Job Description

Interaction Designer (w/ Experiential/Game/Play Designer Lens) In a nutshell:

IDEO is seeking a Play-minded Interaction Designer to join our Play Lab , a team that is dedicated to applying play principles to design engaging products and experiences that build trust and psychological safety, stoke curiosity and creativity, increase engagement and collaboration, and provoke new perceptions and behaviors. We are looking for someone who is passionate about transforming hearts and minds, bringing a human-centered lens to design solutions and inspiring our clients to create impact based on real human needs and behaviors.

We’ve found that great Interaction Designers can come from many different backgrounds.

Innumerable paths can lead here, and we’re open to—and excited about—candidates with a

wide array of past roles and experiences. You might be a game designer, an experiential designer, an artist or exhibit designer, designing across physical spaces and digital technologies to create unforgettable and meaningful interactions. You may focus on the user journey, bring your creations to life visually or have the skills to make ideas tangible through digital and physical prototypes. The most important qualification is that you’ve had professional experience being inspired by people to create world-class human-centered products, services, environments and experiences with a close eye to how your audience will engage with and find value in the experience.

As an Interaction Designer at IDEO you will work collaboratively, creatively, and flexibly within interdisciplinary teams and with our clients on a variety of projects that invite audiences to engage with spaces, services and products in new ways. Working at IDEO means you’ll tackle all aspects of the design process from user research to physical and digital prototyping to helping tell the project story to the client.

We’re currently exploring a range of levels for this position, from individual contributors to lead level designers.

Why is this role important for IDEO’s work?

IDEO’s mission is to create positive impact through design. Interaction Designers create impact by building compelling experiences. As an Interaction Designer at IDEO, you will design, prototype, and execute delightful human experiences which act as the interface between an organization’s customers and their products, services, and brand.

Specifically in the Play Lab, we are looking for an individual who is passionate about designing for emotional needs alongside functional needs, someone who sees design as a way to create transformative experiences that are deeply meaningful, provide agency and bring joy. With a human-centered lens, they will work alongside team members to champion meaningful experiences and tangible design through every stage of the design process. While your focus will primarily be in the Play Lab’s solving/consulting business, there will also be opportunities for you to bring your talents to our toy invention work.

Once you are here you will:

• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams of designers and contribute to all phases of the design process, which includes research, prototyping, iterating and crafting engaging client touchpoints to ensure the longevity and success of the team’s work.
• Identify and solve problems for clients in many categories and industries such as healthcare, automotive, finance and consumer products
• Create tangible prototypes that communicate a design and help tell a project’s story to potential user and client stakeholders.
• Discover, synthesize, and communicate the diverse stories and insights to inform both creative design solutions and strategic decision making.
• Bring teams and clients along with you on the journey. Your job is about bringing your specific research expertise, but also being a guide for others, effectively storytelling to convey both functional and emotional needs.
• Be a key contributor to the Play Lab, helping us hone our POV of how play can take on complex challenges and introducing new ways to think about the intersection of play and human-centered design. Championing this POV at IDEO and beyond.

What does IDEO offer you?

IDEO is a place unlike any other. It’s a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges for our clients or the organization, alongside thoughtful, intelligent individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and optimism. Sure we work hard, but we also intentionally craft moments that allow our community to pause, create, and connect. We encourage our community to bring their whole selves to work, respect the need for work-life balance, and allow for autonomy in the design process and your career.

Relevant experience:

We are seeking a designer with passion & curiosity for applying play and human-centered design to complex challenges across industries. You thrive in a collaborative environment.

Our basic requirement is that candidates should have demonstrable experience taking an idea from theory into the world, bringing tangibility to concepts. For instance, past experience might include:

• Game Design: applying game mechanics to build mastery and facilitate discovery through video games, educational games, board games or other media.
• Experiential Design: designing meaningful, transformational experiences that take into account the user journey and create emotional connections that pull participants into a narrative through playgrounds, amusement parks, immersive experiences, theater, museum exhibits, etc.
• Systems/Strategy Design: thinking through the user journey and how various touch points need to align to create a seamless, holistic and engaging experience.
• Interaction/Software/Digital Design: creating compelling user interfaces (digital and/or physical) that enable meaningful interactions in a constantly-changing landscape of machine learning, AR/VR, augmented intelligence, physical computing, connected devices, and text-based chat, taking a human-centered approach to bring to life intuitive, unified experiences and finding joy in creating clean interfaces and intuitive flows, from overall architecture to detailed design.

IN ADDITION:

• You engage challenges with a playful mindset, taking on projects with optimism, curiosity and creativity.
• You enjoy the entire process from concept development through prototyping and final delivery, moving from abstract to tangible.
• You know the difference between ‘good’ and ‘great’ and are able to not only identify and evangelize best practices, but push boundaries and explore new territory.
• You are comfortable working with clients, working as a collaborator and advisor, and the ability to confidently and credibly share your point of view and expertise.
• Team skills: You work best in a participatory, diverse, team-based environment. You support and inspire teams through collaboration as well as direction, vision, and planning of deliverables, bringing your lens of interaction design to bolster the work of the team.
• Communication: You have strong verbal and visual presentation skills, as well as an articulate point of view about the value of design and play.
• Openness: Designers need to be flexible and open-minded. You are optimistic, generative, and open to new ideas and ways of working
• Human-centered: You can articulate a human-centered approach to design and are comfortable going out into the world for inspiration. You understand basic human-centered design philosophy, embrace ambiguity, and want to continually evolve design methodologies.
• Past experience in a play-related field or a demonstrated passion for play

Some previous projects to check out:

Creating an out-of-this-world STEM-learning experience

Helping a technology brand connect with China’s young consumer

Bridging music and technology through an interactive exhibit

Helping young adults make smart money decisions

Designing video games to build kids’ emotional strength

Creating an interactive new learning experience for children to experiment with code

A bit more about IDEO’s Play Lab:

The IDEO Play Lab has brought over 250 products to market in partnership with beloved brands like Mattel, Hasbro and Sesame Workshop. Through this experience, we have honed our expertise in play, leveraging play principles, game mechanics and immersive storytelling, to tackle challenges across industries, including education, health, food and beverage, retail and more. We believe that play has the potential to connect with people at a deeper, emotional level that captivates, delights, and inspires. It has the power to build loyalty, enhance learning, and motivate positive behavior change. Learn more about Play at IDEO through our Big Questions page.

Commitment to Diversity

At IDEO, we are committed to the work of advancing diversity, equity and inclusion within our organization and in the world. Our purpose of having disproportionate, world-changing impact through design is directly connected to our ability to bring many different perspectives to the table. This applies to our candidates, the people we hire, the clients and customers we serve, and the communities we learn from in our research.

As a human-centered organization, we are committed to working with and designing for people of every race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status, physical ability or attribute, religion, national origin, or political belief. We recognize that this commitment requires ongoing work and sustained attention, as well as adaptation to new insights and best practices.

Application instructions:

To apply, please submit your resume, cover letter and portfolio:

• Resume (suggested 1 page max): Please highlight experiences related to the ‘Relevant Experience’ section of this job description.
• Cover letter (suggested 1 page max): Please share why you are interested in this role and how it aligns with how you are looking to grow in your career.
• Portfolio: Your portfolio can be web-based, a PDF, or whatever you feel best communicates your work. A portfolio should consist of a highly curated set of projects (these projects can be a mix of work related and personal projects) that demonstrates:
• A variety of approaches and projects
• How you help turn insights into actionable design opportunities, products, services, or experiences – your process for developing your concept
• Your ability to communicate in a clear, concise way. For team-based work, please indicate your role.

Please include your answer to the following prompts in your cover letter:

1. What do you think is the most well designed experience in the world? Be specific! Why do you like it? If you could make it even better, what would you do?
2. Tell us about a work achievement that makes you particularly proud.

We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis after the application deadline.

Equal Opportunity Employer

IDEO is an equal opportunity employer; applicants are considered for all roles without regard to race, color, religious creed, sex, national origin, citizenship status, age, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, marital, parental, veteran or military status, unfavorable military discharge, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law.