The key goal in successful design roots from addressing the needs and solving the current problems of the people one can truly empathize with. A designer’s deep emotional concern for others will motivate them to bring out some of the greatest products and services to better our society because of the fact that it solely exists to better the lives of others, shaping their personal concerns.

Tim Brown’s Design Thinking article brings out an important find regarding Shimano’s (Japanese manufacturer of bicycle components) discovery outside their usual core customer base. Instead of focusing on professional bikers, they’ve researched an audience enough to find a category of intimidated people who do not ride bikes. By searching to address this issue, they’ve design Coasting bikes specifically for pleasure and fun for anyone.

Shigeru Ban (architect) speaks of this issue in the video above in terms of how much designers cater to governments and businesses, not paying enough attention to the users who aren’t as commonly addressed. Known for his paper tube emergency shelter creations much ahead of his time, he focused his usually large scale and expensive projects to address those in desperate need of affordable housing and shelter in low income and critically harmed parts of the world.

This weeks lesson contributes to the idea that exploring customer needs outside our usual audience will likely introduce us to new categories of users we should be addressing, leading to creative alternatives including a greater mass of society.