I’m a big believer in the value of internships, that’s why IDEO runs a substantial program every year. As well as getting experience working on real design projects, our interns are tasked with a series of conceptual projects so they get the most out of their time with us—and vice versa. One of thos...

Part of maintaining a thriving creative culture is giving people time and permission to play. One of the ways we encourage creative play at IDEO is through Designs On—, a semi-annual internal design challenge started five years ago by my colleague Blaise Bertrand. Each edition of Designs On— centers...

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. ...

Designer Elger Oberwelz created this short stop-motion video as a tribute to a beloved project. Metropolis magazine tells the story behind the love letter. Happy Valentine’s Day! (Posted also on my LinkedIn Thought Leader blog)...

Here’s another design thinking tip from Change By Design: Make it visual. Some things are hard to describe in words. In fact, many things are hard to describe in words. Try describing in detail the bedroom you spent your childhood in. My guess is that you will have a hard time describing it well en...

(Above: image from Gov.uk/designprinciples — Principle 10, Make things open: it makes things better.) The UK government is leading the way in using design to create simpler digital services for its citizens. A 2010 report commissioned by the government made a series of strong recommendations, incl...

I recently moderated a fascinating session at the World Economic Forum 'Summer Davos' in Tianjin, China. Two network scientists, Cesar Hidalgo of MIT and Albert-Laszlo Barabasi of Harvard, discussed the underlying science of how networks operate and how this knowledge might be applied to business an...

A show curated by John Cary of Public Interest Design has just opened in San Francisco at the Autodesk Gallery. It is a must if you are interested in design and the social sector. The exhibit features many of the organizations that contributed to the design labs at this year's Clinton Global Initiat...

Design story: The Decanter from Landor Associates on Vimeo. For a wonderful "Mad Men" era video about design check out the decanter video from Landor. No doubt design was simpler back then but it is impressive to see the level of craft applied to such transient objects. I was also impressed by how ...

I came away from watching Avatar the other evening stunned by the ingenuity and beauty of the world that James Cameron and his team created. Like any design geek I loved the futuristic hardware and the user interfaces that were even more seductive than those in Minority Report. What really blew me a...