About

Hello
I’m Ida, an experience director and design strategist. Nothing delights me more than seeing people surprise themselves when they stretch beyond their known limits, and I believe good design can make this possible. Working in complex organizational and social contexts, I create opportunities for innovation, insight, and change.
My toolbox of co-creative and participatory design methods draws from game design, positive psychology, organizational change methods, conflict mediation, and design thinking. My early career involved game and media design with communities in Guatemala, India, Ethiopia, and Uganda, followed by adventure design influenced by urban underground culture in New York City.
Moving into the world of business and organizations, I’ve worked with Fortune 50 companies and federal governments to redefine their ambitions through immersive experiences for members of the C-suite and collaborative, employee-lead innovation efforts.
My research has been used in coursework at Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, and NYU, among others. I’ve been featured in multiple New York Times Bestselling books, as well as Businessweek, NPR, and the New Yorker.
This website, uncommonplaces.com, is my online catalog of creative endeavors. Let’s go somewhere new together.
Currently
I’m an Organizational Change Director at NOBL Collective, where we reshaped world-famous organizations and unleashed the potential of employees around the world. Over the past year, I’ve lead cross-functional innovation teams within client organization to evolve their culture from the inside.
You can find me working out of Friends Work Here in Brooklyn. I’m a regular participant in Mesas, a team-based working system for solving complex challenges with the best talent in 5 days.
Elsewhere
Talks & Interviews
Trust & Faith for the UNFINISHED Festival 2020
Immersive Design Summit keynote 2019
Voices of VR Interview 2019
Expanding Mind Interview 2019
The Gathering Summit Talk 2019
Cusp Design Conference 2018
Harvard Graduate School of Design Talk 2018
Voices of VR Interview 2017
No Proscenium Interview 2017
Businessweek’s Design Conference Talk 2016
Tribeca Film Festival talk 2015
Book Mentions
Rituals for Virtual Work: Creative Ways to Engage People and Strengthen Relationships 2021
Life Is In The Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age 2020
The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters 2018
Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt 2018
Odyssey Works: Transformative Experiences for an Audience of One 2016
Press
MSNBC 2021
The New York Times 2020
Fast Company 2020
Fast Company 2020
Businessweek 2016
NPR 2014
The New York Times 2014
The New Yorker 2013