Come create impact with us:
At IDEO, Interaction Designers play an integral role in our design process, and in evolving our business through the work. We count on our interaction designers to create compelling interactions and experiences through design, prototyping, and storytelling. They guide project teams to consider interactions people have with complex systems, software, services, and each other, create prototypes of varying levels of fidelity to communicate a concept, and provide expertise on the potential of hardware/software intersection, digital product design, service design, systems design, and experience design. As an Interaction Designer at IDEO, you’ll work on project teams to help clients practice human-centered design to solve complex problems, & create breakthrough experiences, services, and products.
Why is this role important for IDEO’s work?
At IDEO we create impact through design. Our goal is to create work that is desirable, feasible, and viable. Interaction Designers live at the intersection of all three lenses. This role will create opportunities to stay with your work and support its execution in the real world.
As a Senior Interaction Design Lead, you bring humility and empathy to both your work output and your collaborators. You thrive on complex challenges, have a passion and point of view for design, keep a pulse on emerging trends and technology, and hold a developed point of view about your work.
You bring experience building and using prototypes to test assumptions and collect feedback on a design direction. You are highly collaborative, and maintain a mindset of curiosity and openness when working across teams and functions. You practice curiosity by asking questions, learning through secondary research, talking to experts or others not like yourself, requesting feedback from others, and seeking out other perspectives.
Once here you will:
- Drive and nurture new and existing relationships that advance portfolio strategy and communicate IDEO's design offerings, understanding the client’s business priorities;
- Provide and teach excellent craft application to our work, understanding the client's needs and leading others through demonstrable depth and breadth of your skills and capabilities;
- Lead diverse teams and engage clients through the entire project journey. Serve as a trusted advisor and consultant to our clients. Build an understanding of IDEO’s client organizations, and partner with clients to drive change and innovation within their teams and organizations;
- Collaborate across digital platforms to create beautiful interactions and experiences, bringing them to life through design, prototyping, storytelling;
- Spot opportunities for breakthrough, seek analogous sources of inspiration, and bring inspiration back to our design teams and client partners;
- Practice interaction design in a human-centered way, lead with curiosity and empathy, and work on projects that identify and solve problems across a variety of industries;
- Translate human-centered research insights into actionable experiences for people, crafting the structure and behavior of delightful products and services.
Relevant experiences and/or mindsets:
- 10+ years of experience in Experience Design, Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interactions, or Human Factors;
- 4-5+ years of project leadership experience or project management skills;
- 3+ years leading and building teams;
- Ability to build and use prototypes to test and get feedback on design directions. This might look like: creating paper prototypes, creating click-through prototypes, etc;
- Create and apply story-based design to convey an idea to the right audience and craft compelling stories;
- Ability to guide work and teach in one or more of the below technical areas:
- Digital Design: Proficiency in digital design tools such as Figma, Principle, and Adobe Creative Suite to work across a variety of digital platforms, such as and not limited to, web, app, TV, voice, motion.
- Visual Design: Ability to apply principles of visual design (type, color, grid, hierarchy) across a variety of interfaces to create a coherent, intuitive, and emotionally engaging experience.
- Service Design: Designing for multiple touchpoints (physical, digital, environmental) within a system to yield one coherent user experience.
- Integrative Thinking: Take inspiration and learning from other disciplines to improve solutions, and comfortably stretch into other disciplines.
- Build to Think: Instinct to make things tangible early in the process in order to understand what’s directionally compelling. Understands and exercises the value of building early and rough to de-risk big questions.
- Systems Design: Design at both the detail level and the broad systems level.
- Curious and has a desire to learn and explore what's possible. This might look like: asking questions, learning through secondary research, talking to experts or others not like yourself, gaining deeper understanding of a topic you are working on, asking for input from others, seeking out other perspectives;
- Take a systems thinking lens to tackle complex, interconnected challenges;
- Eager to contribute to culture of exploration, learning, and diversity of thought;
- Ability to create and implement strategies;
- Ability to effectively communicate with senior clients.
What does IDEO offer you?
IDEO is a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges for our clients and their organizations, alongside thoughtful, intelligent individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and humility. We 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.
How to Apply
For your application to be considered, please submit a cover letter (yes, we read them!), resume, and the link to your portfolio website. In your cover letter, please convey why this opportunity is of interest, and aligned to this season of your career. We look forward to reading yours!
