"They're cool but without attitude"

IDEO, the 350 person design firm is changing the way corporate do business. They help them understand their customers better. It is much more than a design company. In the latest Business Week (May 17), they discuss how this small firm started by merger of David Kelly Design, which created Apple Computer inc first mouse in 1982, and ID Two, which designed the first laptop, has become a force to reckon with. They compare it to traditional management consulting companies such as Mckinsey, Boston Consulting, and Bain. Management consultants tend to look at the corporate world through a business-school prism. By contrast, IDEO advises clients by teaching them about the consumer world through eyes of anthropologists, graphic designers, engineers, and psychologists.

IDEO's Innovation Practice Tips

Observe people, customers and non-customers, especially enthusiasts.

Play with your physical workplace in a way that sends positive "body language" to employees and visitors.

Think "verbs", not "nouns" in your product and service offerings so that you create wonderful experiences for everyone who comes into contact with your company or brand.

Break rules and "fail forward" so that change is part of the culture, and little setback is experienced.

Stay human, scaling your organizational environment so that there's room for hot groups to emerge and thrive.

Build bridges from one department to another, from your company to your prospective customers, and ultimately from the present to the future.

Times when usability cannot improve an interface

Yes, with all the knowledge of user centered design, there are times when usability process cannot improve an interface. Usually this occurs when the business process (read features) of an application, software or a product itself is so convoluted that usability ( though one may try their best ), it may not improve an interface.

These are situations when its best to re- engineer the business process at the start of the user centered design process. Does it mean that usability professionals should be management consultants as well? The answer to this is yes and no. This should be a collaborative process where the usability expert can bring their expertise early and often in the process. Previous knowledge about the vertical helps and its good to develop pool of resources for a particular vertical.