrome
3. Disconnect
4. Facebook AdBlock
5. Facebook Ads Remover
6. HTTPS Everywhere
7. IBA Opt-out (by Google)
8. Keep My Opt-Outs
9. Privacy Badger
10. ScrewAds Plus for YouTube

The issue with many of these extensions, however, is that they tend to be a touch overzealous about what they block webpages from serving. For the average user, this can be a regular nuisance; as a developer, it's anathema to your workflow.

An interim resolution, hardly a solution

Unless explicitly specified in chrome://extensions/ via the “allow in incognito” option, extensions are, by default, disabled in Chrome's incognito mode. As a result, a series of five key commands had become nothing short of a reflex action for me whenever it appeared as though content might be missing from a page:

1. ⌘ + L (highlight the current URL in the omnibar)
2. ⌘ + C (copy URL to clipboard)
3. ⌘ + shift + N (open new incognito window)
4. ⌘ + V (paste URL from clipboard)
5. enter (load URL in incognito window)

As a developer and no stranger to the command line, I use keyboard commands and shortcuts whenever possible. Because of this, I had become pretty quick at performing the above sequence. But when you've clicked within a video or any such action that shifts keyboard focus from the browser to a plugin, the sequence can no longer be quickly performed.

Moreover, as a product designer, I knew I wanted a better user experience for this set of actions; specifically, I wanted a one-step process. As my desire for a solution mounted, so did the frequency with which I complained about this broken workflow to my colleagues.

Stop critiquing, start creating

Recently, my wonderfully talented colleague and friend, Simon King, wrote a piece with the above title about an iOS app he created called News Now. In the article, he explains how his frustration with the irregular listening experience of the official NPR app led him to create News Now. He also includes a quote from LCD Soundsystem's venerable frontman, which every designer should take on as a personal mantra:

The best way to complain is to make things.

James Murphy

With the above mantra in mind, along with a suggestion from Simon himself that I might explore a browser extension as a solution, I set out to solve my problem. A quick perusal of the developer documentation for Chrome extensions led me to chrome.window.create—a method that accepts an optional incognito parameter — and I knew I was good to go.

Next step: How to create an extension? My research immediately led me to the excellent Extensionizr, an open-source boilerplate generator for Chrome extensions. Through helpful tooltips for each of the many options, I learned I needed a browser action, background.js event page, permissions to access the browser's open tabs, and no options, overrides, content scripts, or add-ons.

A press of the “Download it!“ button and a few lines of JavaScript later, my issue was solved and I had written my first Chrome extension. All that was left was to follow Google's instructions on packaging and uploading, and a few minutes later, my work was live in the Chrome Web Store:

A happy accident

As it turns out, opening a page in incognito mode initiates a new browser session in which you are logged out of every account. This enables you to quickly browse a site outside of your filter bubble and compare it to the page you see when logged in.

Shoutouts

It goes without saying that I owe a huge thanks to Simon both for his inspiration and his suggestions.

Thanks also to Alex Wolkov, the developer behind the awesome Extensionizr. If ever you're writing a Chrome extension, this boilerplate generator will save you quite a lot of time.

In need of an icon for my extension, I turned to the excellent Noun Project. I knew I wanted to use a mask icon to visually reference Chrome's incognito mode, and the Noun Project has no shortage of options. But when I saw Jason Voorhees of Friday the 13th franchise fame, the choice was an instant and obvious one. Jason comes from the amazing Icons8.

Open In Incognito is available on the chrome web store here. The project's source code is available on GitHub.

The issue of Internet privacy is a challenging one. No one wants their every click and page view tracked, catalogued and shared across countless databases of the thousands of advertising partners working to serve the most targeted marketing efforts that have ever existed.

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.