Moon Creative Lab today announced that its venture <a href="https://www.variloom.com/">Variloom</a> has won the <a href="https://www.ispo.com/en">ISPO</a> 2024 Award as part of the Mirage3DP Boardshort. Developed with Rip Curl, Moon Creative Lab, and Bilio, the Mirage3DP shorts feature a 3D waistband for stability in the water, integrated panels for fit and ventilation, and a recyclable blend of bio-based TPU and wool for comfort and durability. Read more in the <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/moon-creative-lab-venture-variloom-wins-ispo-2024-award-in-collaboration-with-rip-curl-302320383.html?tc=eml_cleartime">press release</a>.

<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:800/534;" src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/54123221287_a09013fbf4_c_6bd4f768e7.jpg" alt="54123221287_a09013fbf4_c.jpg" width="800" height="534"><figcaption>Photo courtesy of @design.bayarea and RVSF.co @rvsf.inc.</figcaption></figure>In October, Moon Creative Lab hosted&nbsp;<a href="https://designpaloalto.org/about/">Design Palo Alto</a> — a series of events for industry professionals focused on Innovation, Architecture, Tech, Startups, Ventures, Art, and more. The multiday series took place across various locations in Palo Alto and Stanford, California, featuring panel discussions, presentations, and tours of studios and homes.&nbsp;&nbsp;The event, held at Moon’s Palo Alto studio, kicked off with a thought-provoking discussion on "Design Meets Venture Capital," featuring Bill Burnett, Executive Director of the Life Design Lab at Stanford and co-author of the New York Times bestseller,&nbsp;Designing Your Life, alongside Tara Tan from Strange Ventures. They explored the evolving interplay between design, innovation, and investment, sharing insights from their extensive experiences with founders, tech giants, and investors over the years. “Their reflections brought in a diverse audience we were grateful for,” shared Peter Antonelli, Moon’s Global Head of Design. “The audience was very engaged, and we made a lot of great new connections!”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:800/534;" src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/54123221722_845083edc5_c_307cbd082a.jpg" alt="54123221722_845083edc5_c.jpg" width="800" height="534"><figcaption>Photo courtesy of @design.bayarea and RVSF.co @rvsf.inc.</figcaption></figure>Following “Design Meets Venture Capital,” Peter presented&nbsp;<a href="https://designpaloalto.org/event/adaptive-by-design/">Adaptive by Design</a>, where he discussed Moon's human-centered design philosophy and how it shapes the products, services, and experiences we develop. “At Moon, design and entrepreneurship are highly symbiotic. Particularly with our early founders, design helps unlock emergent ideas by translating them into tangible, user-facing provocations, which in turn helps shape the path forward. Conversely, entrepreneurs often bring a holistic perspective that provides the essential constraints for design to thrive,” he says.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:800/534;" src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/54123220167_d50047981f_c_06e447830e.jpg" alt="54123220167_d50047981f_c.jpg" width="800" height="534"><figcaption>Photo courtesy of @design.bayarea and RVSF.co @rvsf.inc.</figcaption></figure>Moon’s Chief Creative Officer, Mike Peng, then took the stage to elaborate on how we apply design in diverse ways to unlock value within Moon and in collaboration with founders. “Design to me is all about intention. It's about taking the time to think through what experience you want people to have and then executing it to the best of your ability," Mike says. "Whether it's our space, our programs, or how we communicate to the world, we want to make sure it feels very Moon — and that's why design is so important to all of us."&nbsp;This insightful event allowed us to engage deeply with the design community and offer them a sneak peek of Moon’s innovative projects. “Hosting events like Design Palo Alto lets us share Moon’s culture and initiate new conversations, opening doors to valuable future collaborations,” Peter explains.<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:800/534;" src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/54124067071_c199a43a7b_c_443918dd52.jpg" alt="54124067071_c199a43a7b_c.jpg" width="800" height="534"><figcaption>Photo courtesy of @design.bayarea and RVSF.co @rvsf.inc.</figcaption></figure>New collaborations and connections are a current focus of Moon Creative Lab, particularly for our new incubation program, Moon In-Residence. “One of our main goals is to bring even more creative energy to our Palo Alto studio through our Moon In–Residence program, which is designed to help entrepreneurs push their ventures to the next level,” Peter adds. With industry events like this one, Moon aims to bring the entrepreneur and startup communities together to create meaningful interactions that inspire creativity, diverse perspectives, and innovation.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:800/534;" src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/54124523425_af3402bed1_c_45df758931.jpg" alt="54124523425_af3402bed1_c.jpg" width="800" height="534"><figcaption>Photo courtesy of @design.bayarea and RVSF.co @rvsf.inc.</figcaption></figure>To learn more about Moon’s In-Residence program and how you can get hands-on help and support for your venture,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/in-residence">check out our website</a>.If you’d like to collaborate and host an event or workshop with Moon, reach out to us with <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1u98RYOcPTfefjoRhgX-xewcxaid">this form</a>.&nbsp;

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<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:4000/4000;" src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Luma_final_3f4005f343.png" alt="Luma final.png" width="4000" height="4000"></figure>In October, Moon Creative Lab held its first Founder Focus event, which spotlights some of the ventures incubating at Moon as part of the Moon In-Residence program.<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/in-residence">Moon In-Residence</a> (MIR) is Moon’s incubation program based in Palo Alto, California. The program offers entrepreneurs and founders the support they need for their venture, including project space, advisory from experts in design, engineering, product, and more, tools and software, and other hands-on help they need to gain traction in their market.This first Founder Focus event, held at Moon’s Palo Alto studio, showcased three ventures from the MIR program: Amotions AI, deCH.at, and Imagined. Each venture team presented their business to a crowd, discussing not only their venture but also the work they’ve been doing at Moon. Each presentation concluded with a Q&amp;A session with the audience, where founders were asked thoughtful questions and offered feedback. &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:1024/768;" src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/David_851bc192ea.png" alt="David.png" width="1024" height="768"></figure><h3>Getting New Perspectives&nbsp;</h3>Events like this are opportunities for founders to present their business to new audiences, getting fresh eyes and perspectives on their pitch. David Fernandez Vinuales founded deCh.at, a tool that helps businesses scale their customer engagement using AI. David, an experienced founder and presenter, has pitched his ventures to crowds of thousands of people. Whether the audience is of one or one thousand, he believes getting new eyes on pitch presentations helps founders see things they might otherwise be blind to. “You need to get different eyes on your presentation or product because as a founder, you get deep into the grass with your product and there are some things you can’t see yourself, so having other perspectives helps you improve,” David says.<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:5244/4542;" src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/dollar_4bf6b0546e.png" alt="dollar.png" width="5244" height="4542"></figure><h3>Connecting Through Storytelling</h3>Storytelling, which is a large part of building a venture, also comes through in pitches. Dollar Zhu and Jack Wang are the founding team of <a href="https://imagined.framer.ai/">Imagined</a>, which helps aspiring professionals navigate their career. Since they’ve been in the MIR program, they have pivoted with their business, which happens often in the venture-building journey, and was a significant part of their storytelling. “As founders, it is always helpful to hone our storytelling skills through these presentations; each occasion to present is an opportunity to reflect and iterate on our vision… For us specifically, since we are at an earlier stage and recently made a pivot from virtual campus tours to helping people navigate their careers, this event encouraged us to build a strong foundation in storytelling,” Dollar says.<blockquote>"Each occasion to present is an opportunity to reflect and iterate on our vision."-Dollar Zhu, cofounder, Imagined</blockquote> Improving storytelling was also something deCh.at’s founder learned through his presentation. “It was nice to get feedback from the audience. It allowed me to see where I could improve, such as telling a better story for people to connect to in addition to the product itself,” David added.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:2100/1500;" src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/pianpian_4d9d0fecc6.png" alt="pianpian.png" width="2100" height="1500"></figure><h3>Hearing From the Audience</h3>But perhaps the most helpful aspect of a pitch presentation is the Q&amp;A that happens after the pitch. Questions from the audience can be challenging, but that often leads to finding the holes in a pitch, helping founders realize what’s missing or what can be improved. Pianpian Guthrie, founder of <a href="https://www.amotionsinc.com/">Amotions AI,</a> which improves productivity for employees with personalized AI coaching and support, was able to get helpful insight and make new connections. “I got some excellent and thoughtful questions from the audience, and met some people interested in our space. For example, someone who worked as a salesperson and thought the AI coaching product we are building for sales people could be very helpful.”David from deCh.at also finds great value in Q&amp;A sessions, acknowledging the importance of audience engagement. “I want to make sure people are engaged and I want them to ask questions. Questions help improve my product and see where I need improvement or see the problem in a different perspective, or confirm my hypotheses with the product,” he says. &nbsp;<blockquote>"As a founder, you get deep into the grass with your product and there are some things you can’t see yourself."&nbsp;-David Fernandez Vinuales, founder, deCh.at</blockquote>Like the other founders, the Imagined team also got a lot from the conversations they had with event attendees. “After the talk, we engaged with a diverse audience in thought-provoking conversations. One notable example is a data scientist who raised questions about the ways we can collect data on educational opportunities so that we can offer a tailored experience to aspiring professionals. We walked away from that conversation with more insights into the data-collection strategy and an introduction to a labor-data analysis group at Stanford!”&nbsp;This event was just the first of more Founder Focus events to come. If you’d like to be invited to events like this and others at Moon Creative Lab, be sure to <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1OHQANbcgR9q4ky5Q4M6wMQcxaid ">subscribe to our mailing list</a>.Are you a founder or have an idea for a new business? Learn more about the Moon In-Residence program and apply <a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/in-residence">here</a>. &nbsp;

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Key Takeaways:<ol><li>Defining human-centered design.</li><li>Find inspiration from personal experiences.</li><li>How to design for products using human-centered design.&nbsp;</li></ol><hr><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Ascend_Moon_Original_b4d4cc765c.png" alt="Ascend+Moon+Original.png">What does human-centered design look like when creating a new product? <a href="https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-is-human-centered-design">The Harvard Business School</a> defines human-centered design as “a problem-solving technique that puts real people at the center of the development process, enabling you to create products and services that resonate and are tailored to your audience’s needs.” At Moon Creative Lab, we believe that human-centered design is a key component to our success, especially within HR.The past two years have had its fair share of ups and downs for just about everyone, especially when having to navigate a pandemic for the first time and adapting to a new way of working together. We were isolated and forced to work alone. The physical distance caused strains on human connection and a sense of personal belonging, and led to questions of self-worth after being used to working in group settings. Our team noticed all of these shifts in Moon Mates which led us to critically examine our current employee experiences, the main one being employee onboarding. We really wanted to make sure that whether a Moon Mate was just hired or had worked at Moon for years, everyone felt important, valued, and heard by evoking a better sense of belonging and inclusion.Without the in-person experience, but with building a human-centered culture as our North star, the challenge for our team became, “How might we better establish human connection and build trust in a virtual workplace using human-centered design?”<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Ascend_9f9f591f24.png" alt="Ascend.png"><h3>Use Your Personal Experiences To Spark Inspiration</h3>The onboarding process is one of the most crucial and important parts of an employee's journey at our company. We believe that setting up every new hire for success at the beginning directly correlates with how they will feel later on at our company – not only with their peers, but with the satisfaction of the work they will do.When we first started taking a deeper look at our onboarding process and those of other companies, we noticed a common theme. Onboarding processes were simple one-pagers full of checklists. If you complete these 20 items on the checklist, then you will have completed the onboarding. This felt very flat, boring, and not aligned with our value of being human-centered at all. From the outside looking in, it seemed as if we were putting the company’s needs first before better understanding the person’s experience and needs.Noticing this sparked inspiration for us.We felt motivated to rethink the entire onboarding process by making it more fun, interactive, and thoughtful while still making sure individuals felt up to speed with all of the information about our company and the role they would be fulfilling. Traditionally as HR professionals, our first thought isn’t to consider building a tool ourselves when there wasn’t one we could use already on the market. However, Moon Creative Lab is a unique place with a unique position. Since Moon is an incubator for new, bold ideas, we felt inclined to explore this idea further, simply because we could!<h3>How We Reimagined Our Product Using Human-Centered Design&nbsp;</h3>Now, two years after the onset of the pandemic, we have taken on one of our greatest challenges: building our first, one-of-a-kind onboarding tool specifically for Moon, which we call Ascend.Ascend is an onboarding experience that greets a new hire two weeks before they start and leads them through their first 90 days by providing them with all the information about Moon, our parent company, past and present projects, our values, and more! This allows for new Moon Mates to digest information and meet fellow Moon Mates at their own pace. We really wanted the platform to feel as customized to them as possible. We believe that if someone feels instantly welcomed to a new team and acclimates to a new role as quickly and seamlessly as possible, they will feel valued and confident from their first day. Our hope is that with a human-centered approach and experience is pursued, it will result in overall better work performance and employee satisfaction. This is why we strongly believe reimagining the onboarding process using human-centered design is so critical.&nbsp;While building anything from scratch is a huge undertaking, we urge anyone that is looking to solve a problem to first think of the human-centered approach. Use that as your North Star. When a solution resonates with a person’s needs, the problem at hand can become way less daunting and more attainable. This helped us a lot on our journey towards building Ascend.Be sure to follow us here to read more progress of Ascend!Monique Riley&nbsp; HR Business Partner <a href="mailto:monique@mooncreativelab.com">monique@mooncreativelab.com</a>

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Experimenting fast with GORIL, a digital tool teaching native-Japanese speakers better English pronunciation.<hr><h3>Key Takeaways:</h3><ol><li>Interview potential users early on to help steer the direction of your product concept.</li><li>Having potential users engage with prototypes can draw new insights and validate assumptions quicker.</li><li>If resources and time are low, get creative and experiment fast!</li></ol><hr><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/GORIL_Moon_Venture_3dbacc4b9d.png" alt="GORIL_Moon_Venture.png"><h3>English Is Most Commonly Used Worldwide, But Is It Spoken With Confidence?</h3>Working in a multicultural and global environment like Moon Creative Lab has shown us just how important the English language can be when it comes to team communication and coordination. GORIL, a Moon Creative Lab venture, is aiming to support native-Japanese speakers looking to develop a more natural pronunciation of their English. Through the power of GORIL, participants will be able to communicate more clearly and confidently in any setting.You might be surprised to find that English is the most commonly used language across our studios, especially because we are an established Japanese company and a majority of our team members' native language is Japanese. Many of us have had to step outside of our comfort zones to speak English at a level where we felt confident to communicate with different team members around the world and effectively work together.We believe that in order to have a more diverse team with people from different backgrounds and nationalities, English is possibly the most important skill we all share. &nbsp;And in today’s globalized world, many of us rely on English to be able to communicate in various settings, including traveling to various countries and navigating different business environments. Some might assume that most people speak English, but that’s generally not true. While a large percentage of the world can speak English, we are unsure of the population’s proficiency and confidence in speaking the language.We have to remember that learning English is not easy. And learning a different language is not only about vocabulary and grammar, but context, idioms, popular expressions, and pronunciation, especially, are key.So we asked ourselves, how might we build a tool that supports pronunciation and articulation of the English language?<h3>Interview Potential Users Early On To Help Steer the Direction of Your Product Concept&nbsp;</h3><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/GORIL_Prototype_English_b1711ccc64.png" alt="GORIL+Prototype+English.png">Our team has been hard at work designing GORIL to become the first tool that supports goal-oriented learners to improve their English pronunciation and articulation. During our product concept development stage, we connected with many potential users and discovered the importance of personalized learning. Normally, personalized learning would come from a tutor or teacher. However, in order to reach as many users as possible, we had our biggest key learning yet: understanding that technology itself should be convenient and effective.<h3>Having Potential Users Engage With Prototypes Can Draw New Insights and Validate Assumptions Quicker</h3>At Moon, we believe that listening to our users and tailoring solutions to respond to their needs is the ultimate goal for each and every project we incubate. In order to optimize processes and validate ideas faster, we focus on building prototypes that support us. These prototypes are a mockup of our concepts to illustrate the vision and story we’re trying to tell. Users can then engage with our prototypes and in turn, we can collect real feedback to validate assumptions, find potential flaws, and discover new insights. &nbsp;<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/GORIL_Prototype_Japanese_92a09f2ddb.png" alt="GORIL+Prototype+Japanese.png"><h3>When Resources and Time Are Low, Get Creative and Experiment Fast!</h3>For GORIL, we decided to use technology that required voice recognition, which meant that creating a high-fidelity interactive prototype would require a lot of team resources and time. Since “Experimenting Fast” is a Moon value we embrace, we went back to one of our early reflections: learning through tutoring. We decided that we would create our first prototype by running an English lesson through tutoring. The tutor was our program manager and native bilingual, Chiaki, and the materials were static slides containing our methodologies.It took us only one week to deliver a few classes and find a lot of insights that supported us in the further development of GORIL. We learned that talking to our users and understanding their life experiences, motivations, and pain points helped shape the direction of our product development. We also learned to not let time and limited resources hold us back from experimenting and testing our ideas!If you’d like to continue following GORIL’s product journey, be sure to <a href="https://www.goril.jp/">check out our website</a> to learn more.

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Moon Partnered with Mitsui &amp; Co.’s Diversity Management Department team to celebrate Pride Month.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/D_and_I_Pride_Month_06d98828fa.png" alt="D&amp;I+Pride+Month.png">By being present all over the globe, Mitsui is, in essence, diverse. But its understanding and desire to foster diversity does not stop with geographical presence. Thrive on diversity is one of the company's four core values. Still, many might wonder what diversity really is. Mitsui's HR itself has a whole team of engaged professionals working on Diversity &amp; Inclusion (D&amp;I). With them, there is a wide group of D&amp;I ambassadors, people who dedicate part of their time to engage with this community in order to make Mitsui more diverse and inclusive.Diversity is plural. It means breaking homogeneity from ethnicity to thoughts, from gender to social structures. It means having different people and different ideas innovating together. <a href="https://www.inclusion.me.uk/news/what_does_inclusion_mean">Inclusion</a> is providing the same positions and benefits to all people regardless of race, gender, disability, medical, or other needs. Together, Diversity and Inclusion are about embracing differences based on nationality, religious faith, gender, sexual orientation, or whatsoever.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/LGBT_87695c8377.png" alt="LGBT.png">Among all the actions toward diversity that Moon has started, our team partnered with Diversity Management Dept. of Mitsui to create a series of activities during Pride Month in June 2022. Already well known in many countries, June is considered the month not just to celebrate, but to encourage discussions and actions to increase the awareness of LGBTQIA+ people. While at Moon, we collaborated with Mitsui to host a series of activities. Anna Hiraoka from Diversity Management Dept. of Mitsui worked with Machi Rezende, Moon's Lead UX Designer and current researcher of intersections of Corporate Culture and Gender Diversity at Waseda University, to host an online forum for Mitsui's D&amp;I ambassadors.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/D_and_I_Presentation_b91d595f68.jpg" alt="D&amp;I+Presentation.jpg">Through an interactive presentation combined with an interactive quiz, participants had the chance to learn more about gender, sexuality, and ways to increase awareness and create safe spaces for LGBTQAI+ employees and professionals in the workplace. In the end, a Q&amp;A session was held.Global surveys and research all over the globe, <a href="https://www.moonstories.blog/blog/working-with-pride#:~:text=like%20this%20one%20in%20Japan">like this one in Japan</a>, show that at least 10% of the world population identifies themselves as LGBTQIA+. This means that one in ten people around us is an LGBTQIA+ person, proving that it is essential for companies to promote policies and actions to create an inclusive and safe space in which everyone can thrive.Machi Rezende Lead UX Designer <a href="mailto:mateus@mooncreativelab.com">mateus@mooncreativelab.com</a>

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<h4>Not Starting From Zero:&nbsp; Tips for Starting a New Product or Service</h4><ul><li>Challenge your assumptions</li><li>Understand your customers</li><li>Move fast and test in the market</li></ul><hr><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/CAAV_MBSD_Moon_Creative_Lab_247f21ccca.jpeg" alt="CAAV_MBSD_MoonCreativeLab.jpeg">Innovation can simply be defined as doing something new. And sometimes that “something new” can be taking something that already exists today and using it in a new, different way. That’s what the team at Mitsui Bussan Secure Directions (MBSD), Inc. did when they created a new service (and a new revenue stream for its business).MBSD, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui, is a leading Japanese provider of IT security services. The company offers a wide range of services including vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, managed security service, and cybersecurity consulting. Its team of security professionals offer a combination of in-depth knowledge and understanding of attackers' methodologies with granular support to bring a comprehensive yet highly technical approach to protect customers in terms of cybersecurity.Two years ago, MBSD’s talented team of engineers developed its own award-winning tool, GyoiThon, using sophisticated machine learning to help their enterprise customers track the software running on their web servers – which can be a big challenge since proliferation of web servers go hand in hand with the proliferation of services an enterprise may deploy to support its business. Tracking that software is essential to ensuring OS and middleware software updates are deployed and security risks are mitigated. The tool used by MBSD’s security consultants was very effective. Even though the engineering team initially had no intentions of selling it to customers as a product or service, they knew they had something customers wanted and needed.So, how do you turn an internal tool into something that customers can buy and use on their own? Where do you start?&nbsp;<hr><h3>1. Challenge your assumptions&nbsp;</h3><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/CAAV_Yo_Hayashi_5fbaf20dd9.jpeg" alt="CAAV_Yo+Hayashi.jpeg"><figcaption>Yo Hayashi,&nbsp; GM of R&amp;D Division,&nbsp; GM of IoT &amp; Advanced Analytics Division MBSD</figcaption></figure>“We didn’t know how to move forward with this project,” said Yo Hayashi, General Manager of R&amp;D DIvision, General Manager of IoT &amp; Advanced Analytics Division, MBSD.“We have very knowledgeable engineers – they know about the market and the customers’ voice, but their perceptions were already fixed. Talking to Moon, we realized we had to take a step back to really understand our customers and what they really needed step by step.”Working with the Moon Creative Lab team, Yo and the MBSD team worked to challenge their assumptions of what they already knew about their customers and their needs. They worked together to clearly define the personas of their potential customers and put themselves in their shoes.<hr><h3>2. Understand your customers</h3><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Creative_Lab_Vlad_2_a16b935e8a.jpg" alt="Moon+Creative+Lab_Vlad_2.jpg"><figcaption>Vlad Almonnord,&nbsp; Moon Design Director</figcaption></figure>“We wanted to get clarity on the entire ecosystem,” said Vlad Almonnord, Design Director, Moon Creative Lab. “Who is the actual end user versus who are we selling to? What is their day-to-day life? How will this new service enable them to make key decisions in their job? Becoming truly empathetic of the customer was a big light switch.”This revealed several challenges that IT teams face within an organization and humanized a complex industry. “It not only helped us in expanding the offerings of the original service, but also helped drive a lot of clarity on how to deliver actionable information to different stakeholders involved in the value chain (the type and granularity of information is different for each stakeholder or decision maker in the ecosystem).”<hr><h3>3. Move fast and test the market</h3>MBSD then worked with the Moon Creative Lab team to build a prototype service called the Continuous Assessment of Asset and Vulnerability (CAAV) based on their core technology. The MBSD team then went and tested the service directly with customers and incorporated feedback to improve the user experience.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/CAAV_MBSD_Logo_4fe4ee91b2.png" alt="CAAV_MBSD_Logo.png">The CAAV service is now available for sale and the team recently acquired its first paying customers! This new service gives MBSD a new conversation to have with their customers as well as a new revenue stream. With CAAV, the MBSD and Moon team proved that innovation for your business does not need to come from zero. It can come from using something that exists today, but used in an entirely new way.For more information on MBSD, visit their corporate <a href="https://www.mbsd.jp/en/company/">website</a> and <a href="https://caav.jp/">CAAV website</a>.

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In this article, we talk with two Moon Creative Lab Designers about their experiences designing for inclusivity and how inclusive design can reach unexpected and wider audiences.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/110822_Blog_Image_Inclusive_1500x2500_c1f4ad11ce.jpg" alt="Moon Creative Lab_ Inclusive_Design"><hr><h4>Key Takeaways:</h4><ul><li>What is inclusive design</li><li>Examples of inclusive design</li><li>How to design for inclusivity in your own work</li><li>Resources for learning more about inclusive design</li></ul><hr>Inclusive design is a design practice that we are always considering when supporting our ventures. At Moon Creative Lab, one of our core values is “Be Human-Centered” which focuses on designing for human needs rather than the business outcomes – the essence of inclusive design. We believe that unexpected opportunities come when we look outside of ourselves and really get to know our users. &nbsp;With Moon’s parent company, Mitsui &amp; Co., celebrating Diversity &amp; Inclusion Week this September, we interviewed two of our designers in Tokyo on what it means to design businesses, products, and services that are inclusive of everyone.&nbsp;<hr>What does inclusive design mean to you?<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Takuya_Moon_Creative_Lab_0db86155e2.png" alt="Takuya, Senior Design Researcher"><figcaption>Takuya Yamagishi,&nbsp; Senior Design Researcher</figcaption></figure>T.Y. “For me, inclusive design means design that is welcoming for everyone and can apply to many fields, from architecture to consumer product design to employee experience design and more. Sometimes there are conflicts and it is not possible to make everyone happy. However, in my view, we should always strive to maximize the happiness of every user.”<blockquote>Inclusive design is welcoming for everyone.</blockquote><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Machi_Moon_Creative_Lab_63026b0b6e.png" alt="Machi, UI/UX Design Lead"><figcaption>Machi Rezende,&nbsp; UI/UX Design Lead</figcaption></figure>M.R. “For me, inclusive design is all about understanding and including the plurality of people and realities we have in the world. You’d be surprised – a recent study showed that only 21% of people are able to fully use most products, which means that inclusive design, which seeks to lower barriers to effective use, is actually for the majority of people.”<blockquote>Inclusive design is about including the plurality of people and realities.</blockquote><hr>What are some examples of inclusive design?T.Y. “When I studied at design school in Europe, I was impressed by the inclusivity of design there compared to design in Japan. Public notices were clear, simple, intuitive, and visual. In Japan, on the other hand, public notices still tend to be extremely wordy, complex, and non-user-friendly. Things are improving little by little, though. I also noticed that train station ticket gates were wider, allowing easier access for people in wheelchairs.Inclusive design encourages us to think about people who are not the same as us, empathize with them, and question our own assumptions. There is always a danger that we will design things that work best for us, the designer – but we are not everyone, and what works for us may not always work for others.”<blockquote>Inclusive design encourages us to think about people who are not the same as us, empathize with them, and question our own assumptions.</blockquote>M.R. “When talking about inclusivity, we usually think about the Physical aspect of design - <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ergonomics">ergonomics</a>, accessibility, design for the elderly and the physically challenged, and so on. But there are also cognitive and emotional aspects to consider.From a cognitive perspective, for example, we should consider such things as color blindness, but also dyslexia, which, as studies show, affects up to 12% of people globally. And also consider deepening our understanding of the wide range of neurodiversity that humans exhibit. Not everyone processes information in the same way and our design should take that into account.In terms of emotional inclusivity, we must also consider how people feel when using the products that we design. Recently there have been great improvements. For example, Instagram now provides more pronoun options for people who don’t identify as Male or Female. And you may have noticed that Slack now includes a range of skin color options for emojis so people can represent themselves online in the way that feels most comfortable for them. These changes may seem subtle, but they have a huge positive emotional impact on those who may otherwise feel excluded or ignored.”<blockquote>Not everyone processes information in the same way, and we must also consider how people feel when using the products that we design.</blockquote><hr>In your own work, how do you design for inclusivity?T.Y. “I am currently working on <a href="https://www.goril.jp/">GORIL</a>, a Moon Creative Lab venture that is creating an innovative way for people to improve their English pronunciation. Originally the project was called “Speak Like Native,” but in the process of interviewing potential users, we learned that the main goal of attaining native-like speech excludes many people, and our project has evolved as a result. We decided to avoid idiomatic expressions and use simpler, more direct language so that more people can use the product effectively.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/GORIL_Logo_4d44bb3542.png" alt="GORIL_Logo.png">In the past, I also worked on a Moon venture that was developing a product for people with epilepsy, and this forced me to consider many new perspectives. We built a journaling system for the users, but learned that after an epileptic seizure, they are exhausted and unable to write. So, we simplified the design to include only icons indicating the most common range of experiences. This way, users could record their condition in a quick and intuitive way, and we later added an audio function which made it even easier for them.What’s important is that the insight for these improvements came from speaking with epileptic users and getting their feedback on our early prototypes. Without actually speaking with those who would use the product, we were designing in the dark.”<blockquote>Without actually speaking with those who would use the product, we were designing in the dark.</blockquote>M.R. “A while ago I was working on an application for visually impaired people in Japan that helped users navigate around train and subway stations. The app allowed them to find the right exit, restrooms, and so on by scanning QR codes in the station and guiding them around the yellow floor paths.What was interesting about this project was that – as a designer – it wasn’t about making something look good (because the users, by definition, had limited visual ability), but instead about making it work well. Because for these users, this app is not for entertainment or simple convenience, but rather a powerful tool that hugely impacts their lives and can, in some sense, change their reality.&nbsp;<blockquote>It wasn’t about making something look good, but about making it work well.</blockquote>To build this, we talked with visually impaired people and consulted with support associations in Japan to get a deeper and more authentic understanding of the users’ experiences with the product prototypes. We couldn’t have done this just based on our own experiences and realities.During this project, I also learned some interesting things about how inclusive design principles can contribute to design in general. Did you know that dark mode, which your phone or PC might switch to in the evening, originally comes from products designed for people with visual impairments? Or that text-to-speech technologies were first developed for people who could not read screens, but now are a major component of AI assistants like Alexa and Siri? In the end, inclusive design helps everyone.”<blockquote>In the end, inclusive design helps everyone.</blockquote><hr>Are the products and services you design for inclusive? Learn more about inclusive design here:<ul><li><a href="https://www.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com/whatis/whatis.html">What is Inclusive Design?</a> (Cambridge University)</li><li><a href="https://inclusivedesignprinciples.org/">Inclusive Design Principles</a> (inclusivedesignprinciples.org)</li><li><a href="https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/principles/design-systems/what-is-inclusive-design-principles-and-examples/">Inclusive Design: Principles and Examples</a> (Adobe)</li></ul>

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Moon Creative Lab_ Inclusive_Design

VOOX releases the Audiobook Mizukioka’s <a href="https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000117.000060069.html">“What does Artificial Life reveal about us?”</a>.

Naohiro Hoshino, EIR of MetaJob, was interviewed in <a href="https://www.works-i.com/works/">Works</a>, the journal of the Recruit Works Institute. Under the theme “The optimal solution between remote and office: who chooses where to work”, the interview focuses on Metajob's new way of working, which frees people from time, place and bias. The article is on <a href="https://www.works-i.com/works/item/w_174.pdf">page 32 of the linked PDF</a>.

<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Creative_Lab_Amelias_06e11d3123.jpg" alt="Moon+Creative+Lab+Amelias+.jpg">When <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/arihorie/">Ari Horie</a>, a known advocate for women to lead and thrive in business, shared her vision of creating a foundation for both girls and women to pursue entrepreneurship in Japan, we knew <a href="http://www.mooncreativelab.com/">Moon Creative Lab</a> could help. Our visions for creating a more inclusive and robust center of innovation, creativity, and new business creation in Japan were absolutely aligned. This is what Moon Creative Lab was created to do – for Mitsui and beyond. We also knew it wouldn’t be easy.Entrepreneurship itself is a very difficult (yet very rewarding) path. And in Japan, it’s even less common for women and girls. According to <a href="https://www.accj.or.jp/the-accj-journal/tokyo-women-vc">research</a> by Tokyo Women in VC, 91% of venture capital (VC) firms in Japan have no female partners; 59% of VC funds have no women on their investment team; and 44% of funds do not have any women employees. In addition, only 13% of VC employees, 10% of actual VCs, and 3% of VC partners are women.This is why Ari launched her new non-profit organization, the WSL Impact Foundation, <a href="https://www.amelias.jp/">Amelias</a>’ program designed to build a foundation of support for high school girls and women throughout Japan. Partnering with cities like Kobe, Hokkaido, Sapporo, and Shibuya, the Amelias program offers education, workshops, mentoring, and networking opportunities with former and current entrepreneurs from Japan and Silicon Valley.<h4>Moon Leads Workshops on Startup Design</h4>In July, <a href="https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000089.000060069.html">Moon became a founding sponsor of the WSL Impact Foundation</a> and we hosted an event for 60 women entrepreneurs at our Spring Terrace studio in Omotesando. This event was livestreamed at other locations in Japan including Shibuya, Kobe, and Sapporo to more than 130 women. The morning program featured guest speakers on entrepreneurship including <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/fujiyoishiguro/">Fujiyo Ishiguro</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathymatsui/?originalSubdomain=jp">Kathy Matsui</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nager/">Marc Nager</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shayanne-wright/">Shayanne Wright</a>. Moon’s CEO, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaichi-yokoyama-67973580/">Kaichi Yokoyama</a>, gave an inspiring talk about how to “Think Crazy” to expand your business and your journey as an entrepreneur. He shared examples of how he did just that with the creation of Moon Creative Lab four years ago by bringing the best of Silicon Valley and Japan together to create new and innovative businesses that would have an exponential impact on Mitsui and the world. The concept of “thinking crazy” was a big theme for the Amelias program to encourage participants to think and act outside of their comfort zones.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Creative_Lab_WSL_c9819ed32e.jpeg" alt="Moon Creative Lab Womens Startup Lab">In the afternoon, Moon led two Startup Design workshops – one at our Spring Terrace office in Omotesando and the other at nearby Shibuya Parco. Workshop participants learned about the importance of human-centered business design, the practical process to discover opportunities for innovation, and the importance of entrepreneur networking – especially for women.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Creative_Lab_Spring_Terrace_WSL_44c779f906.jpeg" alt="Moon Creative Lab Spring Terrace WSL">Here’s what participants had to say about the Moon workshops:“I had learned from reading books, but it was interesting because it was the first time for me to put it into practice.”“I was able to experience the process of thought and the process of realization. A place where failure can be seen positively. I was able to experience that I was further brushed up by working as a team.”“Good prototyping and pitch! Prototyping should be done quickly and without spending too much time and money. Also, I am very grateful for the pitch because I can't practice without this opportunity. By giving us the opportunity to review our value proposition, we were able to review our business more clearly. There were voices saying "be crazy" in various places, and it was good that I was able to think outside my own frame.”<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Creative_Lab_Workshop_WSL_726d36c34a.jpeg" alt="Moon Creative Lab Workshop Spring Terrace WSL"><h4>More To Do To Support the Entrepreneurship for Girls and Women</h4>Ari Horie’s vision for the Amelias program is to make entrepreneurship not only an acceptable path for girls, but a viable and desirable one. We at Moon Creative Lab are delighted to support this vision to help make it a reality. While there is still much to do to increase the numbers of women entrepreneurs in Japan, we are excited about the potential for the future.To learn more about the WSL Impact Foundation Amelia's program, please visit: <a href="https://www.amelias.jp/">https://www.amelias.jp/</a>Mary Ann Gallo Chief Marketing Officer <a href="mailto:maryann@mooncreativelab.com">maryann@mooncreativelab.com</a>

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If you haven’t read my story on how <a href="http://www.mooncreativelab.com/">Moon Creative Lab</a> is looking to revolutionize the fashion industry with new sustainable technologies and 3D Printed materials, <a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/en/blog/sustainable-fashion">check out my article here</a>. Working with 3D Fashion Designer <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbme8_dt0Kl/">Danit Peleg</a>, Moon is looking to reduce the waste and carbon footprint created by the fashion industry with its innovations in wearable fabrics from recyclable plastic filaments.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Soft_3_D_Printing_Metaverse_12470cdb97.png" alt="Soft 3D Printing Metaverse.png">I recently got the chance to catch up with Danit and her partner Dan Peguine who are based in Tel Aviv, Israel on her recent efforts to take her 3D fashion designs into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the Metaverse and most recently, a new collection based on Nouns. Don’t know what all this means? Not to worry…read on!<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Screen_Shot_2022_06_08_at_2_34_52_PM_78de5af4fb.jpg" alt="Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+2.34.52+PM.jpg">Moon has been working with Danit on our 3D Printed Clothing project for about three years. Together, we’ve developed patent-pending 3D printed materials that are soft and wearable and recyclable! &nbsp;The future applications of this new technology is limitless so stay tuned as we share more updates on this space in the future!In the meantime, Danit has been busy taking her 3D printed designs into the world of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fungible_token">non-fungible tokens (NFTs)</a>. NFTs are non-interchangeable units of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger, that can be sold and traded. Types of NFT data units may be associated with digital files such as photos, videos, and audio. Danit has made some of her 3D printed fashion designs into NFTs and they are available for sale now on <a href="https://rarible.com/danitpeleg3d/sale">Rarible</a>!<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Screen_Shot_2022_06_08_at_2_35_31_PM_d9e44cb8ac.jpg" alt="Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+2.35.31+PM.jpg">Danit has also taken those designs into the Metaverse showcasing them at the first ever Metaverse Fashion Week in March. &nbsp;<a href="https://metaversefashionweek.com/">Metaverse Fashion Week</a> showcased designs from major fashion brands including Tommy Hilfilger, Dolce &amp; Gabbana, Etro and Prive Porter along with web3 brands like DeadFellaz, 8SIAN, Fang Gang &amp; the Mortiverse. &nbsp;Danit’s designs were shown on avatars on a virtual runway.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Sin_titulo_863cddfc77.jpg" alt="Sin título.jpg">Now Danit is working on a new 3D printed fashion project – this time, her fashion designs are based on <a href="https://nouns.wtf/">Nouns</a>. Nouns are pieces of digital artwork that are generated randomly based on Ethereum block hashes. Nouns are auctioned off every day forever. <a href="https://medium.com/@jacobvan/wtf-is-the-nouns-dao-2e543237413b">The first noun was sold for 613.37 ETH</a> (roughly $2 million) on August 8, 2021. All of the proceeds (100%) of a noun sale go to the Nouns DAO treasury. All Noun artwork is in the public domain. &nbsp;If you buy one — not only does this give you ownership of this unique piece of artwork, you also gain a vote in how to manage the Nouns DAO treasury (which is north of $64 million at the time of this article). &nbsp;Owners of Nouns, also called Nouners, get to vote on the usage of Noun projects as well as the use of the treasuryDanit’s <a href="https://nouns.wtf/vote/41">Noun-based 3D printed fashion project</a> was approved by the Nouns DAO and she completed the first research and design phase of the project. In the coming months, Danit is looking to 3D print these designs based on the technology and materials co-developed by Moon! &nbsp;<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Screen_Shot_2022_06_08_at_2_36_58_PM_6a5c17766f.jpg" alt="Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+2.36.58+PM.jpg">We, at Moon, look forward to working with Danit on this project to bring these Noun-based 3D Printed Fashion collection to life! &nbsp;We’ll be sure to share more as we progress on this exciting new frontier!Mary Ann Gallo Chief Marketing Officer <a href="mailto:maryann@mooncreativelab.com">maryann@mooncreativelab.com</a>

News and Insights - Page 10

How the Pandemic Inspired a New Human-Centered HR Solution

Low-Fi Prototypes for High-Tech Solutions

Working With Pride

Starting a New Product or Service

Inclusive Design: Building With Everyone in Mind

What Does Artificial Life Reveal About Us?

The Optimal Solution Between Remote and Office: Who Chooses Where To Work

Empowering Women Through Startup Design Workshops

3D Fashion in NFTs, the Metaverse, and Based on Nouns

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