Interaction Design Intern Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

Work Location Type: Hybrid
About Grainger:
W.W. Grainger, Inc., is a leading broad line distributor with operations primarily in North America, Japan and the United Kingdom. At Grainger, We Keep the World Working® by serving more than 4.5 million customers worldwide with products and solutions delivered through innovative technology and deep customer relationships. Known for its commitment to service and award-winning culture, the Company had 2024 revenue of $17.2 billion across its two business models. In the High-Touch Solutions segment, Grainger offers approximately 2 million maintenances, repair and operating (MRO) products and services, including technical support and inventory management. In the Endless Assortment segment, Zoro.com offers customers access to more than 14 million products, and MonotaRO.com offers more than 24 million products. For more information, visit www.grainger.com.
Compensation:
This position is hourly, and the starting pay rate is $33/hour
The rate of pay provided above is not a guarantee of compensation. The rate reflects the expected base pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position.
Grainger reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion at any time, consistent with applicable law.
Internship Overview:
The Grainger Technology Group (GTG) internship is a 10-week, paid program based in our downtown Chicago office where interns work across teams such as Product Engineering, Cybersecurity, Applied Machine Learning, User Experience, Digital Experience Analytics, and more to help build the technology that keeps Grainger and its customers moving. As a GTG intern, you will be treated as a member of the team and contribute to meaningful work tied to real customer and business outcomes, not a separate side project. You will gain hands-on exposure to modern technology stacks, digital platforms, AI-enabled workflows, and enterprise systems while learning from experienced team members. Throughout the summer, you will also participate in networking, social, and professional development events and present the work you accomplished to senior leadership.
Position Details:
As a User Experience Design Intern, you will work closely with a Lead UX Designer on executing designs and learn about both customer-facing experiences and employee-facing tools that the UX team supports. You will grow both your technical and soft skills and be exposed to how a UX team operates and partners with cross-functional teams to deliver valuable experiences.
This role is ideal for someone who is curious about how people use technology, enjoys turning messy problems into clear experiences, and wants to understand how design decisions create customer and business impact.
You Will:

• Work alongside UX designers on design deliverables for customer-facing experiences and employee-facing tools.
• Participate in discussions with users, stakeholders, product managers, researchers, and engineers to gather requirements and understand user needs.
• Participate in user feedback sessions to understand how tools are being used and identify opportunities to improve the experience.
• Translate insights into wireframes, prototypes, design concepts, flows, or other design artifacts.
• Explore how modern design tools, prototyping methods, AI-enabled workflows, and more can help teams move faster while maintaining quality and judgment.
• Communicate design rationale clearly through critiques, presentations, documentation, and stakeholder conversations.
• Network and build relationships with the broader UX team, product managers, engineering partners, and business stakeholders.
• Demonstrate ownership, curiosity, adaptability, and thoughtful decision-making while contributing as part of the team.
• Present your work, impact, and key learnings to technology leaders at the end of the internship.

You Have:

• Currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in Human-Centered Design, Design Methods, Human-Computer Interaction, Visual Design, UX Design, Product Design, Interaction Design, or a related field.
• Expected graduation with a bachelor's degree between December 2027 and June 2028
• Understanding of design, usability, accessibility, user-centered design, and research best practices.
• Interest in designing internal tools that help Grainger customers and team members.
• Proficiency with common wireframing, prototyping, or design tools; Figma preferred.
• Strong written, verbal, visual communication, and presentation skills.
• Initiative to proactively plan and execute work, make thoughtful decisions, and explain rationale to others.
• Ability to collaborate cross-functionally with designers, researchers, product managers, engineers, and more.
• Curiosity about modern product development, design systems, AI-enabled design workflows, and the tradeoffs behind scalable digital experiences.
• Does not require sponsorship.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.
We are also committed to fostering an inclusive, accessible work environment that includes both providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the application and hiring process as well as throughout the course of one's employment, should you need a reasonable accommodation during the application and selection process, including, but not limited to use of our website, any part of the application, interview or hiring process, please advise us so that we can provide appropriate assistance.