Position Summary:

International design consultancy IDEO is seeking a Visual Interaction Designer for our Boston office. 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.

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.

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: guidelines and specification documents; wireframes and delta charts.

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.

Equally important… you’re helping to define what it means to create visually compelling designs in the interactive space.

You think deeply about the temporal qualities of good visual design, and use time-based techniques for establishing context and maintaining user engagement. You’re able to express this understanding using Flash, or an equivalent time-based software authoring environment. You may develop interactions programmatically (through coding or scripting) or through hand-crafted animations, or via some combination of the two.

You’re very comfortable and experienced in generating graphic representations that express causal relationships between data in a creative and rich visual language.

No one visual style will work for every interaction: you may have an identifiable approach, but you’re able to dramatically modify your visual designs depending on the specific needs of the project.

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 have at least 2-3 years of professional experience in time-based media, strong information visualization skills, prototyping skills, and likewise be comfortable working collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams.

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

Key Activities:

Your primary contribution will be content on a design level. Project leadership, talent development, and business development experience is desired, but not required.

•Passion for visual design: You know the difference between “good” and “great” work and are able to work within teams to deliver excellent design.

•Prototyping skills: You’ve developed a methodology of rapid iteration and experimentation, and are comfortable prototyping to varying levels of resolution.

•Team skills: You work 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.

•Communication skills: You have strong verbal, written, and visual presentation skills. You understand the value of design and brand within a business context.

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

Additional Skills Required:

Experience with the following skills is desirable (but not required)…

•Programming and scripting (Flash and/or other languages)

•Print-based Communication Design

•Audio Design

•Video editing and post production