IDEO
San Francisco United School District
“A cafeterial designed for me” showcased what IDEO is best at, focusing on the human element of the problem in order to solve it. IDEO took that school district's school lunch problem and worked closely with the students themselves to present a fresh experience to encouraging healthy eating across all grade levels.
2014 Silver International Design Excellence Award
Over 1,300 students, parents, nutrition staff members, principals, teachers, administrators and community partners were involved in the process, which included workshops, prototypes and experiential exhibits—all trademark IDEO tools. The IDEO and S.F.U.S.D. teams, consisting of almost a dozen people, then worked together to consolidate the learning and come up with 10 design recommendations and a comprehensive plan for how they might be prioritized, paid for and realized in schools.
Source: New York Times
"Ideo helped us get out of our adult way—to shift from being systems-centered to actually being student-centered," said Orla O'Keeffe, the district's executive director of policy and operations.
Source: SFGate
Using pint-size consultants, and staffing up with employees (like Tunji Elegbede, pictured) who really care, the District has also developed “SFUSD's Future Dining Experience,” a plan to upheave the system with age-tailored approaches to eating: family-style meals for primary schoolers, mobile carts for middle schoolers, and online ordering for high schoolers. San Francisco, we salute you.
Source: Saveur
The recommendations that IDEO and our student nutrition services staff put forward were concrete and promising. But I don’t think it was the recommendations that made us joyful and excited. It was the process.
Source: Matt haney, School Board Member
“This has been a fundamental paradigm shift for us,” he says. “We’re a traditional public school system thinking in a very innovative, entrepreneurial way. Quite honestly, it feels pretty good.”