Skrevet af Thomas Wittenburg, 2. september 2010

IDEO's Pascal Soboll takes the lead on NEXT 2010 day four. He talks about design trends. Not how things look, but how the design is thought up - the process of design.
First of he shows us the difference between the first ever Apple mouse. The iconic design of the mouse is put up against a 2000 IDEO look into 2010. Designs from the year 2000, that centered around communication in 2010.
His next example is IDEO's version of an ATM. A spanish bank wanted to have a new look at the traditional ATM. IDEO went out and talked to users, and created a design based on the users wishes, more than an engineers point of view. The interface is (of course) based on a touch screen, and the ATM is placed in a 90 degree angle from the wall, so you wont get people breathing down your neck while making your transactions.
Users are fundamental in design. A hearing aid designed to be cheap and easy to use, is an example on how we, with relatively low tech, can create a great social impact on lives in the third world. And with no need for specialists. Also glasses and vaccines are subject to that kind of innovative design development these years.
Climate change also affects design. Livingclimatechange.com is an IDEO project, that focuses on scenarios for the future in regards to changing climate over the next 30 years.
Design is in everything. IDEO was actually asked to design behaviour for airport security. The result was security officers acting more like park rangers, than night club bouncers.
More and more IDEO is asked to design not only strategies, but complete businesses. An initiative helping small startups, Hack Forward, provides input and financial aid. Hack Forward wants to help you make your project great. In return they get a piece of the potential cake.
The White House vegetable garden is actually an IDEO idea, derived from the Seed the Future initiative.
IDEO have grown from designing bouncing balls and other relatively simple products, and today... Well when you design user experiences and entire business strategies.... Let's just say that design have come a long way. Years ago it was about designing the answer. Today we want to design the right question.

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