Fall 2023: Quantitative Human Computer Interaction Research Intern

The Motional global headquarters are located at 100 Northern Avenue in Boston, MA. Nestled in the bustling Seaport district with sweeping views of Boston Harbor and downtown Boston, the offices are located close to major transit lines and a quick walk to various restaurants and popular attractions. 

Quantitative HCI Research Intern 

Motional is looking for an HCI Research Intern to help us answer questions to design a user experience that is intuitive, comfortable, and that will develop trust for this state-of-the-art technology. You’ll apply a quantitative, behavioral research methods to give our product team a deep level understanding of our users – allowing us to prioritize and build the most meaningful solutions.

You will contribute to Motional’s driverless future by planning and executing behavioral, quantitative studies of human cognitive and task performance to answer key questions and drive implementation priorities and direction.

In addition to conducting hands-on evaluative research, experience with deeper generative research is a plus.

Please submit your resume, and at least 3 projects that best represent your capabilities, skills and interests.

What you’ll be doing:

• Support & conduct quantitative, behavioral HCI research
• Support the creation of complex testing plans to answer key product questions. This will involve working with designers, prototypers, and vehicle operators to implement experiments that drive design and product decisions.
• Investigate more foundational user behaviors, needs, and goals - using a wide range of primary research methods such as field visits, ethnography, video diaries, etc.
• Conduct additional secondary research, run user surveys/other quantitative studies
• Create stimuli & protocol plans for answering research questions about human cognitive and task performance in an autonomous-vehicle context, with guidance
• Foster a team culture of empathy and understanding of user needs and desires, while balancing business decisions and decisiveness
• Help define how users will interact with the future of mobility!

What we're looking for:

• Must be able to come on site in Boston to conduct in-person testing
• You are passionate about solving hard problems most haven’t faced before.
• In-process graduate degree in Anthropology, Social Sciences, Human Computer Interaction/Human Factors, or a related field
• A keen desire to understand how humans think and act. You enjoy meeting, interviewing, and observing users in their own environments.
• Experience with conducting detailed user research studies in a variety of contexts
• Experience conducting interviews; you know how to ask non-leading questions
• The ability to be flexible and inventive, using non-traditional approaches to research and user testing, given our product space
  

This position will draw on a tradition of research from Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, and experimental psychology–we don’t expect anyone to have experience in all three! But if you have at least one of the three and would be interested in the fusion of those disciplines in an applied-research setting, we encourage you to apply.

Bonus points (not required):

• Experience with quantitative behavioral research and/or experimental design
• Experience with Human Factors research
• Experience working in the autonomous vehicle or automotive industry
• Experience working within a product team alongside product managers, designers, engineers etc. in an agile environment (i.e. software company, startup, etc.
  

Why you should join us:

This role offers the opportunity to work on extremely challenging problems that haven’t been solved at scale. We’re looking for someone excited to tackle problems such as – how is human performance interacting with autonomous vehicles different during the day and at night? what information do we give people to build an understanding of the environment of an autonomous vehicle? how do we make a person feel comfortable with riding in a car that’s driving itself? How do we build an AV experience that people can trust? Our team is driven, not afraid, to solve problems like this.

Motional’s Product Team, where this role sits, is at the forefront of setting the vision for our products – from the experience of riding in an autonomous vehicle, to how to manage a fleet, to how roads are mapped, and more. We lead with a user-focused mindset, and you’ll have a direct impact in shaping people’s experience with AVs, in the vehicle and outside it, and the future of mobility as a whole.

Lastly, while autonomous vehicles have been around for years, we are finally bringing this technology to market at scale. With over 100,000 public autonomous rides, and partnerships with major ride hailing players, a role at Motional offers the chance to drive the next revolution in mobility.

If you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications outlined above - that’s okay! We encourage you to apply if you think this is a role that would make you excited to come into work every day and that you can deliver the results we need.