Author: Deborah Edwards-Onoro

GE Capital is looking for a Web User Experience/Design Lead to partner with marketing and other process owners to improve user experience for customer facing web and mobile solutions. The candidate will create and document user experience, site functionality and design, including access, visualization, navigation, and analytics.

The successful candidate will lead efforts to translate high level business strategies, customer specific requirements, marketing best practices and trends, usability guidelines and technical development standards into innovative user interface designs. This hands-on role is responsible for understanding enterprise wide online strategies and other business and technical processes and streamlining and improving our overall online customer experience.

Responsibilities

• User experience, information architect and/or design experience in creating new or enhanced web sites, service oriented web applications and/or mobile applications
• Partners with IT project managers and business process owners to understand business and functional requirements related to end-user experience. Communicates and obtains buy-in for user experience designs with internal stakeholders
• Initiates, conceptualizes, and leads creation of user-centered, best in class designs based on business and functional requirements, user research, market analysis, customer feedback, and a thorough understanding of usability best practices
• Develops conceptual diagrams, site maps, wireframes, visual mockups, usage scenarios, navigation maps, and prototypes that include visually compelling design elements and adhere to GE branding guidelines
• Participates in, reviews, and analyzes user research and usability testing and results to determine best user interface design solutions to improve user experience
• Acts as information architect or interfaces with information architects to understand how information is stored, modeled, and tagged, and identifies way to visualize and present information in a user-friendly manner
• Develops guidelines, standards, user-centered design processes and ensures that they are fully integrated into the user-centered product development lifecycle. Liaison with Corporate teams to keep all policies and guidelines up to date
• Constantly assesses, evaluates, and integrates best practices in web and application design and industry innovations in graphics and display technologies. Pushes the limits of web design, including but not limited to Web 2.0 techniques, social media tools, and mobile applications
• Contributes to design standards and component libraries and promotes user-centered design throughout the organization

Qualifications and Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, Business or a related field
• Two years of professional experience (or a high school diploma / GED with a minimum four years of professional experience)
• Must have unrestricted authorization to work in the United States
• Must be able to satisfy the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act
• Must be willing to comply with pre-employment screening, including but not limited to, drug testing, reference verification and background check
• Must be willing to travel 25% of the time
• GE will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States for this opening. Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of a background investigation and drug screen.

Desired Qualifications

• User experience/information architect and/or design experience in creating new or enhanced web sites, oriented web applications or mobile applications
• Strong experience with web/graphic design software and tools and wireframe prototyping tools, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks
• Working knowledge of information and web architecture, including design considerations
• Bachelor’s degree in human-computer interaction, usability, graphic design, interactive design, new media, visual arts, computer science or related field
• Two+ years’ experience in website design and site development. Passion for design
• Project management skills. Ability embrace and adapt to change. Ability to balance long-term and short-term goals
• Familiar with all facets of interactive design and development, including JavaScript frameworks, unobtrusive JavaScript techniques/progressive enhancement, and multi-browser compatibility
• Experience in usage and behavioral analytics to inform UX design
• Experience following industry web trends in design, functionality and technology
• Experience in designing for iPhone or other mobile apps

For more information and to apply, visit the GE online job posting.

The University of Michigan Library is seeking an innovative, and talented user experience professional to join their User Experience (UX) Department. They are seeking someone with a passion for better understanding users, the ability to use creative problem solving skills to design engaging interfaces, and an investment in improving the library web experience.

This position is a full-time, two-year term appointment with the possibility of renewal.

The UX department focuses on:

• regular and mobile interface design
• usability testing
• user research
• web use statistics
• accessibility

The UX Specialist works in a collaborative team environment – working closely with the UX Department Manager and another UX Specialist as well as LIT and library-wide project stakeholders. Proportion of time spent on interface design and user research is adjustable. We strongly encourage candidates who have experience in only interface design or user research to apply.

Responsibilities

User Research 40%

• Conducts ongoing discovery of user needs, both prior to and following interface deployment by analyzing user and institutional needs.
• Designs and conducts user research/usability studies using a variety of techniques (e.g. formal/informal user testing, online surveys, card sorting, interviews, personas & scenarios, use cases, focus groups, ethnographic research techniques).
• Conducts regular web use statistics and email feedback analysis to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Conducts web accessibility audits.

Interface Design 40%

• Creates wireframes, mock ups, and prototypes to define user interface functionality, navigation, information architecture, interaction, and overall visual design to help drive user interface development from concept to implementation.
• Creates HTML prototypes that approximate a functional interface for the purposes of evaluation and communication with the developers.
• Conducts ongoing research into the development of new interface capabilities, enhancements, and user-centered design trends.
• Creates complete interface designs and web-ready graphics.

Project Management & Communication 20%

• Helps to establish project priorities and discuss project goals with LIT managers, project stakeholders, developers, and library staff.
• Performs occasional project management duties including establishment of timelines, coordination of staff, scheduling, and project documentation.
• Participates, as needed, on library committees. May provide advice or assistance to other units within the University Library regarding user research or interface issues.
• Promotes importance of user-centered design within library and library community.

Qualifications

Required:

• ALA-accredited Masters Degree in Library or Information Science or an equivalent combination of a relevant advanced degree in Graphic Design, UxD, HCI, and significant professional experience in a related field.
• Knowledge and experience in areas of user research and usability methods, design, and analysis.
• Experience creating concept sketches, flow diagrams, wire frames, and mock-ups.
• Excellent analytical, written and oral communication skills. Ability to work independently and in a team environment. Ability to handle multiple tasks and projects simultaneously.

Desired:

• Experience creating complete interface designs and web-ready graphics.
• Experience designing and/or evaluating library systems (e.g., digital libraries, OPACs, library websites) or other complex, data-rich websites.
• Experience designing and/or evaluating mobile interfaces.
• Proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite software, interface design software (e.g., Omnigraffle, Visio), screen recording software (e.g., Camtasia, Morae, UserVue), assistive technology (e.g., JAWS).
• Familiarity with accessibility coding standards, validation tools, and evaluation techniques.
• Experience creating and editing web pages using HTML & CSS.
• Experience conducting log/web use statistics analysis.
• Knowledge or experience with search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

For more information, and to apply, visit the online job posting.