On a brisk October day in Chicago, a few employees from the design firm Ideo left their office and headed to Knife & Tine, a restaurant about four miles away. The goal, besides lunch, was to complete the journey within 45 minutes, on a budget of just $10 for the whole group, all while carrying bulky shopping bags.
This was not a party game, but the kind of immersive research that defines the work of Ideo, a global design firm whose clients have included Samsung, 3M, Anheuser-Busch and, on this day, Ford.
Ideo has worked for Ford since 2005, developing software for its hybrid vehicles and designing the console of the Ford Fusion. Now, anticipating a future when Ford will have to do much more to survive than sell cars, the company asked Ideo to develop products focused on “multimodal transportation” — jargon for everything that isn’t driving, as in buses, subways, bike shares, water taxis, ride hailing apps and walking. By getting themselves to lunch without a car, the Ideo designers were hoping to gain firsthand insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the city’s transportation options.
Read the rest of the story at the New York Times.
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