Get Inspired

There's no such thing as an average user.

Without the right insights, a new technology is just a solution without a problem. Insights are the answer to tech for tech's sake.

Here are some of the harshest environments you might come across as a product designer or engineer and the ruggedized solutions and products that stand up to them.

Few inventions have had as significant an impact on our daily lives as the safety razor.

If Delve were a product to be opened up and analyzed, you’d find a lot of creative, dedicated, skillful people inside.

The ballpoint pen eliminated the need for messy fountain pens and all the problems that came with them. This breakthrough invention forever changed the way we write.

The theme of the DMI Madrid 2023 conference was "The Power of Design in Turbulent Times." Here are some reflections on major themes that defined the talks and the conversations throughout.

With the transformative potential of new AI tools like ChatGPT on everyone’s mind, it’s easy to forget that artificial intelligence has been used in product design and engineering for many years.

Microsoft just dissolved their AI Ethics and Society team. What’s a designer to do?

While reviewing the early data from our ongoing research on trends in the medical device industry, three unexpected findings caught our eye.

Not every product design is a home run. Here are 15 products we think could use some design help.

A coffee pod system without a plastic pod. Headphones that read your mind. A touch-sensitive prosthetic hand. Check out the biggest innovations to influence product design in 2022.

Advances in data science and machine learning are transforming healthcare and public safety. Countless lives will benefit. Here are five inspiring examples.

We asked our staff to nominate the biggest innovations of the past 12 months that will have an influence on product design.

More than just compensating for the loss of in-person collaboration, digital whiteboards provide clear benefits, namely reducing barriers between disciplines and fostering more open, dynamic relationships with clients.

It’s not easy keeping it together under pressure. Yet these little marvels do it every day tens of thousands of times over. Do you know how staples are made?

“T-shaped” is a term used to describe someone’s knowledge and skills. For those of us in product design, it’s a good shape to be.

The vehicle expo area of CES has been one of the most exciting parts of the trade show in recent years.

At CES in 2019, Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg gave the opening keynote address about the upcoming advantages of 5G.

If your home is your castle, during the pandemic it’s also your office, classroom, coffee shop/restaurant/bar, gym, entertainment venue, spa, and, yeah, that place where you sleep.

Here’s a mind-blowing set of statistics for you: prior to 2020, only 24 percent of healthcare systems offered any form of virtual care.

In early 2020, Abbott Laboratories recognized the need for COVID-19 testing and used their massive resources to ramp up production quickly.

In the spring of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to work apart, Delve’s leadership launched an internal pitch competition.

Since Covid, "water cooler" chats at Delve's three offices are now largely happening on Microsoft Teams, where we're sharing what we're reading and listening to with each other. We're compiling some of the best nuggets into what we're calling an "Inspiration Index," that we'll share on a regular basis. We hope you discover something that will inspire - or at least intrigue - you.

Since Covid, "water cooler" chats at Delve's three offices are now largely happening on Microsoft Teams, where we're sharing what we're reading and listening to with each other. We're compiling some of the best nuggets into what we're calling an "Inspiration Index," that we'll share on a bi-weekly basis. We hope you discover something that will inspire - or at least intrigue - you.

Since Covid, "water cooler" chats at Delve's three offices are now largely happening on Microsoft Teams, where we're sharing what we're reading and listening to with each other. We're compiling some of the best nuggets into what we're calling an "Inspiration Index," that we'll share on a bi-weekly basis. We hope you discover something that will inspire - or at least intrigue - you.

Badger Shield gave me the opportunity to collaborate with an amazing group of men and women this year – designers, suppliers, manufacturers, and customers. I expect to have built lifelong collaborators and friends through this trial by virus. (For background, read the article in Wired).

I had a manager who gave me the book “Feedback is a Gift.” At the time, it didn’t feel like much of a gift – mostly because her method for feedback was, well, constant. But her heart was in the right place.

We are told the world has changed, I have heard people talk about the recent past as “the before” in recognition that we are in transition and not going back. I have also heard people talking as if this is a tough time, that we need to buckle down and wait for it to pass.

Since we posted a blog post talking about how the Open Source Face Shield project had started to supply the University of Wisconsin hospitals with this critical personal protection equipment (PPE), our team has had little time to breathe.

We are all feeling a little helpless in the face of COVID-19. We are looking for ways to help. Face shield shortages are putting health workers at risk.

All right, who do I blame for this?

There is no game-theory exercise or scenario planning model that will produce a definitive recommendation. I realize this isn’t particularly helpful or reassuring, so I offer you three specific supplemental tips for navigating your business in tumultuous times.

The Consumer Electronics Show always starts the new year off with a bang. It packs roughly 170,000 extra people from around the world into Las Vegas for a seizure-inducing week of stimulation.

The scope of the Advanced Design workshop was to walk students through the research, ideation, and early prototyping phases of creating a backpack.

Our team spent the second day of CES at Tech West, home base for health, wellness, home, wearable and fitness technology. It's also the hub for Eureka Park, where the scrappy startups vie for attention of venture capitalists and potential partners.

Our team spent the second day of CES at Tech West, home base for health, wellness, home, wearable and fitness technology. It's also the hub for Eureka Park, where the scrappy startups vie for attention of venture capitalists and potential partners.

We roamed the massive Las Vegas Convention Center the first day of the Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES. Here are some additional fun things we saw.

We have a team roaming the massive Las Vegas Convention Center today at the Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES. We'll be adding to this blog post throughout the day as we find cool stuff to share.

As 2019 winds to a close it’s time to make my annual appraisal of some of the more noteworthy products and events shaping world of design and Innovation. And the last year certainly saw its fair share of significant steps and missteps. So, let’s wade in with a few things I’ll remember that helped define 2019 for me.

I’d like to take the time and opportunity to reflect on our experiences at the Madison Mini Maker Faire and talk about each of the wonderful projects our team at Delve has been able to put together to share with the public, while hopefully inspiring young minds to be open and grow.

As I started to think about writing this blog, I realized that it might come off more as an Andy Rooney rant than “Oprah’s favorite things” this year. It feels like there have been more misses than hits.

Robots unleashed; the emergence of hearables; sustainable plastics and processes — we weigh in the biggest innovations of 2019 to influence product design.

I, for one, am pretty excited that Elon Musk is bringing his 1980s sci-fi movie dreams to life.

Some of the most altruistic of projects create some of the most vexing and problematic dilemmas for the designer as their altruistic aims face reality.

The lack of age-awareness in design misses a golden opportunity for using tech to make our golden years better.

Infrastructure has made all of the following innovations possible.

As a high school junior, I was shown the guts of an implantable defibrillator. That day, I quit my pursuit of a career in medicine to pursue one in medical device design.

We weren't setting out to invent something radically different, but we wanted to prove to ourselves that we could make our own split-flap display.

I’d prefer to never say words Industrial Designer again.

I drafted our very own “common sense/common courtesy” dog policy. I’m sharing it below in case it helps illuminate a path for any other small business owners grappling with this same issue.

Here’s my list of “a few-of-the-mostly-best innovations from the last year or so.”

Today at SXSW we dug into the concept of place. Below is a quick look into what we saw, heard and thought.

What happens when all the engineers from Delve's three offices gather in Madison? We buy stuff and tear it apart to understand how it is made. Our product of choice? The robotic vacuum.

If you want to develop empathy for anyone in the healthcare business, all you have to do is walk the floor at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference.

Last night, I attended a pretty cool panel discussion at Stanford’s D-School on “Designing Machine Learning.”

What’s a bigger number, the total number of atoms in Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s body or the total number of microprocessor clock cycles since the dawn of time?

The beginning of a new year is a great time for reflection – and what better to reflect on than the last year in design and innovation?

There is no short map of an anticipated journey that medics can plan for while transporting a patient out of any building to the ER. Each scenario and response is unique.

E-bikes, solutions for ocean-borne plastic, real-life Babel fish, 3-D printing metal, robot overlords, and more — we weigh in on 2018's biggest innovations.

As we find ourselves in the middle of the holiday season, we join with our friends and family in celebrating what we have and share the joy with others by giving.

Nowadays, you can see new products and ideas and rate them instantly. Is it preventing us from tackling the big problems?

Our summer interns worked on a very cool project to make a Virtual Reality prototyping tool called PIE. They learned that making PIE isn't that easy.

Will the E-bike change the way Americans think about cycling?

Is a bidet on brand? Our San Francisco team did some research and debating to find out.

The Tesla Model 3 has a front that upends expectations, and it's not pretty.

Creative Matrix is a brainstorming method that helps structure the necessary "in-between" work between research and ideation. We demonstrated the technique.

The gee-whiz tech news coming out of Silicon Valley is often exciting, but it's not always reality.

“Wait. Is that it? Did the needle already go in? I can’t believe it!”

To get ready for the trip, I’ve been looking into and thinking about how human-centered design is best applied to global health solutions.

Sewing has its own language and rhythm that has surprising uses for prototyping.

Moving 10 people and a 3,000-pound mill in San Francisco is quite the project. But the end result is worth it all.

Designing a makerspace to fit the needs of staff and students at Lincoln Elementary School took some old-fashioned ingenuity.

The increasing sophistication, diversity, and affordability of sensor technology for autonomous cars has rippled into the sports world. Did we see the results in PyeongChang?

As more products become software-enabled, our notions of expected performance and life cycle are changing.

Eating utensils require some sophisticated metal fabrication technology.

Dave Franchino takes a whirlwind tour of a crazy year ... and that includes product design and tech.

Take a tour of our new Madison home with one of the design leaders behind it.

Design and dodgeball share a reliance on collaboration.

The cyber-security scares of today are reminiscent of the Tylenol poisoning scare of the '80s, which led to tamper-resistant packaging.

Putting the freeze on cream and sugar is what it’s all about at Dippin’ Dots.

No twist ... just a great list of podcasts from an avowed podcast junkie.

Delve's VP of Design Mathieu Turpault reflects on major changes in industrial design in the last 25 years and predicts where it's headed.

Fighting bugs, storms and heat, design camp provides the challenge of putting ideas into interconnected motion.

Consumers have access to a hodgepodge of information on brands that they never had access to before, which makes it tough to control the brand experience.

A product that's beautiful to the eye but feels shoddy in the hand communicates volumes about a brand. Don't forget to design for touch.

When major utilities accept a standard, you know it’s going to be real.

A recent Saturday at the Madison Mini Maker Faire reinforces the joy of what we do and how fun it is to turn kids on to STEAM fields.

The Switch has a lot of great features, but the modular design leads to some clunky compromises. Ultimately, does it matter?

From the Cancer Moonshot to Bill Nye the Science Guy, SXSW was all about optimism that things can change for the better.

One of the best ways for engineers to learn about product design is to carefully examine other products. Engineering details, manufacturing processes, and material choices can all be used to inspire your own designs and decisions.

Many of the simplest items we use every day require an amazing amount of effort to produce. Take, for example, the humble toothbrush.

I thought 2016's divisiveness seems like a good reason to revisit my "United We Stand" state flags project, tweak some, and make them available to download.

After walking the American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC), we think laboratory professionals deserve a little more love from the industry.

Delve's industrial design for OneWeb wins an International IDEA award in the social impact category.

When we look back on an experience, we craft a narrative based on memory and emotion and the sum of our experiences. The same is true of how we process our experiences with brands.

Thoughtful multi-sensory design transforms the act of opening a perfume pouch into a sensuous expression of luxury.

We polled the office on favorite branded interactions and narrowed everyone’s nominations down to 15 brands who do it well. Here’s the list of brands and the interactions we consider to be successful.

There was a lot of talk about the Internet of Things this year at SXSW Interactive 2015. And yes, there were a lot of cool Internet-things.

Recent workplace deaths involving robotic arms are a new variant of the dangers that come with using powerful tools.

An Electrolux from the '50s inspires a head-to-head comparison with a Dyson Animal. Let's just say there are some trade-offs.

International travel offers time to knit...so why not knit an experiment in uncertainty?

Our industrial design for the AmpStrip, a 24/7 heart rate and activity monitor, recently won a Gold Spark Award.

Connected devices too often rely on a "master operator" framework that ignores the wonderfully messy realities of family life.

Delve just published its first ebook on this interesting point in time when technology and society are entering new territory.

Want a Sansa or an iPod? Sometimes getting to market first is better than making a better product.

The urge to merge technologies can lead to really cool stuff ... and really stupid stuff, too.

Many SxSW Interactive talks pondered the future of connected devices. What we can address now and how we may bridge the user-experience gap for the future?

Drinking from the fire hose is an understatement.

Believe it or not, the color and brand of smartphone or laptop someone uses is not an indicator of their worth.

In the world of sales, nothing is better than picking up a phone or meeting someone in person.

A lunchtime decision to brave the midwinter cold led to a lunch that I unsuspectedly evaluated as a new experience.

UX design is maturing and none too soon for the technology challenges and opportunities we face.

Want some depression with those Doritos? In a confusing time both socially and economically, advertisers struggle to find the right tone.

"Heads-down time" is invaluable when you're looking for that "light bulb" moment. But then it's time to get out of your own head.

As the consumer-driven IoT culture, which moves fast and iterates frequently, meets the highly regulated med device industry, designers face new challenges.

At CES 2015, activity trackers were the bandwagon that many companies jumped on. Really? Isn't there something better to do with this technology?

Great board games are designed to foster creativity, collaboration and compromise.

Sometimes we need to embrace our inner Janet Jackson and be the ones in control.

What's in a flange? Well, when it comes to product design, it's the attention to details that can make all the difference.

Technology is making it easier to stay in the home and community you love as you age. That's a wonderful thing.

Instead of a nice story that reads like your favorite episode of This American Life, here’s a few thoughts on things I’ve noticed over the last couple months.

A few months ago, I was able to experience co-creation from the client side of things. I signed up for a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE workshop at Door County Forgeworks.

No need to pick sides. Become a hybrid designer instead.

Using the BioReactor we helped design and manufacture, Dr. Hopkins' team have reached a milestone in developing a process for replacing pediatric heart valves.

Making a difference and calling attention to important issues through design is more achievable once designers get over the fact that they're not artists.

Imagine a future where emerging technology — wearable sensors and 3D printers — are so accessible they’re embedded into most everyday objects

How might Leonardo da Vinci operate as a UX designer in the year 2014? I sent him a time machine and asked him.