Blog(s) of the Day: IDEO

The thing I Iove about the Web is that it levels the playing field. Novices and professionals each have equal shots at being heard. So when a company like IDEO launches official blogs (later in the game compared to many), it really doesn't matter because the Web thrives on quality of content and interactions. Everyone has a chance.

IDEO brings us two blogs worth checking out.  The first is IDEO Labs, which is described as follows:

"IDEO Labs is a place where we can show bits of what we're working on, talk about prototyping, and share our excitement over the tools that help us create."

While IDEO Labs is not posting in large volumes, it does offer some behind-the-scenes glimpses into their process and how they work. Check out this video of an IDEO team as they play around with their own multi-touch experiments.

Next is Design Thinking by IDEO's Tim Brown, an outspoken evangelist of the design thinking movement.  Design Thinking has more of a personal touch (I'm sure this is by design) compared to IDEO Labs as it offers direct perspectives from Brown on topics such as optimism and critique,  and  asking questions about the differences between product + experience.  Tim is in th process of writing a book and has positioned his blog as follows:

"This is a blog about design thinking. I am in the process of writing a book on the subject and this is the place I would like to share ideas and have a discussion. If you want to get an overview on how I see design thinking then check out the article I wrote for Harvard Business Review here.

As you will see as you read the posts, I have lots of questions. If you can help me with any answers or perspectives I would be very grateful. If you let me know who you are I will also do my best to acknowledge anything that makes it into the book."

Both blogs support comments, and both are worth checking out. IDEO are master marketers and intelligent self-promoters. In addition to learning about design methods and thinking, you might learn something about how to market your own organization from them.

Comments

[Tim Jahn]

Great points. Just because a blog is an official blog of a company or a 'professional' blog doesn't mean that blog has better quality information than a customers blog.

[Fake Diego]

The Ideoans don't seem to post on their blog very frequently, do they. I guess a little wisdom goes a long way.

[David Armano]

Fake Diego, you make a good point. More talking does not equal more wisdom, so we can learn from the smart folks at IDEO. We can also learn from smart folks like Seth Godin who post daily. Lots of grey area here. :-)

[Gaurav Singal]

Content and website are good http://www.uponnet.com

[Clay Parker Jones]

David -

Thanks for the point over to IDEO's new blogs.

I'd like to point out that Trek Bikes has a few newish blogs, too, and they seem to be cultivating them in the "right" way. Frequent posts, variety of media, special tidbits just for blog readers, contests, etc... and they respond to your questions!

http://trekroad.typepad.com/
http://trekmountain.typepad.com/
http://trekbikes.typepad.com/rec_and_fitness/

Good stuff. Especially the bit in the first post on the Trek Road blog, with Lance on a fixie. A nice piece of film.