IDEO (www.ideo.com) the design consultancy who featured in Objectified are focused on always  designing with the user in mind and improving their quality of life through the design. More recently, they have taken the consultancy’s vision one step further through their  collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; the initial conversation centred around creating accessible design for social impact and resulted in  the Human-Centred Design Toolkit.

This toolkit has been designed with developing countries in mind. Specifically, IDEO worked with three organisations (identified by the Gates Foundation as most likely to benefit from the collaboration) International Development Enterprises (IDE), Heifer International and the International Center for Research on Women. IDEO went into the field in Cambodia and Ethiopia to research fully the projects which included working with the organisations on irrigation technology and market information for farmers. The initial applications for the toolkit were agricultural projects; since then it has been used on a medical project and a water transport and sanitation project in India. IDEO has also received reports of designers using the toolkit in Africa, Southeast Asia and South Asia.

IDEO has always had an information-sharing culture and one of the consultancy’s principal objectives is to continually build on the ideas of the others and expand the impact beyond the world of design. As this is open source innovation the toolkit is being modified by users. And there is great excitement about sharing IDEO’s tools with non-designers and particularly helping social sector organisations. IDEO have started work on a new version of the toolkit based on feedback received.

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