Position Summary

Founded in 1991, IDEO is an innovation and design firm that uses a human-centered, design-based approach to help organizations in the business, government, education, healthcare, and social sectors innovate. At present, IDEO has just over 550 employees worldwide situated in 9 offices globally.

IDEO has been in China for more than five years working with Chinese and multinational clients. We are committed to developing a greater presence in the region, as it is a source of great inspiration, learning, and opportunity, for our company as well as for the field of human-centered design and innovation.

IDEO is seeking a Mandarin Speaking Senior Interaction Designer with excellent visual design skills. The candidate should be a design thinker and craftsperson, be able to thoughtfully contribute in a team environment during a project’s user research and concept development phases, and be passionate about expressing interactions in visual form through clear and creative user interfaces. The responsibilities of this position will vary depending on the project, but the candidate should be comfortable participating in all parts of the user-centered design process and with creating deliverables at varying levels of fidelity: from quickly communicating a concept’s value proposition to final artwork and specifications delivered to a developer.

KEY ACTIVITIES
First and foremost… you’re a great human-centered interaction designer.

You’ve applied your skills to real-world human problems (not just artistic or academic exercises). Your designs are always grounded in some insight(s) about people, and you understand the value of your design to a brand within a business context.

You have “depth and breadth” in many different ways. For example, you may have considerable experience in mobile application development, but you’ve also designed web applications (or vice versa). Or aircraft pilot displays. Or interactive exhibits. Or [insert your portfolio here].

You’re excited about exploring new interaction models, from the general (multi-touch) to the arcane (interaction for the blind; for the emergency room, etc). You can easily switch from macro to micro: from understanding the strategic value and business dynamics of an organization’s product or service, to finessing visual designs at a vector or pixel level.

You know the ropes when it comes to bread-and-butter UX deliverables and you’re passionate about our emerging discipline, and you express that passion by participating in design conversations beyond project work – by attending conferences, contributing to publications (blogs / online, printed, etc) or designing new interactions for personal enrichment.

Your work is best in a participatory, collaborative, team based work environment. You inspire teams through collaboration as well as direction, vision and planning of visual design deliverables. You have strong, verbal, written and visual presentation skills.

Equally important… you have a breadth of complementary knowledge, experience and skills that you apply on diverse projects.

You’re steeped in human-centered design methods and processes, from contextual research techniques to collaborative design methods, to behavioral analytics.

You’re a great “systemic thinker”, capable of imagining, designing and communicating complex systems or systems-level challenges. You can apply this systemic thinking to areas beyond software.

You’re an excellent written and verbal communicator. You have a knack for succinctly capturing a team’s thoughts and expressing them to others, especially with clients. And with clients, you have great instincts: how to tell a captivating story; how to give honest feedback; how to establish a deeper rapport.

You have a passion for visual design: you know the difference between “good” and “great” work and are able to work within teams to deliver excellent design. And you must be fluent in…

•Time-based prototyping (e.g. Flash)
•Layout / UI design (e.g. using Illustrator, Photoshop, Fireworks, etc)
•Information Architecture
•Concept Model Design
•UI Development for Functionality
•Visual UI Development

Experience with the following skills is desirable (but not required)…
•Video editing and post production
•Print-based Communication Design
•Audio Design
•Programming and scripting (Flash and/or other languages)

ADDITIONAL SKILLS REQUIRED
All candidates should include a link to their portfolio or provide work samples as part of the application process. Please indicate your role and contribution for each project submitted.

Candidates should demonstrate an ability to work across a range of areas including: animation/interaction prototyping; product interaction; and software tools (Flash).

Candidates should have at least 5 years of professional experience in time-based media, strong information visualization skills, prototyping skills, and likewise be comfortable working collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams.

Candidates must be fluent in both Mandarin and English in order to be considered.

Helpful Tips

The Online Application Process:

• Please submit your cover letter, resume, portfolio and/or additional materials as a “Resume Attachment” in the resume attachment section which is located in the Career Center of your application page.
• Attachments must be formatted as an Adobe "text based" PDF, PowerPoint, or Word document.
• If you skip the cover letter section at the start of the application form, please attach your cover letter as a resume attachment per the instructions above.
• Create a profile at OpenIDEO.com to explore how we work and for us to get to you know you better. You'll find a space in the IDEO application form to enter your OpenIDEO username.
• Additional tips can be found in our Careers FAQ.

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.