IDEO is a design and innovation consulting firm which is based in Palo Alto, California. The company helps the design products, services, environments, and digital experiences. Even Apple Mouse is designed by IDEO. 
As a senior design and innovation consulting firm, IDEO has made important role in creative industry, which they formed in “IDEO Way”. Here are the five steps in the process of designing a better consumer experience:
1. Observation
They teamed IDEO’s cognitive psychologist, anthropologist, and sociologist with corporate clients to understand the consumer experience. It consist of:
- Shadowing: Observing people using products, shopping, going to hospitals, or any random activities such as using cellphones
- Behavioral Mapping: Photographing people within a space, such as hospital waiting room, over two or three days.
- Consumer Journey: Keeping track of all the interactions that consumer has experience
- Camera Journals: Asking consumers to keep visual diaries of their activities and impressions relating to a products, such as blogging.
- Extreme User Interviews: Talking to people who really know – or know nothing – about a product or service, adnd evaluating their experience using it.
- Storytelling: Tell personal stories about their consumer experience
- Unfocus Groups: Interview a diverse group of people.
2. Brainstorming
On this step, we do idea generating session analyzing data gathered by observing people. Each last no more than an hour. Rules of brainstorming are strict and are stenciled on the walls:
- Defer Judgement: Don’t dismiss any ideas.
- Build on the Ideas of Others: No “buts,” but “ands”.
- Encourage Wild Ideas: Embrace the most out-of-the-box ideas, because they can be the key to solution.
- Go for Quantity: Aim for as many new ideas as possible. In a good session, up to 100 ideas are generated in 60 minutes.
- Be Visual: Use yellow, red, and blue markers to write on big 30-inch by 25-inch Post-its that are put on the wall.
- Stay Focused on the Topic: Always keep the discussion on target.
- One Conversation at a Time: No interrupting, no dismissing, no disrespect, no rudeness
Wall IDEO
3. Rapid Prototyping
Mocking up working models helps everyone visualize possible solutions and speeds up decision-making and innovation. Some guidelines:
- Mock Up Everything: It is possible to create models not only of products but also of services such as health care and spaces such as museum lobbies.
- Use Videography: Make short movies to depict the consumer experience.
- Go Fast: Build mock-ups quickly and cheaply. Never waste time on complicated concept.
- No Frills: Make prototypes that demonstrate a design idea witout sweating over the details.
- Create Scenarios: Show how a variety of people use a service in differenct ways and how various designs can meet their individual needs.
- Bodystorm: Delineate different types of consumers and act out their role.
4. Refining
At this tage, IDEO narrows down the choices to a view possibilities. Here’s how it’s done:
- Brainstorm: In rapid fashion to weed out ideas and focus on the remaining best options.
- Focus Prototyping: on a few ideas to arrive at an optimal solution to a problem.
- Engage the Client: actively in the process of narrowing the choices.
- Be Disciplined: and ruthless in making selections.
- Focus: on the outcome of the process – reaching the best possible solution
- Get Agreement: from all stakeholders. The more top executives who sign off on the solution, the better chances of success.
5. Implementation
Bring IDEO’s strong engineering, design, and social science capabilities to bear when actually creating a product or service.
- Tap All Resources: Involve IDEO’s diverse workforce from 40 countries to carry out the plans.
- The Workforce: Employees has advance degrees in different kinds of engineering: mechanical, electrical, biomedical, software, aerospace, and manufacturing. Many are experts in materials science, computer-aided designs, robotics, computer science, movie special effects, molding, industrial interaction, graphic and Web information, fashion and automotive design, business, communications, linguistic, sociology, ergonomics, cognitive psychology, biomechanics, art therapy, ethnology, management consulting, statistics, medicine, and zoology.
All the steps in IDEO way are very applicable in creative based business and it could be useful to be adapt in generating ideas in an organization and company. It can be proven for IDEO who have won many nominations and awards in prestigious events. IDEO has won more of the Business Week/IDSA Industrial Design Excellence Award than any other firm. IDEO has been ranked in the top 25 most innovative companies by Business Week and does consulting work for the other 24 companies in the top 25.
