Aimee Close

When our entire world changed overnight a year ago, last March, we in the synagogue world had countless new challenges to address as the enormity of the pandemic came to light. This unprecedented time was clearly going to require innovative solutions and a very different kind of thinking.  It quickly became clear that in order to be able to address these types of difficult challenges now and in the future, we would need to completely change our mindset and teach ourselves new problem-solving techniques. Back in the summer of 2018, my life was forever changed when I stumbled upon an ABC Nightline clip known as the IDEO shopping cart video. I must have watched that clip a dozen times. Here it was — the key […]

According to Wikipedia, design is defined as “the creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object, system or measurable human interaction (as in architectural blueprints, engineering drawings, business processes, circuit diagrams, and sewing patterns).” Imagine any consumer product, and one thing you can be certain of is that it went through a design phase before it was brought to market. If you think about how mobile phones have changed over the past twenty years, you will see the impact that designers have on a product.  From the first large, clunky wireless handsets with one inch screens and an external antenna, to the flip phone, to the Blackberry, to the iphone, designers at the various manufacturing companies did research, held focus groups, and […]