IDEO's Human-Centered Design

IDEO - a design company, is known for its human-centered design approach, which prioritizes empathy and observation in the design process.

One popular example of their lateral thinking is the design of the first mouse for 苹果 's Macintosh computer. Apple observed that people were uncomfortable holding a traditional, bulky mouse, so they wanted a new design that was more ergonomic and intuitive to use. The target that Steve Jobs set is to develop a new computer navigation device that is more reliable than any other on the market at 10% of the cost. Does this challenge sound familiar?

By focusing on the needs of the end user, IDEO has created innovative products for a wide range of clients, from medical equipment to toys. They developed the first usable computer mouse with a “ribcage” to hold all the pieces together and a tactile click. This ‘ribcage’ design became the standard for computer mice and set a new benchmark for product design. Be it a tracing ball or laser, all of today's mice if designed around the ribcage.

IDEO's approach to design and problem-solving through empathy and observation is a prime example of lateral thinking in action, demonstrating the power of approaching problems from different angles and thinking creatively.

Their systematic innovation process is something that we can inspire to generate ideas in our teams. I am adding hat as a sidebar (bottom bar)

IDEO’s Rules of Brainstorming

1. Create judgment-free zones— so that the ideas can free? flow?
2. Encourage wild, out-of-the-box ideas, often that could be the brilliant solution?
3. Co-create the Ideas of each other?
4. Remain Focused on the objective, and never deviate
5. One conversation at a Time, creative people may be noisy sometimes
6. Make it Visual - use post-its, colors
7. Go for Quantity; generate your ideas rapidly

Note: You may read "MOUSE" as an abbreviation of Manually Operated User Selection Equipment - that is only the 'creativity' of our folks. The mouse's name was given based on its resemblance to the mouse- the rat!