September 2013: Making a career in UX

A career that focuses on user experience in creating products or services is one that is engaging, enlightening, and rewarding. It’s one that many people are attracted to, and yet, as a still-young field, it isn’t always clear what the best career path is, either when starting out or when trying to grow mid-career.

We’re here to help!

In this session we’ll have a group discussion on UX careers, led by a pair of people whose deep knowledge will benefit anyone interested in a career in UX.

Kate Wilhelm has been owning her development as a user experience practitioner since she became the first Information Architect at BlackBerry seven years ago. She creates opportunities to learn and grow through whatever scrappy means she can devise, both on the job and off, and finds ways to bring others along for the ride. At BlackBerry, Kate works on making it easier for developers to create apps for BlackBerry. She also works on bringing a user focus to projects and on building awareness and capacity for UX in her company and community. Kate is delivering a career-related workshop at Fluxible (September 14&15), Starting Out or Bulking Up: UX Circuit Training for Any Fitness Level.

Kristina McDougall has spent more than 15 years working with local software companies, delivering recruiting solutions, and also working directly as a software sales rep and consultant. Kristina leads recruitment and executive search for The Laudi Group, managing critical senior level searches for high-growth tech clients. It is her goal and passion to help the leaders of Canada’s tech sector, by connecting them with the talented individuals who will drive their success.

Bring your questions and your own experiences to this session, and together we’ll discover ways to illuminate your UX career path.

Register for the uxWaterloo September meeting. Hope to see you there!

Where and when

Thursday September 12, 2013
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Communitech Hub, P2P Room
151 Charles St. W.
Kitchener, ON N2G 1H6

Job: UX Designer at Henkaa

Company: Henkaa

Location: Toronto, Ontario

company information

“Henka,” which means change in Japanese is where the name for our convertible fashion and accessories company is derived.  At Henkaa, everything changes and our flagship product is the innovative Sakura convertible dress, which is essentially one dress that can transform into infinite styles.  The mission at Henkaa is to be a canvas that empowers women of all shapes, sizes, and walks of life to do more with less, to reuse and repurpose, to innovate, to educate, to share, to create opportunity, to grow, and to inspire us and each other. The Henkaa brand was started locally in Toronto, we proudly manufacture domestically in Canada and our sales have grown exponentially on a global scale. We are currently looking for a recent graduate to join our talented team as a UI/UX designer and take part in our quest to become the dominant vendor in the convertible fashion market. Check us out at www.henkaa.com!


position summary

Are you a brilliant problem solver, quick learner, self starter and excellent communicator who can embrace our dynamic culture and is eager to be a part of something really big? As the UI/UX Designer,  you will define the customer experience, including online, email and mobile touch points to support Henkaa’s strategies and goals. You will build, enhance and improve UI flows. The UI/UX Designer is experienced in end-to-end user experience design, has a keen understanding of interaction design patterns/trends and understands the importance of strong effective UX design and how it impacts user experience, loyalty and overall customer satisfaction.

The position duties include but are not limited to the following:

• Take ownership of the overall site usability – development, assessment and communication of website usage
• Conceptualize, design and enhance user interaction designs from concept to go-live including page layout, online content, user interface graphics, icons, color schemes and content
• Design for a variety of platforms focusing first on the web browser
• Understand desired customer experience and produce innovative designs, interactions and flows to improve overall experience
• Manage usability testing for prototypes and gather feedback for iterations of design
• Analyze site metrics, drive usability testing and recommend changes
• Providing information to management by assembling and summarizing data, preparing reports, making presentations of finding, analysis, and recommendations.
• Define how people interact with our consumer sites
• Brainstorm, research, wireframe, design and refine user experiences
• Work with the team prototyping, designing and building new features
• Develop and perform usability sessions with consumers
• Implement designs and fully code applications front to back end using JavaScript, CSS and HTML

does this sound like you?

• At least 3-5 years of experience in computer interaction, usability and user interface design best practices
• Proficiency in design tools: CSS and dynamic HTML and Adobe Suite Master (Fireworks, Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver)
• Experienced with responsive design methodologies
• Ability to learn and adapt Usability and human factors Passionate about social product design
• Strong organizational skills and an acute attention to detail

At Henkaa, we are constantly changing and adapting as we continually strive to make our company better and to provide a great, challenging and creative experience for our employees and customers alike. If you believe you would be a great fit in our growing company and would thrive in this role, then we want to hear from you!

www.henkaa.com/careers

Please include a cover letter, resume, portfolio and salary expectations with your application.

We thank all candidates for applying, but only short listed candidates will be contacted. Thank you for your interest in Henkaa!