A recent article on the freelance workplace refers to an Intuit study that predicts 40% of the workforce will be freelance by 2020. To many, this is an exciting idea where talented and creative individuals get to leverage their skills free from the tyranny of the "boss." To others, it is a scary pro...

One of my all time favorite design films is Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames. Apart from being beautiful and technically ingenious, it is a wonderful reminder of one of the most important principles in design—reframing the question. Often the quickest route to new insight is to take a step bac...

In 2011, OpenIDEO launched a social business challenge focused on improving the lives of people living in places like Caldas, Colombia, where one in four people live in extreme poverty. During the challenge, The Grameen Creative Lab provided local insights by interviewing the community on the ground...

Identity is an interesting thing. On the one hand we are responsible for our own identity and can be intentional about it. On the other hand it is shaped by the perceptions of others. For individuals or corporations, the challenge of re-designing identity is one of evolution rather than revolution. ...

Design is at its most powerful when it helps us take a complex, hard to imagine problem, and makes it simple. Water access in Africa is really complex, but the image of 'filling Africa up' with irrigation is very simple. KickStart is doing important work in bringing irrigation pumps to Africa but th...

I have been wondering about the app economy recently. In particular I've been wondering whether, in aggregate, apps really improve the quality of our lives. It is estimated there are currently more than 1.5 million apps available on just the iOS and Android platforms. Just searching under the term ‘...

My friend Delos “Toby” Cosgrove is a fellow blogger for LinkedIn. He and his wonderful organization, the Cleveland Clinic, deserve a massive shout-out for their recent video entitled “Empathy.” I challenge you to watch it without a few tears forming. Empathy is at the heart of design. Without the u...

How might we improve the way citizens and governments interact? This is the question posed by the current Knight News Challenge, a media innovation contest open to participants anywhere in the world. Winners receive a share of $5 million in funding from the Knight Foundation and feedback from a coll...

Education has been a growing theme at TED. It's one that seems to strongly resonate across the community, from techies to creatives to entrepreneurs to big business C.E.O.'s. One idea that is gaining popularity is around the notion that education has to encourage and reinforce kids' natural curiosit...

I received one of my most valuable and sustaining pieces of advice from my mentorBill Moggridge soon after I started working with him in the late 1980's. He had something called the "ten day rule" that he applied religiously to his own life and suggested strongly that I did the same to mine. The te...