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When Todd Willing was 15, he entered a high school work experience program at Fords Australian Design Studio. His father owned a garage, and hed always been around cars. I had a loose understanding of what went into them because of that exposure, and I always had a creative bent I guess, says Willing. I would be drawing cars most of the time, to the frustration of my teachers. The experience is still so vivid in Willings mind: the plane ride to Melbourne, the energy and feel of a space devoted to creativity, the culture and environment of a creative team. That was it for me, he says. I wasnt going to be doing anything else.Now, 22 years later and still at Ford (though this time in Michigan), Willing is Head of Design, leading the design practice for Ford and Lincoln brand vehicles worldwide. Having been the chief exterior designer on the 2017 Ford GT and leading teams responsible for the F-150, Ranger, Bronco, Explorer, Expedition, and more, Willing has been a key part of shaping Ford vehicles around the world. And while his role is fairly big-picture, Willing says he feels a deep responsibility that ties back to his industrial design education: to create something new or improve on something, making peoples lives and experiences better. Willing says so much of that work is creative and connected with various disciplines across the design studio. Turns out, to prepare for that kind of work, Willing still somehow manages to hang around cars. When he isnt working, he races vintage race cars. When youre in a race car, your safety depends on 101% concentration. It pushes everything else aside. Right after that, I feel freer to be creative. As designers we make thousands of decisions on behalf of our customers . . . we need to be armed with deep insights. In our case, it’s motor vehicles and services. It should be done to make lives better in some waywith thoughtful design, desirability, and being straightforward. Thats really important. We have research groups that help us do that. We have ethnographic research, where we spend time with customers. You need to take that and apply a lot of care and attention to get it right. To solve for unmet needs. In many cases, its doing this before our customers or users even realize they are working around something, or that problem exists to solve. Thats where the real magic happens for me. Im part of a bigger industrial systemmarket trends, legislation; these are constraints to pure creativity. Sometimes that might seem limiting, but also its an opportunity to innovate with purpose. You have something very specific to solve and there are obstacles in the way that forces innovation in a lot of cases. Sometimes when I need to clear my mind, I race vintage cars. Thats super helpful when I want to be creative. I did go karting as a kid, and later on, once I could afford to, I got back into racing cars. I have a few now and it’s definitely therapy for me. The 2017 Ford GT [Photo: Ford] I like things to be optimized. When things have a clear purpose, you can go deep into that purpose and make sure that the product delivers on that. Its not enough to be visually appealing. If you look at our industry, theres been a heavy bias toward styling and that chemical reaction people have in their brain when they see something thats appealing. Thats critical, but doing it with more meaning and purpose and delivering on the function is critical to me. My personal philosophy, I like to edit things to the point where theres nothing extraneous without function. It allows you to put more content or money into the things that mean something. I surround myself with creative talent as much as I can. This role requires me to be available for different aspects of the business. I make sure I build in the right amount of time to have conversations around creativity, and be with the creative team. I find it helpful to have some specific creative reviews where there is no hierarchy. The person with the most knowledge or the best idea holds the floor, and we park our stripes at the door. Being face-to-face with the team, and giving attention to the designers with the least experiencethey are the ones faced with the challenges of design the most, too. Its a catalyst for fresh and interesting design. I believe good design plays a prominent and positive role in daily life. It should talk to you. Good design should telegraph purpose, capability, proper use, and of course be highly attractive to those whom it is intended to serve. I encourage our teams to avoid false adornment. Having a clear and differentiated mission at the start of a project is a big enabler for success. When we were creating the latest generation of Ford GT, the ambition to race and win at Le Mans was the mission. Using this as a guide for decisions, if a proposed design element had a negative impact on the performance, then it wasnt allowed on the car. Automotive design is part of a complicated ecosystem. The investment required for new products is very high, and the product cycles are much longer than most industries. This means that creating products that are meaningful and have longevity are important. There are many factors that influence our approach: different market trends, global politics, legislation, etc. Although on the surface constraints can seem limiting, they often drive innovation. Affordability is becoming ever more critical in the face of new competition and economic factors. This comes back to my point about the criticality of making the right choices on behalf of prospective customers. Our CEO talks about there being no space at Ford for Vanilla Cars. This means that everything needs to have a clear purpose that is attractive and useful to our customers. Our products should be focused and be the best at what they do. Ideas, until they are proven, can be fragile. But, its important to make sure we draw them out even if they are not obvious home runs. Making sure the ideas have time to breathe a little bit . . . usually that leads to a spark that has potential and it will invariably inspire the rest of the team to grow off of that initial idea. If the inspiration in the team is low, look at what you have and try to flesh it out. Then usually that inspires something in others. I have a motto for my team: Design is not an attribute. There is always a trade to be hada way of spending moneywhat choices you make along the way. Its an intentional product creation that marries purpose, function, and desirabilitynot necessarily in that order, but it needs to consider all of those things. I am frustrated when I hear design being referred to as the darling department. If we turn up around that motto, that perception disappears.
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E-Commerce
Few apps are as inextricably linked to the iPhone as Apple’s Messages. Introduced with the original iPhone almost 18 years ago, the app (then called “Text”) has become the primary messenger for most iPhone users worldwide. It allows users to receive Apples proprietary iMessages, as well as RCS messages and old-school SMS messages. In recent years, Apple has introduced several new features to the Messages app and its iMessage protocol. Most recently, in iOS 18, the company allowed users to stylize text by bolding or underlining words, incorporated animated effects that make words shake or appear to explode, and enabled users to react to a message with any emoji. But while the above additions are nice, theyre mainly eye candyand that only gets a messaging app so far. When it comes to being truly useful, Apples Messages still lacks some basic functionalityand reliabilityother messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal have had for years. Apple is expected to preview the iPhones next operating system, iOS 19, at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 9. Heres hoping the company adds the following improvements currently sorrowfully lacking in Messages today. iMessage needs to work when traveling internationally Apple needs to address how its iMessages work when a user is traveling internationally and using a temporary travel SIMas anyone who has tried to text a friend who is traveling overseas, or who has traveled internationally themselves, knows too well. If an iPhone user removes their domestic SIM card and replaces it with a temporary travel SIM, they often will not receive messages sent to the iMessage account associated with that phone number. Instead, the messages will, more often than not, simply disappear into the ether, never to be received againeven after the domestic SIM card is reinstalled. It may be natural to think that, of course, a person wont receive a text if they dont have the SIM card with the phone number the text was sent to installed in their phone. But thats not how iMessages work. When you send an iMessage, you’re not actually texting the users phone number. Instead, youre using their phone number as a routing identifier to deliver a message to the associated iMessage account. This is why your Mac and iPad can receive and send messages to and from your phone number-linked iMessage account. In other words, it shouldnt matter that the users normal SIM card isnt in their iPhonethey should still be able to receive the iMessages. This is how it works with competing apps like WhatsApp and Signal, which also use phone numbers as routing identifiers. Indeed, whenever a friend travels internationally, and I dont get a response to an iMessage Ive sent, I follow up via Signal or WhatsApp. They immediately receive those messages despite not having their domestic SIM card installed. I reached out to Apple about why iMessages dont work in a similar matter, and the company told me that it was a security measure. Apple says that the measure triggers when an iPhone is without its domestic SIM cards for a few weeks, until which time users can still receive iMessages sent to their usual phone number. However, in my experience, this two-week timeframe is not accurate, and as soon as a domestic SIM card is removed from the phone, iMessages sent to the number will not go through. Apple also says that users can keep getting iMessages with a travel SIM if they have their friends send the iMessage to their email address instead of their phone number. But this relies on everyone texting you knowing that you are traveling internationally and without your domestic SIM card. While I understand the security reason behind this problem, it would be great if it were accurate that it only kicks in after two weeks. Even better: Apple should give users the option to disable this security measure for a period of time that the user can designate whenever they switch from their default SIM to a travel one. Archiving would help reduce clutter But reliability isnt the only issue that Messages faces. For some reason, Apple still hasnt added a feature that allows users to archive chat threads. Archiving helps declutter your messaging app by letting you move chats with people you no longer or rarely interact withlike the plumber who fixed your sink last monthto a separate folder. This frees up screen space and allows you to keep your most important and active chats front and center. Archiving is a great intermediary option between keeping a chat thread forever or deleting it entirely. It has been a standard feature in nearly every major messaging app for years. Why Apples Messages still doesnt support such a basic feature in 2025 is beyond me. Bookmarking would offer quick access Speaking of basic featuresApples Messages lacks another one: the ability to bookmark individual messages. Other messaging apps, like WhatsApp, have allowed users to do this for a long time (WhatsApp calls this starring messages). Bookmarked messages are saved to a smart folder that the user can easily access inside the app in order to view their most important messages. This is a great way to quickly access an old message that you would otherwise have to scroll through lengthy threads to find again. There are many reasons to bookmark a message, ranging from the sentimental to the practical. An example of the latter might be when you want to quickly access important information someone had previously texted youlike the PIN code to a friends smart door lock so you can enter their house to feed the cats while they’re away. Labeling forwarded messages would eliminate confusion Even when iMessage does offer basic features that most other messaging apps offer, they are sometimes poorly implemented. The most glaring example of this is message forwarding, which allows you to easily forward a text one person sent you to another person. Other apps clearly indicate that a message is forwardedoften with an arrow or label in front of the forwarded message. But with Apples Messages, the forwarded message simply looks as though it was written by the person forwarding it. Case in point: The other day, I received a message from a friend that had a very uncharacteristic tone and subject matter. It confused me quite a bit. While I was reading it a second time, I received a follow-up message stating that the first one was from another individual, and my friend was simply forwarding it to me. Without that additional text message from my friend clarifying that the first message was forwarded, I wouldnt have known, because Apples Messages doesnt give any visual indication distinguishing a regular message from a forwarded one. Will Apple implement any of these changes in Messages in iOS 19? I hope so, but well just have to wait to see. Apple is expected to preview iOS 19 at WWDC25 in June.
Category:
E-Commerce
The benefits of taking time off from work are well-documented. In previous coverage, Fast Company has detailed how vacations stave off burnout, promote engagement, and may even help you be healthier. There are a number of ways to get more out of your vacation days, says time-off expert Jackie Swayze, founder of Maximizing My PTO, a website that helps people use a number of tips and tricks to plan unusual getaways. She says that one size does not fit all when it comes to paid time off. There’s so much more creativity to be had than the standard, you know, take one week off in the summer, she says. Here are some ways others have made their time off distinctly their own. Honor your personal priorities Sundie Leigh Jones, a software development engineer, says she makes the most of her PTO by focusing on her priorities. One of the ways she does so is to use time off for her birthday and her daughters. Im big on spending my free time building up my relationships, and I like to do that by traveling to people I love or with people I love, she says. Since her birthday typically falls around Labor Day and her daughters is during the summer, those are good times to take a day to celebrate, she says. And if they fall adjacent to a weekend, thats an opportunity to make the celebration into a long weekend. Plan a speed getaway Swayze recommends checking your local airport’s flight schedules. There are likely direct flights that make getting to a particular destination convenient. That recipe for a quick trip may require little to no time off. For example, she recently flew to Ireland for St. Patricks Day. While some might balk at flying several hours to a destination for such a quick trip, she says that changing your thinking about doing short trips can open up new opportunities for adventure. There’s never enough time in a place ever. I’d much rather go somewhere for just a couple of days than not ever go at all, she says. Combine your PTO with flexible work time Swayze says remote work opportunities can open up other ways to extend your PTO options. While her husbands job typically requires him to be in the office five days per week, he does have some flexibility to work remotely. When they found a great deal on a flight to Paris out of Detroit, they flew from Chicago to Detroit the night before. He worked out of the hotel the next day and then they boarded their flight to Europe. Once in Europe, working East Coast hours tends to mean getting the morning to explore and working from 3 to 11 p.m., she says. Play hard, then work hard. (Of course, its important to check that your employer allows work from anywhere and to also ensure that working in other states or countries wont create new tax obligations.) Work on your hobbies or side hustles Jones owns a number of income properties in other states, so shell schedule her PTO to be able to go tend to those properties, taking off a day or two on a given week to create a long weekend. She even planted an orchard during one of her breaks. Because her day job tends to make her sedentary, she says she relishes the opportunity to do physical labor when she takes time off. I took two weeks off, and we transformed a part of my property . . . [into] a small fruit orchard, she says. We worked 10 hours a day on the orchard. Then, on the off days, we explored the Pacific Northwest. While that may not sound restful, she says that she enjoys the trips and the chance to build her property portfolio. Plus, all that physical activity leaves her eager to get back to her desk job, she says. Be strategic about when you take time off Cornia Leslie is the public relations manager at email verification service ZeroBounce. While her company has an unlimited PTO policy, shes concerned about how much is too much. Still, she says she needs at least four to five days off to begin disconnecting from work, so she planned a long vacation last year, spending nearly a month in Europe. It was my first real vacation in seven years. I was able to fully relax and stop checking my email compulsively, she says. To prepare, she made plans for her tasks to be covered and wrote some content in advance.Leslie says that she actually felt more secure about taking vacation time when she had a set amount of PTO. I dont want to abuse this policy, so I try to plan ahead: Batch my time off, use it less often, but make it count, she says. Longer vacations are more restorative for me than scattering single days here and there.In addition to a longer-than-average vacation, it may also be possible to use your time off to plan a sabbatical to learn something new, travel, or work on a personal project. Swayze encourages people to think about being strategic and use the PTO that they are due. I plan trips pretty far in advance, so I’m looking at my whole year of PTO all at once, she says. By thinking through the time off you have available to you, as well as holidays and seasonal fluctuations in your work, you can create times for rest, experiences, and adventures throughout the year in the ways that best suit you.
Category:
E-Commerce
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