Obesity exists at the complex intersection of a clinical condition and a cultural force. Clinically, it comes with a diagnosis and treatment plan. Culturally, it is influenced by beliefs, identity, and self-worth, making it deeply personal and often taboo. Families, healthcare providers, and experts tend to avoid the fraught “o-word,” opting for euphemisms instead. For families on Medicaid, these challenges are even more pronounced. Award-winning health-tech startup Clarity Pediatrics, together with designers from IDEO, IDEO.org, and with support from Rise Together Ventures, sought to uncover the obstacles to healthier lifestyles and create a free report for US pediatricians who want to bend the curve on the childhood obesity epidemic.

Research with kids and parents on Medicaid in Dallas, Texas, and California’s Bay Area, along with interviews with healthcare providers and experts across the country, uncovered stories of stigma and frustration. Parents spoke of the daily challenges of balancing multiple jobs, sourcing affordable healthy food, and finding time to make necessary lifestyle changes. They described rushed pediatric visits that left them with unclear next steps and feelings of blame. Provider conversations echoed these struggles, noting time constraints and limited follow-up options.  

Ultimately, food had become a daily torment for these families. Eating was unavoidable and also one of the few affordable indulgences low-income parents were able to provide. Once kids left their own homes, they were surrounded by unhealthy temptations, making it feel impossible for parents to maintain control. The popularity of costly new weight-loss medications and surgical procedures added another layer of complexity for families who had been underserved by—and therefore distrustful of—America’s healthcare system. With so much of the responsibility placed on parents to self-direct care, inequities deepened, adding to the burden of families already at a breaking point.

To design a path forward, IDEO and IDEO.org mapped a family’s needs before, during, and after pediatric visits. This work revealed critical parts of the journey where families needed more support: recognizing early signs of obesity, navigating provider conversations, and sustaining healthier habits at home.

These insights informed a theory of change framework that provides actionable guidance for stakeholders involved in obesity care. Grounded in three opportunity areas along the patient journey—building awareness, confidence, and capacity—the framework highlights how trust, dignity, and systemic support can lead to lasting outcomes.

IDEO and IDEO.org also developed 10 user-centered concepts spanning digital, physical, and service offerings to reduce stigma and empower families to sustain healthier lives. These ideas address dignified diagnoses and structural inequities, among other pressing issues. Complementing these concepts, IDEO created a short documentary of a mother discussing her family’s experience navigating childhood obesity to help pediatric providers—many of whom have had very different lived experiences from the families and patients they serve—better understand the realities of the daily struggles of many families on Medicaid.

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Designed for the public good, the interactive website and free downloadable report, Reimagining Childhood Obesity, contain research findings, design recommendations, and a theory of change framework. The goal: provide practical, actionable guidelines for pediatricians, educators, healthcare organizations, and innovators to meet families and kids where they are and support them as they move toward a healthier future.

21% of US children are obese. 40% of Latino youth are either overweight or obese.

26% of kids on Medicaid experience childhood obesity, compared with 11% on private insurance.

525,600 minutes: Total time per year parents spend caring for their children. 17 minutes: Average time a pediatrician spends with a child during their annual exam, a small window to address a complex chronic condition such as obesity.

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user-centered ideas to help pediatricians reduce the stigma of childhood obesity in an accessible report

3

opportunity areas for building trust with young patients and providing family support

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With its reach, Acer saw an opportunity to power positive choices in the billions. ‍

But new products and services won’t succeed if consumers don’t want them, no matter how sustainable they are. A few years go, the Harvard Business Review’s report, "The Elusive Green Consumer," found that about two-thirds of those surveyed said they wanted to buy brands that advocated sustainability. But only a quarter actually did.

Meanwhile, the market for climate era products is only growing: In 2022, Forbes found that nearly 90 percent of the Gen X consumers they surveyed said they’d be willing to spend more on sustainable products, compared to just over a third two years before. The desire was only higher among Millennials and Gen Z; they just didn’t like what was on offer.

To drive sales and growth, and meet its sustainability commitments, Acer needed to capitalize on desirability, deepening the connection between Acer’s sustainable options and consumer needs, lowering the barrier to purchase. To that end, Acer and IDEO created the Acer Climate Lab, a cross-organizational team and initiative, to launch the company on a transformative journey to deepen the connection between Acer's conscious technology and the realities of people's lives and needs across four strategic areas.

Together, the combined team conducted extensive research to better understand consumer attitudes and behaviors toward sustainable products, and identified everyday areas where Acer’s conscious technology might be able to have the most significant impact: living, working, moving, and learning.

• Living: Envisions homes as hubs of energy efficiency and climate resilience, leveraging technology to optimize energy use, enhance air quality, and enable proactive climate management. These concepts include technologies like smart energy systems, adaptive air solutions, and integrated home management platforms explore how technology can support sustainable daily living.
  
  
• Working: Reimagines the workplace with flexible, sustainable technology solutions that prioritize resource optimization and circular practices. Concepts such as Acer Loop could provide a subscription-based model that ensures access to the latest technology, supports remote work, and reduces electronic waste through effective recycling and rehoming practices.
  
  
• Moving: Focuses on the transformation of urban mobility by integrating technology into systems that promote sustainable transportation. Concepts could include e-mobility hubs that highlight how urban spaces could offer seamless access to shared, low-emission travel options, reducing reliance on traditional carbon-heavy methods.
  
  
• Learning: Explores pathways to sustainable education by imagining environments where technology supports circularity and accessibility. This includes ideas like refurbished devices for students, repair and reuse programs, and educational spaces designed with climate-positive principles, nurturing eco-conscious habits in future generations.

Together with Red Peak and Sid Lee, the team launched the culmination of the work at COP28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, positioning Acer as a pioneer in climate positive technology. The exhibit included immersive experiences and interactive displays demonstrating how Acer's sustainable solutions seamlessly integrate into everyday life. Visitors could engage with scenarios depicting sustainable living, working, moving, and learning, emphasizing the practical benefits of Acer’s innovations.

Acer's journey through the Climate Lab project underscores a commitment to sustainability that goes beyond mere compliance. With this new cross-business team tackling the real-world barriers faced by consumers, Acer is paving the way for a more inclusive, sustainable future. This initiative not only aligns with global climate goals, but also sets a precedent for the tech industry, demonstrating that with the right approach, sustainability and innovation can go hand in hand.

In a survey, 65% of respondents said they want to buy brands that advocate sustainability, yet only about 26% actually do. 

Nearly one in two consumers say they either don’t know what information to trust, or that nothing can influence how much they trust a business’s commitment to sustainability.

1 cohesive strategy

for climate era products across 6 different fields

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With the introduction of generative AI, Ethiqly and IDEO saw a unique opportunity to help teachers, by cutting down the time it takes to provide each student with feedback on their writing assignments. But to get there, they had to learn from the experts themselves. To kick off the project, the team headed into the classroom to co-design with students and teachers.

One of the first problems they discovered? Traditional methods of grading essays are laborious and inefficient for high school teachers, who are already notoriously busy and overworked. What teachers really wanted was to spend time giving each student the personalized feedback that helps them grow. Meanwhile, students really struggled to get started on their writing assignments, overwhelmed by looking at a blank page.

Together, the team started to think about how it could harness AI to make personalized instruction more accessible for all students, helping teachers provide better feedback at scale, and giving students the support they need to not only get started on their writing assignments, but improve their work. 

With insights directly from students and teachers, the IDEO team built working prototypes, allowing them to beta test the product in schools, and demonstrate value to investors. They also developed a brand identity and style guide for launch, which came to life in a pitch deck, landing page, and other brand expressions.

The resulting product is a sophisticated blend of AI technology and user-friendly interfaces that empower teachers and inspire students. The goal isn’t just to get to a finished essay, but to assist students in developing critical thinking skills. Ethiqly's tools help students organize their thoughts and get writing by providing contextual prompts and suggestions—without doing the work for them. And the AI assistant supports teachers by suggesting comments based on evaluation criteria they have set, and teachers choose which feedback is relevant for their individual students. Students never see it without teacher approval.

As one teacher told the team, “With leveraging AI more in education, there’s this fear that it’s deprofessionalizing the field or it’s a direct replacement of a teacher in a classroom. I think it gives us meaningful data, so that we can actually teach the way that we want to in order to support our students.” Now, Ethiqly is in use in classrooms in 25 countries, positively impacting students across the globe.

Teachers know 1:1 interaction is key to student success, but an EdWeek survey found only 46% of teachers’ time is spent teaching, while 25 hours/week goes to other tasks like grading and making lesson plans.

25 countries…and growing

Ethiqly’s reach in classrooms around the world

Designing a piece of a city, like a park, doesn’t start with a blank slate. There are always traces of the past and the present, and the lived history of its residents.

To create a full picture of that story, the IDEO team built workshops for the community centered around questions about the unique experiences of living in Frisco. They invited them to reflect on the communities they grew up in, the city of today, and the public spaces that have played formative roles for them. 

From their answers, a common value emerged: heritage. Frisco is a rapidly growing city, with residents whose families have lived there for centuries living side-by-side with more recent neighbors from diverse cultures and ethnic groups. Participants shared a vision of Grand Park as a unifying, shared space, a backdrop where many families can form foundational memories in Frisco.

Next, IDEO brought in multisensory design prompts to help participants further conceptualize the park. How did they want it to feel, sound, and smell? In the built-up, suburban city of Frisco, residents imagined a space that was less planned, enabling guided wandering and exploration. They also hoped that the park would inspire loved ones and descendants to feel a sense of curiosity and wonder.

At the end of workshops and sessions with community groups, the IDEO team took Polaroids of participants, asking, “What’s one word you want to describe Grand Park in the future?” Those words informed the collective vision that IDEO delivered to the city of Frisco, which included spatial concepts, user journeys, and branding for the park, all designed to showcase its unique landscapes. In January 2024, Frisco City Council approved the vision statement, and officials expect to break ground in the second half of 2025.

The population of Frisco is growing rapidly; its population is up 516% since the year 2000.

At more than 1,000 acres, Grand Park in Frisco is even larger than Central Park in New York City.

Less than 1% of Blackland Prairie soil remains in the region, and some of it is in Grand Park.

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Frisco residents were engaged in the process, from City Council members to high school students

200+

respondents shared anonymous feedback on what they imagined the park should be

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.

We headed there together—Keren to speak on a panel about raising AI kids responsibly, and Dan to meet with clients and partners and check out what’s coming in the world of media and technology.

What stood out most was the contrast between our panel discussion—where we focused on how AI can genuinely enhance kids’ lives in meaningful ways—and the exhibit halls, where much of the tech seemed designed to become the centerpiece of daily life. There were some promising ideas, like digital health assistants and travel concierges, but it was clear that many companies were betting on people reorganizing their lives around their products. That could be a tough sell for consumers, and one that leaves a big opportunity for companies to design technology that integrates into people’s lives, amplifying what they already value and care about.

Here were the most interesting things we saw, heard—and wished we’d seen.

Things we heard

Kids aren’t impressed by AI alone: While adults can go ga-ga over everything AI, Keren’s co-panelist, Joshua Garrett, COO of Readyland, astutely pointed out that though adults might feel an experience is magical because of a novel tech interface or capability, kids aren’t wowed by the flash if the experience itself doesn’t deliver. At the IDEO Play Lab, we often see that adults will try to figure out how to make a product work because they're too embarrassed to admit they don’t get it. But kids will tell you right away if something isn’t intuitive. Youth have also told us directly: They want a chance to learn how to form relationships with real people, not a chatbot that might stunt their emotional growth during their formative years. While these insights were focused on designing for kids and youth, the idea of novelty wearing off applies to any audience. During our panel, there was consensus: Just because something can be automated or replaced, doesn’t mean it should be. There are the human moments we should hold on to and protect.

Things we saw

‍Smart glasses galore (or wearables that go anywhere but your wrist): On the way out of the CES showroom we were overwhelmed (well, almost) by just how many versions of smart glasses there were, not to mention all the people in line waiting to try them out. The Xreal/BMW partnership was particularly packed, and won a bunch of “Best of CES” awards. We were particularly intrigued by Rokid’s approach to the device, which included a separate controller and ability to take off your prescription glasses (a big win for Dan!) and adjust the image quality in the lens. For now, it seems like the smart glasses market is still in flux, and popularity will be determined by how well these companies pitch something that fits different social moments (e.g. being the passenger of a car, sitting on an airplane, hanging out in cafe, walking down the street, just saying hi to a friend, etc). One thing that still felt way underdesigned? The audio experience and the relationship between the glasses and the audio devices you might already have.

‍Creator tech ISO heart: As with most hype cycles, buzz around the creator economy has risen and fallen many times over the past few years. Are we on our third spring? We saw plenty of “pro creator” tools that can empower users to do everything from quickly capturing human motion (inertia-based motion capture and animation—no room sensors needed) to importing image assets with nothing more than a bluetooth connection and to software developer kits (SDKs) that enhance immersive experiences. Before, only professionals could access these powerful tools; now anyone (with the budget) can build an immersive game. Still, amid all this progress, it felt very refreshing to have dinner with execs in the creative space who emphasized the need for human stories and heart. The challenge isn’t just making creation faster; it’s ensuring the stories these tools help tell resonate on a deeper level, connecting with audiences in ways that transcend the tools themselves. After all, it’s the heart in the work that keeps audiences coming back.

‍IP content flywheel: Some of the longest lines we saw at this very techy tech convention were for the The Last of Us proof-of-concept immersive experience and the Demon Slayer photo opp at Sony. The uptick in location-based entertainment (aka, experiences that let people live out their fandom IRL) is a good reminder that characters and connections are the thing. The tech was in service of the experience. On the other end of the spectrum of the storytelling medium, at the Variety Summit, we heard about how webtoons and anime—long popular in the Asian market—are now finding incredible traction in other geographies. It was somewhat of a full circle moment for those of us who were coming of age during the era of LiveJournal and lo-fi sketches. There’s something nostalgic and comforting about the quick drawings and the 2D experience of absorbing a story in that way that appeals to users in the age of high-speed and seamless experiences. It’s a good reminder that some experiences benefit from slowing things down.

Things we wish we had seen

‍Solutions to big human problems: We were really hoping to see some innovative approaches to some of the looming problems we’re eager to get working on—like decades (centuries?!) of under-investment in women’s health. (And we’re not talking about period-tracking apps, either.) There is such a large opportunity area here.
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We did really appreciate the AgeTech section, which was sponsored by AARP. Believe it or not, 2024 was actually known as “peak 65,” the year when the largest-ever number of Americans ever hit 65 at once. We need new solutions and interventions to support dignity and care in the aging process, improving not just the physical health experience, but mental and emotional health too. Some of the things we saw were cool and fun, like versions of classic games, tailored to audiences of different abilities, making it easier for families to connect. We’re hoping to see more solutions like this, that extend care beyond capturing health metrics, designing for delight and connection, which are important for longevity and joy.

Need help solving a problem in one of these opportunity areas? Get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was a whirlwind of AI—in your kitchen! In your car! In your bedroom!—smart glasses, “pro-creator tools,” and new media experiences (see-through tv screens, anyone?).

As we move through the world in 2025, we have a long list of things we’d love to rethink, if only we had the chance. Here’s what’s risen to the top of our list this year.

PRODUCTS:

1. LED headlights make driving at night painful—and dangerous. Am I getting older and cranky? Yes! But that doesn’t change the fact that headlight brightness has doubled in the past 10 years, and the last time I checked, roads have not gotten darker. There are ways to keep ourselves safe on the road without blinding our fellow travelers.
—Will Notini, Chicago

2. Food storage lids and containers always seem to get separated, leaving mismatched pieces that feel impossible to pair. Containers rarely stack efficiently, taking up more space than they should, and any attempt at maintaining an organized and sustainable system seems destined to fail. How might we redesign everyday kitchen organization to turn common pain points into seamless experiences?
—Sindhura Sonnathi, San Francisco

3. Same. In addition to them getting separated and inefficient stacking, food containers never come out of the dishwasher completely dry. I’m constantly having to dry them with a towel and needing to get in those nooks and crannies to get all of the water out. The glass, ceramic, and metal dishes don’t do this. It’s just a nuisance. Let’s fix it!
—Shavon Gervasi, Cambridge

4. Assuming you’ve figured out what app the show you want to watch is in, you now get the joy of having to scroll through TV interfaces with long, flat horizontal “trays” down long flat horizontal pages. Sometimes there’s a bit of variation (Rectangles! Squares! Larger rectangles and squares!) but it’s easy to get lost, and hard to flip back and forth between things you’re interested in. I don’t miss my cable subscription, but I really do miss some of the things cable figured out how to do well.
—Dan Perkel, San Francisco

5. There must be a better solution than our current umbrellas. They're so inefficient and cumbersome to carry around. I always put off using one until I absolutely can't avoid it, and by that point, it often ends up breaking due to the wind anyway.
—Rita Nicolau, London

6. Many (most?) new cars have all of their radio functionality accessible only via touchscreen, which is 1) dangerous and 2) extremely inconvenient for your passenger DJ. Well-intentioned safety measures block smartphone syncing while the car is in motion (even when a passenger is doing the syncing instead of the driver), and many touchscreens require the user to navigate away from a map app in order to operate the music app or radio. Forcing all functionality to route through a screen is clunky and makes for a poor roadtrip experience.
—Meridith Halsey, Chicago

7. Compostable straws are better for the Earth than plastic straws! But, they get all mushy and disintegrate half-way through your drink. We can make something better.
—Nina Lampert, London

8. Why do white plastic fences exist? They’re a larger version of the white plastic bag. They are not good for the environment, they do not weather well, and you really can’t repair them like you can a wooden fence.
—Christina Abele, Cambridge

9. This might be more of a revival than a redesign, but I’d love to build a version of The Whole Earth Catalog (WEC) updated for 2025. First published in 1968, the original WEC was a compendium of product listings, how-to guides, and educational tools for those in the back-to-the-land movement, shaped by thinkers like Buckminster Fuller. We need a new version of that radical spirit. Whatever form it takes, a new WEC could offer practical resources, forward-thinking education, and hands-on toolkits with an eye toward sustainable living and ecological literacy.
—Beth Holzer, San Francisco

10. For so many people, financial decisions like planning, budgeting, etc., are group decisions—made with roommates, loved ones, spouses (former spouses!), parents, kids, and others. And yet due to a combination of regulations, conventions, and perhaps a bit of laziness, almost every financial product, service, or brand is oriented around a one-to-one relationship that people then have to hack or modify to truly use in a collaborative, group-first way. Does it really have to be this way?
—Dan Perkel, San Francisco

11. Streaming services don’t financially benefit most artists. How can we create more equitable, scalable systems for artists to make living wages?
—Ceci Gomez, San Francisco

12. When I was little we went to the store to buy a dishwasher and the display models all had glass fronts. I came BURSTING in the door to tell my mom that we were getting a dishwasher with a window. The disappointment I felt when it came with a metal front is an understatement. Why don’t they have clear glass doors?
—Molly Rolig, San Francisco

13. Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) are tax-advantaged accounts that allow employees to set aside pre-tax money to pay for eligible medical expenses. And  my bi-yearly dental cleaning is solidly within the eligibility guidelines. However, after every dental cleaning, my FSA provider tracks me down asking for an itemized receipt to “prove” that the visit was covered—even though there’s nothing at the dentist’s office that I can purchase that is outside of that coverage. This doesn’t happen with any other eligible medical expense I incur; how is it still the case that paying for dental care gets constantly flagged as potential fraud? It’s a friction point that makes me not want to deal with FSAs at all. If FSAs are meant to promote preventative care, they should be designed to promote as seamless an experience as possible for the employee.
—Meridith Halsey, Chicago

14. Shower curtains are hard to clean, the metal rusts, the little hooks fall off, they make noise,  they are annoying to take down and put back up, and they aren’t easy to change out to suit your mood or time of day. Staying clean while keeping the rest of the bathroom dry could use some innovation.
—Dan Perkel, San Francisco

SYSTEMS:

15. Currently, the shareholder model of corporate governance requires the maximization of shareholder wealth, which has contributed to wage disparity, corporate greed, lowered local tax payments, lack of corporate social accountability, and inappropriate corporate influence on government legislation and policy. This could be redesigned so that, one,  shareholder wealth is only a part of the corporate mandate; two, corporate “freedom of speech” is curtailed; three, corporations have less influence over government; and four, corporations contribute more to their local communities and economies.
—Jeremy Sallin, San Francisco

16. In Capitalism, we have a system that is rewarding greed and nonstop growth, while that growth is now killing our planet. Something’s gotta give, y’all.
—Stuart Getty, San Francisco

17. Why are pedestrians, who are the most vulnerable participants in traffic systems, often deprioritized by cities and our infrastructure? Especially here in the U.S. At times when traffic is light (at night, for example), pedestrian crossing signals are red by default, while the signal for main thoroughfare for cars is green. What if all pedestrian crossing had a default state of “cross” instead? Also why do pedestrians need to request the right to pass by pressing a button? I’d want our cities to shift from car-first systems, to people-first and would love traffic lights to lead the way.
—Juho Parviainen, San Francisco

18. Why do I need to install a new medical app on my phone, every time I go see a doctor? Why must every practice have their own portal, their own system, their own login info, and their own interface? Even my doctor sometimes struggles to pull all of the inputs into a single place where they can see everything and give an accurate assessment and advice. How might we streamline the use of patient data into a format that’s truly efficient for physicians and patients alike?
—Shannon Vossler, Chicago

19. As cities face more extreme and frequent heat waves, our built environment is failing to protect residents—especially vulnerable populations like the elderly, outdoor workers, and low-income communities who often lack access to cooling. Temporary cooling centers and emergency response plans are reactive band-aids that don't address systemic issues in heat resilience. Traditional infrastructure (dark pavement, lack of shade, heat-trapping buildings) actively makes the problem worse. The complex interplay between urban design, social equity, and climate science demands innovative thinking beyond just adding more AC units.
—Nazlican Goksu, San Francisco

EXPERIENCES:

20. Meetings are the backbone of how teams align, make decisions, and move work forward—but too often, they’re baaaaad. Unstructured, dominated by a few voices, or overly reliant on agendas that prioritize activities over outcomes. This leads to wasted time, drained energy, and frustrated participants. By applying a designer’s mindset—clarifying objectives, prototyping small changes, and making discussions tangible—meetings can become opportunities for collaboration, alignment, and momentum instead of sources of friction.
—Matt Cooper-Wright, London

21. The behavior we let people get away with under the guise of “the customer is always right” never ceases to shock me. We subject service workers, in-store employees, and more to the worst side of human behavior all because we decided—what?—that paying money at a store lets you say whatever you want to the people who work there? I am a customer of various places, and I am rarely ever right (although you don’t see me screaming about it)! I’d love to see our executive class stick their neck out for their employees, who are their most valuable asset, and set stricter public standards for customers’ treatment of their staff.
—Andy Reischling, Cambridge

22. People used to associate travel with wonder and adventure. Now, people grit their teeth and steel themselves when making their way to and through an airport. Airports should not be malls full of stuff that no one really wants. Instead of having overpriced corner shops, what if we had libraries for books and items? Instead of a mall food court, what if we had places to recharge, refresh, and have a free healthy snack?    
—Dave Kim, San Francisco

23. Why is there so much beeping in hospitals? As a patient it is overwhelming. I am impressed that hospital employees can decipher all the beeps, emergency vs. non emergency.
—Christina Abele, Cambridge

24. Commercial flights have been around for about 110 years,  and we still have to be there two hours in advance for a flight that is in the air for the same amount of time. The boarding process where you’re forced to stand in an even smaller space for 40 minutes before they open the plane doors deserves a human-centered takeover.
—Justine Syen, London

25. While people come to the emergency department for a whole range of reasons, they tend to have two things in common: they are nervous (for themselves or a loved one) and they have no idea how long they’ll be there. Instead of uncomfortable chairs, a single TV blaring the news on high volume, and a sad nearly-empty vending machine, there are so many opportunities to design an environment that better accommodates the feelings of stress and uncertainty in the air. A little privacy would be nice, too!
—Jen Halls, Cambridge

26. Can we all admit we made a mistake and just get rid of self-checkout? Where I live, in Watertown, MA, there are several stores that have gotten rid of most of their staff in favor of self-checkout machines and, simultaneously, put crucial items (like toothpaste) behind a locked door. Because the store is so understaffed, you might be waiting—and I timed this—15 minutes for someone to come unlock the toothpaste for you. And the machines themselves! We are all human here. We sometimes make mistakes with machinery that we are unfamiliar with. This just slows everything down and we end up calling for help in the end, anyway.
—Andy Reischling, Cambridge

27. Why does renting a car at an airport still feel like traveling back in time to the early ‘90s? Surely we can do better now. I want a better rental experience and 100 percent electric fleet.
—Juho Parviainen, San Francisco

28. There’s nothing like a good road trip. It’s an opportunity to get to know the U.S.  and the people you’re traveling with in a new way. Improved ground transportation between cities is associated with greater employment opportunities for working professionals and economic growth for smaller towns. As autonomous and electric vehicle technologies improve, I’d love to design an intercity public transportation service run by electric, autonomous vehicles to promote travel between cities, towns, far-flung national parks, and more in a way that is fun and adventurous while also promoting stronger personal bonds and broader economic growth.
—Natasha Alani, Cambridge

29. With skyrocketing costs for labor and delivery as well as growing concerns around maternity mortality rates (particularly for people of color), it’s time to redesign the end-to-end experience for maternity care! I’d love to explore the rise of maternity care deserts especially in the shadow of recent changes in reproductive policy.
—Diana Tobey, Play Lab

30. There are so many reasons to redesign American elementary education, but ultimately kids need more movement and active learning. There are pockets of teachers that do this. But this doesn’t work for everyone and in my experience as a parent, I see and hear about kids who are not thriving in traditional classrooms. Certainly works for some, but not all, so let’s rethink it.
—Christina Abele, Cambridge

31. There’s so much anxiety, opaqueness, searching, follow-ups, making impossible decisions in the process of finding daycare for children. Why do parents get minimal notice (hours to days) on making day care acceptance decisions when providers can force families to commit thousands to secure spots and provide multiple months notice to leave? The equation doesn’t stack up fairly. How might we design transparent, fair, confidence-building methods to seek, select and find care for our children?
—Uvini Lokuge, San Francisco

32. Why does open enrollment have to be so confusing? I feel like I have to do advanced scenario analyses to compare healthcare plans and still honestly have no idea what my total health costs for the year will be. Can there be fewer options? Fewer acronyms? Some sort of feedback loop to tell you at the end of the year if you made the right enrollment decision?
—Jen Halls, Cambridge

33. I cannot praise our teachers and faculty enough for all they do—but the emails are hard to keep up with. The important information is often buried in the body of the emails, and because they’re often titled something like “week one” or “week two” they’re hard to search. Also—plot twist —some  information comes home on a print out and isn’t mirrored in emails, so don’t throw anything away! How can we help redesign school communication so that our beloved teachers can easily share a window into our children's lives that we can keep track of?
—Kristin Boer, Chicago

Need help redesigning a product, system, or experience of your own? Get in touch.

When you spend your life designing products, experiences, and systems, everything you interact with is an invitation to wonder, “what if…”

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.