Duolingo creates new role bridging designers and devs

Duolingo recently introduced a discipline balanced between design and engineering. Dedicated to a design-first approach, they're hiring people who can optimize designs with animators and communicate those optimizations to engineers. They call them creative technologists.

These creative technologists bridge the infamous designer-to-developer handoff, or handshake, as we call it. They’re right and left brain powerhouses who can talk technical shop with eyes for design. And they’re hired with explicit instructions to become Rive experts. 

Why Rive?

Rive is a design tool that lets you build interactive motion graphics for runtime. Jeff Masters, Duolingo’s first hired creative technologist, explains, “Before, animators supplied a mockup with technical specifications on how their vision can be recreated by engineers with code. But now, Rive lets our animators and creative technologists create the actual asset that is used in the app. No more going back and forth with engineers to nail the look. In Rive, the design is the final product.” 

Alex Chopjian is an associate creative director of animation whose own design and technical skills inspired their CEO to request more animators with similar “chops.” He says, “In Rive the gap between design and finished product is way smaller. You can animate something and see it on the browser without having to touch code at all.” 

Duolingo first used Rive for reward animations, like a chest shaking and gems jumping out. When their focus on character animation and gamification inched them closer to a video game experience, they used Rive in their characters’ phonetic lip syncing. 

Today they’re all in on building immersive learning experiences with interactive animations that are repeatable and scalable. Clint Fanelli, a senior studio manager on Duolingo’s animation team explains, “It’s at a saturation point where we need people fully dedicated to Rive.”

But Duolingo doesn’t have the ready resources of an established game studio, like hundreds of technical directors, animators, and a game engine. 

“We like to stay scrappy, creative, and lean,” Hazel Jennings, head of design infrastructure, explains. “The best way to do that is for animators to know how things are put together and for engineers to know what animators are doing. Creative technologists teach engineers about animation and animators about engineering.”

Alex says, “We need people who not only understand animation, but can assess the right way to build something. Duolingo animators are still expected to work in Rive and use the State Machine, but creative technologists handle advanced levels of state machine work. This can be the most important element of a project’s success.”

Why care about optimization?

Duolingo’s design team takes the long view with projects. Animation assets are often templatized across courses, so the foundation of how something is built is just as important as how it looks. 

Alex says, “In motion design, the end frame is all that matters. But with interactivity, how it’s built really matters. That’s why creative technologists are important. We need people who can identify design constraints and address concerns early enough so we can all build things better and smarter.”

“If you can save three clicks by building something a better way, over time those three clicks solve hours of frustrations. We have to leave room for things to be updated and modified. And having that partnership early on creates those moments. We all learn from each other.”

Jeff adds, “We have the stats to back it up. Duolingo measures just about everything. We wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t working.” 

Why call them creative technologists?

Titles in tech are often vague, leaving lots of room for specialists to live under one umbrella. Hazel explains, “This was a new role to Duolingo, and we wanted a title that nods to the skills needed across animation, design, and engineering,” Hazel explains. “Creative technologists aren’t animators or engineers — they’re something new and exciting.”

Clint: “They like being called creative technologists.”

Hazel: “They love it.”

Who is predisposed to becoming a Rive expert?

Duolingo’s hiring managers say the two biggest indicators they look for are: 

1. Passing the technical test on rigging and state machines

2. Experience solving problems with a new tool or technology

“We haven’t brought in people who already know Rive,” Clint Fanelli tells us. “Instead, we hire folks with engineering and design backgrounds. And then we teach them.” 

They also search for people who have experience in similar technologies, like state machines, VFX, and Unity. It helps if applicants know C++ or a coding language. Houdini is a fantastic crossover because it’s procedural and node-based — the thinking converts well to Rive. On the compositing side is Nuke, another node-based system. And for motion designers it’s helpful if they have experience in After Effects and Cinema 4D.

Is there a standard career path?

Like many new disciplines, becoming a Duolingo creative technologist for Jeff was incidental, not intentional. “A large chunk of my career was in feature animation as a lighter and compositor. I was never a full-time developer, but I knew enough Python and coding within 3D softwares that I could write tools to automate repetitive tasks,” he tells us. 

Some of his prior clients include Paramount, Netflix, and PepsiCo. “I would partner with technical directors and speak to them in their language, looking for optimizations. We had small crews for huge ambitious projects and had to rely on designing creative pipelines supported by code,” Jeff explains. “It never crossed my mind that there might be an opportunity for me at Duolingo. But the job description spoke to all of my strengths.” 

What's a typical day for a creative technologist?

Duolingo creative technologists sit in a pod between the animators, product designers, and engineers, placed as a physical bridge to maintain relationships with all sides.

How they fit into the animation workflow: 

1. First, Duolingo’s animators create motion graphics and build the timelines in Rive. 

2. Meanwhile, the creative technologists work alongside the animators, building out the state machine logic so engineers have the most optimal setup. 

3. Then, creative technologists write up spec documentation on inputs. 

4. Finally, they hand off the documentation and interactive assets to engineers, and communicate nuances. 

On documentation

Documentation provides engineers with an optimized user guide — and an evergreen resource for future projects. Alex tells us, “You have to remember that not having control for engineers is scary. To do their job well, they need to understand how everything connects.”

“I want engineers to understand all of the functionality that’s possible,” Jeff explains. “I might tell them, ‘This is a text run. Here’s the name. You’re able to change the text at runtime.’ Documentation lets me explain the power I built into the state machine. I’ve found if you create less complexity for engineers, your animations will more likely be performant.

Is this an industry shift or just Duo?

We’re calling it now: this is only the start. For those who identify as right and left ambi-brains, more opportunities are on the horizon. Alex agrees, “The creative technologist is a burgeoning role. In general, there will be more of these relationships needed between animators and engineering. This extends past character animation and into UI because of the rise of interactivity.” 

He adds, “I do think apps, products, and websites need to make their experience more delightful to compete with gamified apps.” 

What’s next?

We won’t steal their thunder with specifics, but… a few super special Duolingo projects powered by Rive will be announced at Duocon in October, 2024.

Does the intersection of design and engineering pique your interest? Keep an eye on the Duolingo career page — and Rive’s too!