Ida Benedetto

About

Photo by Ian Scabia

I'm an experience director and design strategist. My professional practice, Uncommon Places Design, offers experience strategy and design for high-stakes moments.

I've done experience design in the context of corporate consulting, underground urban adventures, and educational programs. I love using game design principles to create better experiences that honor people's agency, vision, and ingenuity. I'm delighted when people surprise themselves by stretching beyond their known limits, and I believe good design can make this possible.

Clients I've worked with include BlackRock, Starbucks, IBM, Google, Samsung, NBCUniversal, Activision Blizzard, Ogilvy, Pfizer, Ralph Lauren, and the Canadian Government. I researched the design of transformative social experiences by integrating lessons from well-done sex parties, funerals, and wilderness trips. This research is available online at the Patterns of Transformation website, which has been widely read within and beyond the experience design community.

A few more things about me:

• I'm a 5th-generation New Yorker. I love living in this city.
• I volunteer as a conflict mediator for the New York Peace Institute.
• In junior high, I was voted "most likely to discover time travel."
• Sea kayaking makes me happy. I love being out on the open water.
• I have dyslexia and inattentive ADHD. I'm a big advocate for the benefits of neurodiversity.

Lately

• I wrapped up 2.5 years of teaching at the Interaction Design Program at the School of Visual Arts while the program went through radical curriculum changes under a transition of leadership. It was a challenging but fulfilling reminder of how much I love teaching, something I haven't indulged in since I spent a year in Ethiopia on a Fulbright Fellowship in 2009.
• I continue to gleefully obsess over generative AI. If your organization needs help getting better with it, let's discuss.
• With some friends, I traveled to southern Italy to visit my ancestral home village, now a notorious ghost town. Seeing it in person was more stunning than I could have anticipated. It was wild to have locals point to me knowingly and say I look like I'm from there, even though my ancestors left in the 1890s. The trip gave me an ineffable sense of clarity and consolidation regarding my roots.

Speaking, Writing & Research

I love both research and writing. My public speaking has also been warmly received. View a collection of talks and essays on everything from experience design to astrology, self-published and in formal venues.

Have a look →

Mentions

Book Mentions:

• Surviving Change At Work by Vanessa Gennarelli | A Book Apart | 2023
• The Dyslexic Advantage by Brock L. Eide and Fernette F. Eide | Penguin Random House | 2023
• Rituals for Virtual Meetings by Kursat Ozenc and Glenn Fajardo | Wiley | 2021
• Life Is in the Transitions by Bruce Feiler | Penguin Press | 2020
• Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt by Foulston and Volsing | V&A Publishing | 2018
• The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker | Riverhead Books | 2018

Press:

• MSNBC | "Rethinking gathering in a post-quarantine world" | Aug 2021
• The New York Times | "How to Go On A First Date During Quarantine" | May 2020
• Fast Company | "Dealing with creative failure? Here's what to do next" | Aug 2018
• Businessweek Design Annual | "Hide and Go Party" | Apr 2016
• The New York Times | "They Say Art Is Dead in New York. They're Wrong." | Dec 2014
• Fast Company | "This Company's Business Plan Includes Trespassing" | Jul 2014
• Folha de São Paulo | "Ocupam Motel de SP com 'Design de Experiencia'" | Aug 2013
• The New Yorker | "Tower Heist" | May 2012

Photo by Daniel Shea at Greenwood Crematory

Contact & Elsewhere Online