IDEO Video Review
According to David Kelley, chairman and founder of IDEO, design tries to put a marriage between form and function. The challenge is to design products that are empathetic to people.
The design process at IDEO is called Design thinking: an innovative approach that incorporates human behavior into design.
In the shopping cart case we see that first the team splits into groups to find out what people who make, use and repair shopping carts really think. What do people do that can help us build a better cart? Observation is crucial. Then, each team shares everything that they have learnt during the day. The next step is what they call the “Deep dive” (Ideo’s brainstorming) The aim is to build on the ideas of others. No judgement or critizising are acceptable. Ideas pour out and are posted on the walls. Wild ideas are encouraged, because you can build up on wild ideas.
On their next step, they choose the ideas that are cool and buildable. Then they are divided into groups to focus on specific tasks, and they start building prototypes. Finally, they take the best elements out of each prototype and fabricate the final cart.
The final step is the observation of consumers using those prototypes, trying to understand what people want through observing them.
What areas of expertise comprise the team?
On of the keys for the success of this process are diversity and collaboration: people come from very different backgrounds: software engineers, aerospace engineers, journalists, anthropologists, doctors, opera singers They are not experts in any given area: they are experts in the process. There is no hierarchy.
What is the most important “takeaway” for you from this video?
Organized chaos should be encouraged, as the most innovative ideas are usually built upon seemingly crazy ideas.
What happened to the IDEO shopping cart?
IDEO’s prototype never made it to the stores when it was invented. However, as Roth (2011) and others pointed out, it was not a failure. It was too advanced for the time when it was created. However, in 2011 similar carts to the ones patented by IDEO started to appear in the stores of French giant Carrefour. These new carts are produced by Plastimark, an Italian manufacturer. So the idea was good, but the timing was not.
Works Cited
Roth, Yannig. “The IDEO Shopping Cart (1998) Wasn’t a Failure, the Concept was Just Ahead of its Time.” Yannigroth. 12 Aug. 2011. Web. 7 Apr. 2016.
KyrylTube. “IDEO Shopping Cart Project.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 4 Feb. 2013. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.
TheRosePedals. “Ideo, an Innovative Design Company – 60 Minutes.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.
