Thanks for taking a walk in someone else's shoes.  Designers empathize to understand the needs of the people they want to help, just as Seiichi Miyake did when a friend began losing his vision.  Concerned about his friend’s ability to safely navigate traffic crossings, Miyake invented Tenji blocks, or tactile paving.  The raised dots and bars on this type of paving can be felt underfoot and help people who are visually impaired understand when they are approaching danger and when they are on a safe path.  You see this form of paving at street crossings and train platforms.  First used in Japan, this innovation is now found in the United States and throughout the world!

Way to get creative!  It’s not always easy to see things in a new light, but that’s what Anirudh Sharma and his team at Graviky Labs did when they began experimenting with ways to turn air pollution into something useful.  With carbon emissions captured from sources like cars, boats, and factories, the team developed a product called Air Ink.  One Air Ink marker contains 40-50 minutes of automobile emissions.  By developing products for artists and industry, Graviky Labs found a way to turn something harmful into something meaningful and beautiful.

Now you see…rigorous testing is the key to a quality product and a happy user.  This is why the team at Lands’ End checks their products’ performance and gets feedback from real users…like the crew of a cargo ship!  Product testing in a lab is a key part of the quality control process, but testing with real people using the product in the real world—like the cold, wet deck of a cargo ship—gives the Lands’ End team insights they can’t get from an artificial environment.