Position Summary

The User Experience (UX) Designer will report to CDL's UX Manager and will work as a highly collaborative member of the CDL UX team to support the development and improvement of CDL's online tools and services. The UX Designer will be an experienced professional who will apply UX assessment and design concepts to a range of tasks that will utilize the complete user-centered design process (user research, web content development, service assessment, and interaction design). The UX Designer will regularly work on multiple potentially broad projects and will provide in-depth evaluation and assessment of variable factors with the goal of resolving critical issues and improving the usefulness of CDL websites and services. The UX Designer will also work in concert with the UX team as they develop and explore common UX work practices, assessment and design. The CDL User Experience team is based at the UC Office of the President downtown Oakland offices. California based applicants who wish to work onsite, hybrid, or fully remote will be considered. This position is not eligible for Visa or Green Card sponsorship.

Key Responsibilities

50% UX Design: Initiate, create, and communicate functional designs of user interfaces to users, stakeholders, service managers, and developers. Develop wireframe prototypes and interactive specifications for medium to potentially complex systems. Generate a full range of UX design documents, including workflow mockups, interactive wireframes, user stories, and creative briefs. Utilizing UC design and branding guidelines, work to determine the visual look and feel for user interface components and page layout. Assist CDL UX manager and service managers in designing a more usable front-end experience for their services by integrating a range of end-to-end design considerations as needed per design project. Create designs that take into account responsive design and accessibility compliance.

30% Usability Testing and User Research: Plan, design, and execute user assessments, testing, and various research methods in collaboration with the UX team and on behalf of CDL programs and UC Libraries systemwide service managers. Generate and/or analyze findings, functional requirements and detailed specification documents using various user data inputs from direct end-users (faculty, students, UC library staff), project stakeholders (CDL service managers, UC library staff), web analytic tools, and other data sources with the goal of supporting design and development decisions. Capable of performing advanced usability testing and evaluations for projects. Work directly with CDL UX manager and program and service managers to develop and improve CDL mission-critical services.

10% User Modeling: Participates in the user modeling process (such as creating user personas and scenarios) using information gathered during user research. Service user base typically spans faculty, researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, librarians, archivists, and data curators with a full range of subject matter, including the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

10% Project Management: May independently manage specific projects related to UX activities, following established CDL and UX team best practices for project planning, managing and meeting milestones and timelines.

Experience

Minimum of 4 years of experience in UX design and user research or testing, working as part of a collaborative team on production-level websites and application systems.

Skills and Abilities

• Demonstrated skills and expertise in diagramming, prototyping and using design and prototyping tools.
  Demonstrated knowledge of design principles and guidelines for area of expertise (i.e., visual design, interaction design, information/data visualization, WCAG compliant design, user interface software).
• Skills in a wide range of assessment methods, including independently designing, planning, and conducting activities that elicit user behaviors, beliefs and service needs (e.g., surveys, usability tests, user interviews).
• Ability to communicate effectively, including excellent verbal and written communication skills as demonstrated by the ability to articulate ideas and issues clearly, concisely and persuasively.
• Ability to communicate technical information to technical and non-technical personnel at various levels in the organization.
  Strong interpersonal skills and initiative to establish and maintain effective working relationships with UX team and diverse constituencies.
• Ability to work in a highly collaborative environment with engaged listening skills and the ability to take in design feedback.
• Self-motivated with ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Strong organizational skills, including ability to quickly and efficiently prioritize workload to meet deadlines in an environment of multiple projects and changing priorities.
• Excellent and demonstrated problem-solving skills, systematic thinking, independent logic and quantitative reasoning skills as demonstrated by ability to review and assess a range of variables to define key issues, evaluate reasonable alternatives, and translate findings into recommended changes, actions, or strategies.
• Understanding of web development process.
• Basic knowledge of front-end display technologies and what is possible in designing current web user interfaces.
• Understanding and knowledge of WCAG accessibility standards with the ability to integrate these standards into design work.
• Understanding and knowledge of creating responsive design for various screen sizes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with and deep understanding of at least one sector of the academic user communities and the digital library / scholarly information services domain.
• Experience with use of web analytics tools.
• Basic knowledge of accessibility testing.
• Undergraduate or advanced degree (e.g., Masters or PhD) in related area (e.g., UX Design, Human Computer Interaction, Library Science, or Information Science) and/or equivalent experience or training.