Director Usability Design

Purpose:
Director, Usability and Design


User Experience Project Manager

Tribune Interactive is actively seeking a Director of Usability and Design to join the Product Development team and contribute to the consumer experience and future success of our web sites. The product development team is responsible for overseeing all of Tribune Interactive’s web site development projects and this roles primary responsibility is to lead a team of information architects and web designers in support of those efforts. She/he will work closely with key stakeholders and various team members throughout the organization to gain a thorough understanding of consumer and business requirements and lead her/his team of Information Architects and Web Designers through the process of determining and implementing solutions that meet the needs of our consumers and deliver on our business goals. We are looking for someone who thrives on User-Centered Design and helping to create a great User Experience.


Responsibilities:
Responsible for establishing a vision for User-Centered Design
oEstablishing a vision for providing an excellent user experience is a core responsibility for everyone on the product development team, but this role is expected to lead those efforts.
oPropose innovation. Be a catalyst in driving a culture of innovation and teamwork centered on the needs of our customers. Think boldly and creatively about how user experience expectations and technologies are evolving and help anticipate and create the state-of-the-art, not merely respond to it.
Owns definition of the IA and Design portions of the product development process
oCreate standard templates for all usability deliverables.
oDetermine information architecture, taxonomy, and nomenclature
oSelect and conduct appropriate user-centered design techniques throughout an iterative design process
oAnalyze and present user evaluation results
oWork with market research to conduct usability studies including formal and semi-formal usability testing, and card sorting activities including the design and execution of paper and live questionnaires and interviews.
oDevelop user research strategies, and incorporate results from research, prototyping, and usability studies into successful design.
oOversee all levels of prototypes and wireframes through final specifications, documenting UI behaviors and models, workflow, interaction requirements, brand expression.
oCreate and maintain UI patterns and standards library; develop information classification systems and related documentation (site maps, schematics, content outlines, navigation, and labeling, functional specifications); diagram relationships between site content and features.
Leads the Usability and Design team
oHire, manage and train the team of IA’s and designers.
oEstablish a culture focused on usability
oManage any outside design or usability resources including freelancers, vendors, etc
oMake design recommendations based on expertise and the collected data
Oversee teams involvement in all product development projects
oAssign team resources to projects as appropriate
oAs a team leader, proactively participate in oversight of full product development lifecycle, from business opportunity to requirements definition, to development user interface design, to on-going monitoring and evaluation of customer satisfaction and effectiveness.
oLearn, understand, and respond to client needs for user data and improved user experience
REQUIREMENTS
Qualifications:
Over 7 years of usability and design experience
Experience working in cross-functional teams and with various levels of management
Strong leadership and excellent written and oral communication skills
Comfortable communicating with and taking input from a variety of people, including senior management
Excellent interpersonal and time management skills
Experience managing and mentoring others
Experience managing outside vendors, freelancers and partners
Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Graphic Design, Human Factors, Cognitive, or Experimental Psychology, Human Computer Interaction, or related field, or demonstrated related job experience (Master's degree preferred)
Proven record of designing superior, easy to use interfaces that adheres to best practices established by usability community
Solid understanding of web technology, including technical capabilities and limitations
Ability to understand and articulate complex design problems in a manner that drives idea generation and market impacting solutions
Expert understanding of methods for designing easy to use interfaces, including user and task analysis personae, scenarios, usability testing, information architecture, interface design and Heuristic Evaluation.
Demonstrated ability to document designs in scenarios, workflows, site architectures, interaction notes, and page template/wireframe formats
Experience defining usability research projects