Another great talk by Tim Brown on Design Thinking or Creative Thinking.

For many years we have viewed designers as people that make things aesthetically pleasing. Yet prior to that designers were responsible for solving major problems and hurdles that society needed solved.

What Tim Brown discusses here is that ideas based on human centered actual needs, rather than aesthetic needs, have to be focused on more by the design community and the broader community at large.

Quoting Victor Papanek from “Design for the Real World”,

Too many designers have mis-directed their talents to design things we don’t need, to be sold to us using money we don’t yet have, only so we can impress our friends who don’t really care.

Tim Brown is the CEO of innovation and design firm IDEO, which blend design, business and social studies to come up with deeply researched, deeply understood designs and ideas — they call it “design thinking.”

IDEO is the kind of firm that companies turn to when they want a top-down rethink of a business or product — from fast food conglomerates to high-tech startups, hospitals to universities.

IDEO has designed and prototyped everything from a life-saving portable defibrillator to the defining details at the groundbreaking Prada shop in Manhattan to corporate processes. And check out the Global Chain Reaction for a sample of how seriously this firm takes play.