OpenIDEO

Oh how I love IDEO and their relentless pursuit of better design and better collaboration for better lives.

OpenIDEO is a lovely little website that encourages creative collaboration on specific challenges. The challenges are brought forth by a partner or sponsor and participants then engage in four phases of the design process: inspiration, concept, refinement & evaluation. Anyone can contribute to any or all phases and build on others’ ideas.

Voting occurs to isolate the most promising concepts and eventually a winner is announced. The contributions, whether finished or in progress, add up to a user’s design quotient, which can be flaunted or cloaked, depending on how keen you are to make you hidden talents not-so-hidden.

So, really, it’s crowd-sourcing for good causes. It’s not a new concept: Design21 uses a similar model. The key difference as far as I can tell is the integration of collaboration. The inspiration phase is akin to a great big brainstorming session to expand on the brief.

For all our talk about design being a collaborative process, it seems many designers don’t play well with others. I’ll be curious to see how the site evolves.