Recently, the news program 60 Minutes visited renown global design firm IDEO to learn about design thinking, meeting with one of the most influential innovators of our time, co-founder David Kelley. See the interview, where Kelley describes IDEO’s partnership with Steelcase to reinvent the classroom and spotlighted Node seating.
As part of a suite of solutions intended to revolutionize the 21st century classroom as a flexible, active learning environment, Node makes transitions between learning modes quick and easy, whether engaging in a lecture, small group or full classroom discussion. Kelley highlights the importance of strong collaboration in the work his firm does and how applying diverse, collaborative minds on issues yields highly innovative solutions geared for human use. Design breakthroughs follow observations of human activity.
And it’s this human-centered design approach that Steelcase and IDEO used to create Node. “We watched these kids, and what is the main thing they need? The main thing they need is a backpack. And they’re fidgety and want to move around, so we put it on wheels,” said Kelley. “It’s about empathy, really trying to understand what they value.”
