Ilaria Mariani, Ph.D. in Design, is Researcher at the Department of Design of the Politecnico di Milano.

She holds an MSc with honors in Communication Design at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano in 2011 and a First level University Master in Brand Communication POLI.design (Politecnico di Milano). She obtained her PhD in Design cum laude at Politecnico di Milano in 2016, conducting part of her doctoral research as a visiting researcher at the research and experimentation centre MAGNET (the Media and Games Network) of New York University (New York). She has been visiting professor at the Amsterdam University of Applied Science (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and the Fachhochschule Potsdam University of Applied Sciences (Potsdam, Germany).

Her focus is on design-driven innovation for the public sector, investigating the ability of design to support processes of digital innovation and transformation, organizational change, and policy-making.
She participates in European and national projects in the area of innovation and digital transformation (AI4GOV, DIGISER), along with projects exploring the capacity of design and co-design to support innovation in the public sector by guiding social innovation projects and processes (easyRights, projects with Regione Lombardia), responsible research and innovation, organizational change and policy making (SISCODE, easyRights).

Her research and teaching also address complex interactive systems for communication and speculation, social change and innovation, focusing on comprehending their impact on users. As such, she assesses the effectiveness of artifacts/systems in transferring meanings and producing change, combining qualitative and quantitative research and employing interdisciplinary mixed methods.
She participates in the international debate on the topic authoring several journal articles, contributing to several international conferences both as speaker and chair, and being an active reviewer. She is the co-author of "Game Design" (Pearson, 2014), and of “Location-Based Mobile Games” (Springer, 2018). Among the others, she is a member of the Editorial Board of G|A|M|E\, the Italian Journal of Game Studies, and a member of the board of reviewers of Game Studies. Ilaria is a founding partner of DiGRA Italia and a member of its Steering Committee.