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As a key member of the Product team, the User Experience Designer is responsible for designing software interfaces (primarily web) that are efficient, intuitive and compelling. Working closely with the Project Manager, the Development team, and the Content team, the User Experience Designer will bring the product vision and requirements to life for both Copypanthers.com and in-house projects.
As a successful candidate, you will collaborate closely with the Project Manager to ensure that product requirements reflect your expertise in interaction design and your intuition and experience concerning how user interfaces impact product performance. Using whatever tools fit the job, you will prototype and iteratively validate designs that provide innovative and effective solutions to complex user experience problems. In cooperation with the Product Manager, you will conduct experiments so that existing interfaces are refined, proposed solutions are competitively compared and innovation is evidence-based.
The successful candidate will demonstrate the ability to create and deliver superior, original designs for the web and mobile on time and within budget. The ideal candidate will have an open attitude and adapt or rethink original ideas based on testing, client feedback, and direction from the Project Manager.
Responsibilities
- Experiment and research – based on the direction of the Project Manager, and aligned with the Project Roadmap, the User Experience designer will use best practices to assess the success of users in performing key task and achieving key objectives.
- Interaction Design – based on selected story requirements and the insight gathered from research, the designer will design and document software solutions that meet or exceed the need of the user and the business in a compelling and intuitive way
- Graphic Design – create visually arresting, consistent, high-quality visual design that reflects the Copy Panthers marketing and brand identity
- Prototypes – based on specific problems, the designer will help create prototypes that will be used to iteratively validate and evolve solutions. Anything from paper and pen to fully interactive web based prototypes may be used to gain insight and validation on a design idea or solution.
- Agile Story Development – working with the Product Backlog and high-level Stories provided by the Project Manager, the designer will use their knowledge and research to refine Stories so that they accurately reflect the needs of the user and the scenarios they encounter
- Analysis of best practices – a key part of the role will involve reviewing our existing products, understanding what we do well and what we need to improve, including functionality, workflows and user interface designs.
- Liaise with clients – the designer will help us understand customer needs and articulate to the rest of the team how to solve their problems, meet their requirements and exceed their expectations.
- Analyze information and feedback from support – as part of our fact finding activities we will leverage support team and user feedback to understand user requirements.
- Work closely with the R&D team – it is critical not only that the development team properly understand design requirements but that the designer understands which designs can be cost effectively and rapidly created from available technologies.
- Be aware of technology advances – while not a technical role, the designer should have a deep sense of what technologies are currently most appropriate and what is “just now possible”
- Present information – to the internal stakeholders and external customers where necessary.
- Manage timelines – ensure deadlines are met even when multiple projects happen concurrently.
Skills & Expertise
- Must be an expert in user-centered design methods, techniques, and principles
- Minimum of 3-5 years of experience working as an Interaction Designer or User Experience Professional designing and developing software solutions
- Experience interacting with users, understanding their needs and translating into product designs
- Experience prototyping and conducting and analyzing web-based interface experiments
- Proven ability to produce user experience documentation: storyboards, user scenarios/tasks, user flows, wireframes, prototypes, annotated mock-ups, etc.
- Proficient to expert use of software tools such as Axure/OmniGraffle and the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier, etc.)
- A deep interest in human beings, how they think, their behaviors and limitations.
- An avid learner that stays up to date on latest trends in product design and web/mobile technology
- Experience with social media, community building, viral mechanics, and crowd-sourcing an asset
- Superb organizational skills including the ability to juggle multiple projects varying in size and complexity, prioritizing time and tasks as needed to meet aggressive deadlines
- Experience or willingness to use HTML and CSS for prototyping is preferred
- An innovative and creative nature with an acute attention to detail
- Demonstrated ability to deal with and resolve ambiguity