IKEA are the Masters of Design Thinking

IKEA’s genius starts from two insights:

• beautiful, high-quality furniture is expensive
• people have more time than money

So the question is: how to maintain quality and design at low prices while allowing people to trade time for money?

Here’s where IKEA applies one of the basic pillars of Design Thinking: putting people at the center.

IKEA proposes that the customer is in charge of transporting and assembling their own furniture.

And that the experience of buying, the store itself, becomes a destination. An event!

Because people have more time than money, they’re willing to travel out to the big, fun IKEA store, where they can see all the products in action.

And because people have more time than money, they’re willing to transport their furniture and put it together themselves.

All the while, IKEA’s designers are creating innovative, simple, beautiful products by visiting people in their homes. Human-centered products that people love.

It all adds up to a beloved brand that’s still growing as fast as ever.