Right Solution, Wrong User Experience

Recently we were co-hosting a gathering with Gary Community Investments and other experts in the early/young childhood space on the drivers of impact and opportunities for innovation, and someone made an off-handed comment that stuck with me: “We can attribute the majority of positive outcomes in healthcare and education to successfully engaging the humans involved.” That might seem obvious, but it’s a good reminder that the right solution with the wrong user experience is no solution at all.

The best intervention without sensitivity to the human interaction will fail. Have we over-engineered solutions while under-designing their relationship to humans? IDEO and Ford think so, and we do, too. We’re re-examining our initiatives to explore how we can better design for breakthroughs, long-lasting connection, and profound insight for the humans involved.