Safe Agua

Through the collaboration between Designmatters at Art Center College of Design and Latin American NGO, Un Techo para mi País, The Safe Agua Project addresses the quotidian challenges of safe water access for Chile's poorest families living in slum developments (or campamentos) on the outskirts of Santiago.

The practical challenge for Safe Agua was to design concrete solutions for utilizing, transporting and storing water for families living in campamentos without running water. The extensive two-week field research undertaken by a team of 3 lead faculty and a multidisciplinary team of 12 students, became paramount in gaining a richer understanding of the challenges and opportunities inherent to the project. This immersion in Chile allowed the students and faculty to gain experience with the communities and make personal emotional connections. Throughout the project the U.S.-based team continued to validate their design process through close contact with Chilean partners and the community of end users.

Safe Agua prototypes have been successfully field-tested with the families of the campamentos.. The Innovation team of Un Techo is currently working with government and corporate partners to scale and distribute these solutions across Chile.

Viewed as an example for the execution of socially driven design principles, The Safe Agua Project demonstrates the far-reaching potential for specifically tailored design research methodologies, collaborative processes, and creative solutions to achieve further relevant successes globally.

Submitted by cliver on June 30, 2011 - 2:42pm

Fiat Mio

This strategy allowed car enthusiasts around the world to design a car of the future in a completely transparent process via the Web. Whereas this type of work is normally done in secret, the development of this Fiat concept car in Latin America was done on a open source platform—the results are even governed by a creative commons license. People posted more than 10,000 ideas on the car’s Internet portal.

Submitted by rachelw on June 15, 2011 - 7:05pm

Globo News - Brand and On Air Look

The challenge behind this strategy was to promote Globo News as a live, dynamic TV channel and build long-term relationships with people. The new visual identity is modern and agile, engaged in constant dialog with the news, and reflects the channel’s evolution over time. It brings together content and form in line with the reality it reproduces.

Credits: Helena Guedes, Marcela Leite, Raquel Muritiba, Ricardo Leite e Theiza Conte Paiva from Crama Design for Globo News (Brasil)

Contact: Ricardo Leite: crama@crama.com.br

Submitted by rachelw on June 15, 2011 - 6:40pm

Wacom Bamboo line of digital pen tablets

The Bamboo line of pen and touch tablets is Wacom’s first consumer-oriented line. Identifying design targets and discovering how their needs differ from professional users, the designers were able to expand the Bamboo line to be both broader and more coherent. A consistent aesthetic and interaction experience distinguishes each product and sets them apart from Wacom’s existing identity.

Credits: Ziba Design and Wacom

Contact: Julia Carpenter: julia_carpenter@ziba.com

Submitted by rachelw on June 15, 2011 - 10:30am

Bedsider for the National Campaign for Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

Designers worked closely with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy to address the challenge of unplanned pregnancy in women between the ages of 18 and 29. The result, Bedsider, is a birth-control support network that focuses on five key areas—awareness, motivational drivers, digital offerings, services and loyalty—and acts as a flexible vehicle for behavioral change.

Credits: IDEO Design Team for National Campaign for Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

Contact: Katie Clark: kclark@ideo.com

Submitted by rachelw on June 14, 2011 - 12:17pm

Windows Phone 7

The design goals for the Windows Phone 7 were to bring a radically new experience to the smartphone market, one that connects with end users, and to make the phone a recognizable brand that users are interested in. The designers sought a better user experience, one that revolves around who the users are rather than what they do.

Credits: Jeff Fong, Bill Flora, Jae Pum Park, Jeff Arnold, Greg Melander, Joe Belfiore, Ryan Bickel, Alfred Astort, Kat Holmes, Albert Shum, Mike Guss, Mark Gibson, Lori Kratzer of Microsoft

Contact: Chris Acker: cacker@microsoft.com

Submitted by rachelw on June 14, 2011 - 11:04am

"Ver Bien para Aprender Mejor" eyeglasses

Ver Bien’s See Better to Learn Better is a program that gives eyeglasses to children in partnership with the Mexican government and Augen Optics. In addition to designing a collection of customizable and iconic corrective eyewear for students aged 6 to 18, the design team helped envision a system that would increase adoption by the students and facilitate a better process for delivering and using the glasses.

Credits: Yves Béhar, IDSA, Angie Tadeo and Logan Ray of fuseproject for Ver Bien/Augen Options

Contact: Melissa Guthrie: melissa@fuseproject.com

Submitted by rachelw on June 13, 2011 - 3:57pm

The Design for Change Contest from Riverside School

The Design for Change contest believes that children can make a difference in the world. The contest rules, tools and platforms were designed to be accessible to children and teachers who have little or no previous exposure to design. In its first year, the contest reached over 60,000 students and drew over 1,500 submissions that sought to improve communities by addressing such issues as illiteracy, pollution and alcoholism.

Credits: IDEO Design Team and Stanford d. school for Riverside School (India)

Contact: Katie Clark: kclark@ideo.com

Submitted by rachelw on June 13, 2011 - 2:53pm

Eton Strategy

This strategy involved inventing, designing and developing 16 unique product lines (including emergency field radios, American Red Cross radios, rugged outdoor multidevices and Apple iPod solar stereos) and their supporting identity: brand analysis, Web presence, packaging and trade-show booth. Part of that strategy was to research and infiltrate new product categories and to incorporate green energy solutions.

Credits: Dan Harden, IDSA, Sam Benavidez and Hiro Teranishi, IDSA of Whipsaw Inc. for Eton Corp.

Contact: Samantha Vaughn: samv@whipsawinc.com

Submitted by rachelw on June 13, 2011 - 1:59pm

BOEING 787 DREAMLINER

The 787 Dreamliner features an expansive inner architecture as well as dynamic LED lighting that replicates day-to-night light patterns, dimmable windows 65 percent larger than the competition’s and larger stow bins. It has been one of the most successful commercial airplane launches in the history of aviation with more than 800 orders valued at $164 billion.