The Deans of Design
From the computer mouse to the newest Swiffer, IDEO is the firm behind the scenes
First laptop. IDEO employs some 450 people-including plenty of industrial designers and engineers-at its home base in Palo Alto and six other locations including Chicago, London, and Shanghai. It was created in 1991 by a merger of David Kelley Design, which created the first mouse for Apple Computer, and ID Two, which designed the first laptop computer for Grid Systems. In the 1990s, IDEO made a name for itself by designing dozens of technology products such as the Palm V and Treo organizers. On the low-tech side, it has designed the Crest no-squeeze, stand-up toothpaste tube for Procter & Gamble as well as the award-winning Leap Chair for office furniture maker Steelcase. (IDEO is now a wholly owned independent business unit of Steelcase.)
Product design has been getting more and more attention in recent years as companies worry about their wares being turned into indistinguishable commodities. Design can add value. But IDEO is also leveraging its traditional product design business, techniques of gathering consumer insights, and methods for generating ideas to transform itself into a broad-based consulting firm that can teach companies how to focus on the consumer, starting with design. "They still do excellent product designs, but IDEO also helps companies to work through the complex issues of innovation, particularly the front end where ideas are generated, gathered, and turned into product and service concepts," explains Stefan Thomke, a professor at Harvard Business School who has studied and written extensively on IDEO.
Nestled inside the yurt, Brown expounds on what IDEO has termed "design thinking" and how it forms the basis for innovation and problem solving. A key element of design thinking is getting out of the office and into the field, as with the emergency room project. "Design thinkers are trained to go out into the world and connect with the world in a way that gives insight into new ideas," Brown says.
Specialized Bicycle Components, a California bike accessory company, came to IDEO looking for new approaches to the common water bottle. So the company sent a team of researchers into the foothills above Stanford University in Palo Alto to watch bikers using their water bottles in action. The observers quickly came to two conclusions: First, reattaching a water bottle to a bike is a tricky move when you're also trying keep your eyes on the road ahead. The IDEO solution was a water bottle with a tapered bottom and a rubber friction ring to make it easier to grip. Second, bikers used a two-step process with the water bottle: pull the nozzle out with their teeth and squeeze the bottle. So, using the human tricuspid heart valve as a bit of inspirational biomimicry, the IDEO team designed a simple self-sealing valve that opens only when squeezed.
Years of customer observation also helped the company design a portable electronic device for use in hospitals. One option was to put the 20-pound device on a rolling cart. But IDEO realized that nurses would hate hauling the thing around. So designers decided to shape it like a classic 1930s doctor's bag, sturdy handle and all. That design not only made the device easier to carry, but the visual iconography really connected with nurses. "The answer often lies with humans," says Tom Kelley, author of two books on creativity at IDEO. "When we tried to redesign a supply chain, for instance, we didn't watch trucks, we watched the workers."
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