As an organization dedicated to designing a more just and inclusive world, we regularly pause to reflect and ask ourselves: Have we meaningfully improved people’s lives? How have we grown, and where have we fallen short? This impact report serves as a public accountability measure. I worked with a team of designers and our director of impact to ground data in human stories, reveal the ins and outs of our process, and spark conversations about where social impact design is headed. Check it out at impact.ideo.org.

 


IDEO.org - Impact Report
Content Lead

“Great design isn’t measured by desirability, novelty, or awe factor but by its ability to drive meaningful change.”

 

We curated ten stories that illustrate the many ways in which design 
can create change—from shifting entrenched norms to building 
new coalitions to creating small moments 
of ease in a person’s life.

 

  • Finding New Inroads To Wicked Problems

    Design can help reframe and bring new energy to tackling some of the most complex and studied social challenges. What lies ahead as we enter a new era of design research? Read essay.

  • How Design Can Transform Organizations

    What happens when organizations internalize the design mindset? This is the story of an organization that was driven to more deeply understand its users, cultivate a culture of experimentation, and recognize the role of failure in learning. Read essay.

  • What it really takes to scale design solutions

    Design prompts us to develop solutions tailored to the unique realities of users, but this emphasis on local nuance can feel in tension with the requirements of scalability. Over the past decade, we’ve honed a few new techniques on designing for scale. Read essay.

  • The Alchemy of Innovation

    What have we learned about the alchemy of innovation over the years? Optimism, tangibility, craft, and coalescence have the potential to surface truly breakthrough solutions. But indexing too highly on any one of them can create blind spots that contribute to some of the most common criticisms of design. Read essay.