As a company, Pixar is often spoken of as amazingly creative with a culture of innovation and creativity. The video below shows an interviewer from Fast Company giddy with anticipation at having permission for a behind scenes look at the company.  What struck me personally was the lessons educational institutions such as universities, and indeed all educational designers can learn from this giant of the movie industry.

Becoming a creative giant of the movie industry doesn’t come by accident. Looking beyond the well-publicised magic of bells and whistles of oversized chairs, pool tables and hidden rooms is the careful creation of culture and functional design of the facility. From a physical viewpoint, the studio facility is designed to enable forced collision of people from various backgrounds and areas which leads to spontaneous meetings.

The culture is discussed further in this ‘Inside the Pixar brain trust’ article. There are many takeaways from both the article and video for education. The importance of collective knowledge, unvarnished opinion, candour and idea-sharing come to the fore both in the design of the facility and the experience for the student or end-user.

The brain trust is also about devising a product based on multiple iterations of the original idea. The idea that there is no good design as such, but rather a good redesign based on prototypes and multiple iterations. The best educational resources I’ve personally developed have come from this iterative approach and has utilised a collective of smart people to redesign from the original or early iterations. Conversely, the worst facility design flaws I’ve witnessed have come from foregoing a collective approach and progressing to the final version quickly.

The impacts of failing to take the Pixar approach are considerable and could include alterations to the original plan or a total failure of the space which necessitates hiring rooms/facilities to achieve our educational goals.

To me, taking a human-centred design approach such as the above and designing for the end-user in the first place makes a lot of sense.