Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Week 10: Revisiting 'Bad Design' - IDEO's Shopping trolley project

The videoclip is a feature done by ABC on a design company called IDEO. Famous for being one of THE best, if not the best, design company, in the world, the feature highlights the problem-solving process that have made IDEO famous for her outstanding and innovative solutions. Watch the clip and answer the following questions:
  1. In your opinion, what are some of the problems of the current design of the shopping trolley?
  2. What are some of the rules instituted by the IDEO's design team, and why do you think were they instituted?
  3. From your observation, what are some of the company's culture or practices that have made IDEO one of the best design company in the world?
  4. How do you think some of these culture or practices can be implemented or internalised in SST, or within you as a student?

25 comments:

  1. 1. The shopping trolley faces many problems. These are some of them:
    I) The wheels of the trolley are designed to move in all directions so it can be difficult to steer it around corners or keep it straight especially at narrow path and going up a slope.
    II) The trolley is not able to keep still on uneven ground.
    III) Trolleys go missing by theft.

    2. They use problem-solving approach, brainstorming among the team and doing market research. I think they instituted such rules as they believe in multiple heads being better than one.

    3. They focus on meeting people's needs and use innovative solutions to problems.

    4. In SST, we can share ideas and brainstorm amongst the team. We also can learn from each other to broaden our horizons.

    Tan Siah Wei

    ReplyDelete
  2. i think the trolley has numerous flaws like hard turning, dangerous toddler space and unstable design.
    2) IDEO believes in ideas from chaos, and they employ all sorts of people like psychologists, and they combine ideas from different groups to come up with the best product, and not everyone listens to the boss, resulting in many more ideas. They also encourage wild thoughts as there is no point for the idea to take off from if everyone thinks of the obvious, and there is no innovation.
    3)They consider the product's purpose in the first place, how they can make it more user friendly to solve people's problems about using the product.
    And finally sort of the same thing happens in SST too, where we learn from each other's mistakes and make good out of them.

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  3. 1. The trolley wheels should be able to turn 360 degrees to allow better movement around corners of shopping centers

    2.The rule is you can be as innovative as you want like just asking $4000 for half a wing just for decoration

    3.They make improve on something that has bad designs like the trolley stated in the clip.

    4. We can think of ways to improve things in SST such as making a studio for ICT to make films and stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Question 2. The rules are
    Sharpen the Focus: Start the brainstorming process by clearly articulating a customer need.

    Write playful rules: Ideo’s primary brainstorming rules are simple: “Defer judgment” and “One conversation at a time.”

    Number your ideas: Totally okay to say things like, “Let’s go for 100 ideas.”
    Build and jump: Brainstorming has a rhythm. It gathers momentum and then plateaus. Good facilitators know how to launch it, get out of the way, and then step back in when it slows.

    Make the space remember: Use post-it notes, flip charts, white-boards and butcher paper. Advantage goes to movable and rearrangeable.

    Stretch your mental muscles: Start with warm-up exercises. Road-trips, videos, experiences all prime the pump to fire the imagination.

    Get physical: Show-and-tell, build prototypes, cross-pollinate from other industries

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  5. 1) The shopping trolley is difficult to steer through the aisles.
    2) Only one conversation must be going on at one time and focus on the topic.
    3) They are very innovative and have wild ideas to solve problems.
    4) We can be innovative in our thinking and think wildly when trying to come up with an innovative idea.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1.The trollies generate static electricity when you push it.
    2.They make their work fun, they do not criticize others suggestions and brainstorm together
    3.They use innovative solutions to solve peoples problems.
    4.We can make finding ideas fun and interesting.

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  7. 1) It is difficult to push as things always get stuck at the wheels. The 1 dollar coin also always get stuck. The child seat is made of metal so it is going to be painful for the child. The trolley has big holes and will allow small items to fall through. It is also very bulky when there is a lot of people in the place.

    2) People has to come out with crazy ideas and build on them so that they were creative. they had to share any ideas that come to their mind.

    3) They split into groups and look at the needs of people like safety and things like that.

    4) When we do group work, we should share more crazy and wild ideas and built on them to become realistic and not keep quiet or criticize other people's ideas.

    Brendon Goh

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  8. 1)Many Trollies have gone missing because people are lazy to carry their groceries out of the supermarket.

    2)They brainstorm and believed that more people thinking together is better than just one person doing all the work.

    3)They can innovate all different kinds of product,hence they are very famous.

    4)We can use their example during our group work too by brainstorming.

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  9. 1) The trolleys are very restricted from going to narrow aisle or going up escalators. There is also a need to put a $1 coin into the trolley to use it. This can be inconvenient as if the user does not have a $1 coin.

    2)They think out of the box and use innovative ideas. In the beginning, there were a few crazy ideas but soon all these were scaled down to build a prototype of the new trolley.

    3)They focus on the important points and they do not have a position where somebody has to follow a boss. In the workplace, everyone is equal so that they can generate more ideas.

    4)In SST, we can work together regardless of our positions to generate more ideas to make SST a more conducive place for learning.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 1) It is not good as the trolley is vulnerable to getting lost and the wheels are not very flexible.

    2) They were that they encourage wild ideas and only one person speak at a time but stay focus.

    3) They interviewed the people, get their ideas and then sketched as much ideas they can think of then vote for the best ideas.

    4) We can use some brainstorming techniques to get ideas and share to each others and select the best idea with no hard feelings.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 1.
    i)The trolley is big so it may be hard to go through narrow aisles with it.
    ii) It has small holes so small objects may fall out.
    iii) Only the front wheels can turn while the back wheel can only go straight.

    2.They used brainstorming, giving wild ideas and they builded up on each other's ideas as they believed that teamwork is one of the best solutions.

    3. They are playful but creative so they have a fresh mind to give new ideas and they always have teamwork.

    4. We could think out-of-the-box more and to be involved as we help each other.

    ReplyDelete
  12. 1. The shopping trolley cannot be turned within a small space and is hard for a child to push it around.
    2. They do their work in a more fun way and they focus on the topic they are supposed to work on and get things done fast and well done.
    3. They make their own offices so they will enjoy doing their work more and therefore able to make IDEO one of the best design company in the world.
    4.We could make our own classroom look better so that we can learn better. We could do voting on the ideas we do in group work. We could make SST the most conducive learning environment.

    ReplyDelete
  13. 1. There are no seat belts on the trolley, the trolley is big and therefore hard to navigate around narrow areas.

    2.They make their work fun in a way and they can just throw out any ideas

    3.They believe that there in no such thing as a stupid idea and they make their employees happy.They also think out of the box

    4. In SST we have to think out of the box as to solve some problems you have to do that to succeed.

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  14. 1) The shopping trolley is difficult to maneuver around sharp corners or bents and it is also unable to keep still on slopes.
    2) IDEO believes that chaos can help generate ideas and they employ different types of people so they have an all-rounded perspective.
    3) They innovate on items that people take for granted, making them better.
    4) We can be more innovative and be able to accept wild ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  15. 1)The child's seat is made out of metal and it is too hard and cold.The wheels cant turn 90 degrees straight and making it difficult to turn the trolley.
    2)The team's ideas must clash against the boss's and they must be creative in their own way.I think this is so as the team would have more ideas to decide on and to improve on.
    3)They hire all sorts of people from different professions to help understand their work process and to make it more easier.
    4)As students,we can brainstorm more on ideas in our groups.

    ReplyDelete
  16. They are a few main problems with today's shopping trolleys. First of all the wheels have pointed edges so if you are not aware you might just hit someone. The spaces between each railing in the trolley is big so small products may fall of the trolley.

    Some of the rules are that the people in IDEO must be able to produce new ideas in the constrain of time. There are not really rules in IDEO but mainly there are more of suggestions. For example they can modify their own workspace for them to be comfortable.

    They have different types of people who specialize in different aspects so they can consider different areas also. They have training for the 'newcomers' to help them in future if they are called for any project.

    We can encourage SST students to be more innovative in the things they do and come out with new and reliable ideas quickly. So we can make SST a better environment to study in different fields.

    Ronak Mehta

    ReplyDelete
  17. 1. I feel that some of the problems in the current design of shopping trolley is that sometimes small objects get stuck in the wheel and that makes it hard to push the trolley. The trolley also cannot move up the escalator but can only move up the travelator which some shopping malls do not have.

    2.They get their team to think of wild ideas first then start to be realistic once they have enough ideas and choose which idea they want to work on through voting.

    3.Once they have decided on one idea, they do not change halfway. They also have great teamwork and good communication between each other and so they work can be completed faster.

    4.If we have good communication with each other then our work can be completed faster and better.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Q1.In your opinion, what are some of the problems of the current design of the shopping trolley?
    The child's seat is made of metal(with holes) which makes it uncomfortable.
    The trolley is too wide to fit through the aisles in the shopping centers.
    Its front wheels are the only wheels that can swivel, this makes it harder to move.

    ReplyDelete
  19. 1)The back wheels are not movable, making them less maneuverable
    2)&3)They believe in ideas from chaos and there are not really many rules-anyone can be in the design team.They focus on meeting people's needs and think of any ideas to solve that
    4)We can learn from others when they make silly mistakes and we can learn from them.

    ReplyDelete
  20. In my opinion, shoppers need to have a dollar coin to use the trolley and sometimes they do not have change. The trolley is also very difficult to move about when the supermarket is very crowded.
    Some of the rules IDEO had incorporated when building the trolley were that they have to be creative, innovative and they had to go through the process of creating a new item. The overall product would be chosen by the group and not by the leader.
    Good designing company would ask their employees to work as a group and not work alone as working in a group helps to create a better, more creative and innovative product.
    We can always work in our groups to complete our project or creating or innovating a new item together as the result and process would be better.

    ReplyDelete
  21. 1a)The shopping trolley has a plastic seat to put children.This is not good as it is uncomfortable to the children who are seating on it
    1b)The shopping trolley is heavy and it would be hard to move it up a slope or a step.

    2)The rules they institute are: Please encourage wild ideas, one person speaks at a time.
    I think they want to encourage wild ideas so that as people sometimes do not there to speak up good ideas as they think it is a useless idea.The second one is self-explanatory .

    3)They would pick out the best designs and would 'merge' those designs together.After that they would g to the public and ask them about the designs.

    4)we could all learn from ideo's amazing teamwork and could implement it in our project works

    ReplyDelete
  22. 1) In my opinion, I think that some of the problems of the current design of the shopping trolley are that it is very hard to turn and move the trolley through aisles and that we will have to find a place to park it after using it.

    2) They were that every member in the team must brainstorm hard for ideas and that everybody have to learn how to solve problems and also how to research for information about those problems.

    3) From my observation, they had tried out different types of things after thinking about them and they had also analysed the problem and looked into the bad designs of things to make IDEO one of the best designs company in the world.

    4) I think that we can implement and internalise these culture and practices in SST by brainstorming hard for ways to solve problems. We can also do that by analysing the problems and then trying out the solutions/ideas that we brainstormed and seeing whether it works.

    ReplyDelete
  23. 1. The trolleys can fall into one side if there is too much weight on it. The material is made out of metal, so the seat of the trolley is uncomfortable. Some children are playful, so they will push around the trolley and hit into other people as they have no brakes.

    2. They brainstormed first and thought of many crazy ideas, and slowly eliminated the ideas into a few of them and them lastly combined them into one.

    3. They contructed thier own office, thought of their own problems and built things to solve themselves, and think of innovative things like hanging the bicycle on the ceiling.

    4. We can brainstorm and think of ideas like them.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Tan Siah Wei said...

    This is like my 2nd time. OK, let's see...

    1. The shopping trolley faces many problems. These are some of them:
    I) The wheels of the trolley are designed to move in all directions so it can be difficult to steer it around corners or keep it straight especially at narrow path and going up a slope.
    II) The trolley is not able to keep still on uneven ground.
    III) Trolleys go missing by theft.
    IV) Trolleys have a high center of gravity.
    V) The seat for the child is uncomfortable and may cause leg cramps if the child sits there for too long.
    VI) Trolleys are rendered immobile in crowded aisles as they are narrow in Singapore.

    2. They use problem-solving approach, brainstorming among the team and doing market research. I think they instituted such rules as they believe in multiple heads being better than one. They also focus on giving their own staff their own customization. They also believe that chaos can also be some kind of order, unlike the past where everything has to be orderly.

    3. They focus on meeting people's needs and use innovative solutions to problems. They find out what problems users, manufacturers and repairmen of the product are facing before creating ideas.

    4. In SST, we can share ideas and brainstorm amongst the team. We also can learn from each other to broaden our horizons.

    ReplyDelete
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