Design as strategy for social change: IDEO
This post is part of an ongoing series where we’ll be exploring how design is influencing the products we buy, how we interact with each other and changing the way we live. If you know of a person or company doing cool stuff with design, let us know so we can include them in the series.
IDEO is an award-winning design firm famous for its innovate design of everything from cutting-edge office furniture to Apple’s first mouse. Founded in 1991 when three smaller firms merged, IDEO’s goal has been to “help organizations through design”.
IDEO is now expanding their mission to examine how design can have a positive impact on society. In partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation, IDEO spoke with a variety of social entrepreneurs, foundations, management consultants, academics, writers, and designers. The project team found three elements of design thinking that would translate well into social enterprise: empathy, prototyping, and storytelling.
To introduce these concepts to a broader audience and to provide tangible ways in which to employ them, they’ve created an impressive How To guide and accompanying workbook (both can be downloaded here .) These were written specifically for other design firms that wish to join the conversation.
Our friends at nextbillion.net have a great post on the impetus of the project written by Jocelyn Wyatt, who heads up IDEO’s newly formed Social Impact and Business Factors division. IDEO CEO Tim Brown has a piece in the July/August edition of the Harvard Business Review entitled “Design Thinking ”, which posits a paradigm shift in product development: rather than requiring designers take an already developed idea and make it more attractive to consumers, companies are asking them to create ideas that better meet consumers’ needs and desires.
The implications of this change could be enormous. Imagine if successful products were judged not by the money they made, but by the problems they solved. The world would be much richer for it.
Comments
Hermenautic Circle blog » Design for Social Change Jul 25, 2008 at 1:57 pm
[...] books looking at how the design industry can play a larger role in the social sector. Discussion here and here. [...]
Bookmarks about Prototyping Dec 16, 2008 at 10:00 am
[...] - bookmarked by 3 members originally found by xXmytonpadiXx on 2008-11-22 Design as strategy for social change: IDEO http://www.poptech.org/blog/index.php/2008/07/08/design-as-strategy-for-social-change-ideo/ - [...]