We use techniques from social sciences and Design Thinking to help decision makers...

Envision Future Scenarios Grounded in Humanity

Elevate Experiences with Mindfulness

Find Clarity and Shared Purpose

Expand Your Capacity for Co-Creation

AI enabled driving experiences and in vehicle content strategies

We have partnered with several international automotive companies developing AI-based driver assistance features across different levels of autonomy. To inform their design strategies, we conducted exploratory studies in North America, Europe, and China, providing contextual insights into how autonomous features and content should be tailored for compelling user experiences.

Our research included visiting people in their homes, riding along as they drove through their daily routines, and exploring their mental models of driving and transportation. After each round of fieldwork, we invited select participants to co-creation sessions, where they enacted imagined scenarios—bringing to life the experiences they would like to have with future autonomous technologies.

Future of facilities management

A major facilities management corporation recognized that the transition to internet-connected HVAC systems would present new opportunities (and challenges). SonicRim conducted global ethnographic research with facilities managers and developed a framework for building services that utilize new technologies as well as big data to operate far more efficiently. We then helped a team of executives and engineers from around the world to co-create, plan, and prioritize projects.

Designing for trust across cultures

A major e-commerce platform wanted to better communicate with buyers and sellers from diverse cultures, each with different perspectives on authenticity, trust signals, and branding. We conducted research in the US, Europe, and China to explore the signals people from various backgrounds rely on, their mental models of authenticity, and how they interpret signals from others.

Participants also interacted with prototypes, providing direct feedback. Using these insights, we developed frameworks to help our client communicate more effectively with their users—and to help users better understand each other.

Defining Premium: Design Strategy for a High-End Mobile Phone

A major tech company entering the high-end phone market wanted to deliver the most desirable user experiences and position their brand at a premium level. We began with exploratory research in North America, Europe, China, and Japan to identify key design attributes that would guide the initial concept.

Next, we conducted qualitative studies to provide consumer feedback on design language, size, shape, CMF (color, material, finish), physical touchpoint locations, and marketing messages. Throughout product development, we continued to partner with the client, helping resolve specific design questions and providing empirical insights to inform product decisions.

Co-Creating a Seamless Omni-Channel Customer Service Experience

A major telecom company needed to agree on which customer service issues were most important to fix. They wanted to focus their efforts where it would matter most to customers.

Through ethnographic research, we created a comprehensive map of the customer experience, showing every stage of the relationship and all aspects of customer support—integrated for the first time. Working with a range of internal teams, we then mapped out which current and planned projects addressed specific customer pain points.

This unified approach helped teams from different departments prioritize their work more effectively and focus on what would have the greatest impact for customers.

Preserving Heritage Together: Community-Informed Museum Design

A historical society museum commissioned leading architects and designers to create a vision for their new museum. To ensure the design reflected community aspirations, the museum brought in SonicRim to engage local residents and benchmark the vision against their mental constructs of how they want their natural history to be preserved and shared.

We organized a series of participatory design activities with the community to develop experience design principles. Using these insights, we created a pattern language for experience design and helped the museum refine its direction—so the new space would better embody the community’s identity and honor the city’s legacy.

From Local Wisdom to Global Strategy: Rethinking Accessory Development

For a global leader in the toy industry, the usual process involved inviting licensees each year to design new accessory lines for international markets. However, ensuring that each collection resonated across diverse cultures and regions was a persistent challenge.

To rethink their approach, the company engaged SonicRim to explore new ways of co-developing themes that would connect with local imaginations worldwide. SonicRim facilitated co-creation sessions with 120 of the company’s global licensees, resulting in a fresh set of relevant and compelling accessory themes.

The VP of Design adopted this workshop as a best practice, using it to train designers on harnessing the creativity and insights of their industry partners.

Reframing Autonomous Vehicle Thinking Through Co-Creation

We were invited to an automotive innovation center to help a cross-disciplinary team rethink how they approach autonomous vehicles and to introduce co-creation methods.

In an internal workshop, the team imagined their everyday lives with the technology, moving beyond their industry perspective to see it from a user’s point of view. This process surfaced their own biases and demonstrated how a human-centered approach builds consensus and sparks new ideas.

Motivated by this shift, the team commissioned a deeper customer study to further explore this people-focused perspective. Over the next ten years, we helped embed co-creation into the company’s practice and culture.