Job: Web/Flash Producer at Kobo

Location: Kobo Inc., 135 Liberty St. Suite 101, Toronto, Ontario

Kobo is currently searching for a talented and enthusiastic web professional to join our team as a Web/Flash Producer. As part of the Design & User Experience team, you will be responsible for production related tasks, including site updates, email development and delivery, banner ad and microsite builds, converting creative to web format, and more.

Responsibilities

• Work with Merchandising team and HR Department to schedule promotions, rotations and job descriptions, etc., using internal tools.
• Implementation of design changes to website based on requests from UX, Merchandising & Marketing.
• Contest builds, maintenance, scheduling, etc.
• Skinning and layout of microsites (blogs) owned by Marketing.
• Maintain an in-depth knowledge of current Internet trends including CSS3, HTML5, Flash Action Script 3, vendors, services, and tools.

Skills & Experience

• University or College degree in one of the following: Computer Science, Interactive Media OR equivalent experience (web development/e-commerce).
• Expert level understanding of CSS, HTML.
• Intermediate knowledge of JavaScript/JQuery.
• Intermediate knowledge of Flash Action Script 2.0 & 3.0.
• Understanding of best practices for coding emails across various email clients.
• Proficient with Photoshop software.
• Proficient with Flash software.
• Web standards & browser compatibility.
• Disciplined, organized & reliable work habits.
• Good communication, written & documentation skills.

To apply, please visit: http://hire.jobvite.com/j/?cj=oHzMVfwH&s=uxWaterloo

Job: Senior Information Architect at Kobo

Location: Kobo Inc., 135 Liberty St. Suite 101, Toronto, Ontario

Work downtown at one of Canada’s most exciting startups and help us design experiences on the web and for smartphones, tablets, desktops and eReaders

The responsibilities of the Information Architect include designing user interfaces, informing functional specifications, performing competitive reviews and creating flows, wireframes and process maps. You will be able to visualize concepts quickly and clearly and will work closely and collaboratively with the User Experience Team.

Key Responsibilities

• Conceive, design and prototype useful, usable, and compelling user experiences and user interfaces (represented by scenarios, paper prototypes, storyboards, wireframes, site maps, screen flows, etc.
• Document user interface requirements
• Apply domain knowledge, user interface design best practices, and knowledge of emerging UX related presentation/gestural technologies.
• Bring strong design, conceptual and problem-solving skills to translate conceptual ideas (business needs and user goals) into simple yet meaningful user interfaces.
• Assess data from multiple sources (product requirements, tech constraints, UX research, web analytics) and synthesize it in order to develop efficient user scenarios, taxonomies, classification schemes, navigation systems, design patterns, etc.
• Create and effectively present UX deliverables (wireframes, workflows, paper prototypes, etc.) to explain and negotiate design solutions to key stakeholders.
• Develop competitive assessments and perform site/application/device reviews.
• Help define, request and incorporate relevant and recent UX research and data from customer feedback to appropriately inform design decisions.
• Help define UX performance metrics.
• Upholding UX guiding principles and style in project execution.
• Create, maintain and share project documentation and UX guidelines after project execution.

Key Qualifications

• Minimum of 3 years in interaction design in a product development context.
• Embraces and champions a collaborative approach that brings good resolution decisions to tough design questions and issues.
• Ability to successfully execute multiple projects and tasks simultaneously.
• Ability to quickly visualize concepts through sketching or other rapid prototyping methods.
• Ability to help define site strategy, concept, content, and features.
• Willingness to try alternative approaches to a challenge.
• Experience developing user personas, functional specifications and wireframes.

To apply, please visit: http://hire.jobvite.com/j/?cj=oayLVfw8&s=uxWaterloo

Job: UX/Web Designer at TribeHR

TribeHR is an early stage startup in Waterloo, building a refreshingly simple Human Resources application for small and medium business. If you’re looking to see the fruits of your labor used and loved by customers and if you’re excited by the idea of participating in the creation of a new company, we are the place. Our team hustles, and we’re looking for people who are up for the challenge of keeping pace.

We are looking for a creative UX/UI designer to continue to build the company’s brand online and offline in the field of human resources software. We’re looking for someone who already has experience designing successful web applications. We have a high performing team and if you enjoy the thrill of working with a group that will push you to do the best work you’ve ever done, then you might be the right person.

This person will:

• Maintain existing designs and interfaces
• Help define new experiences, workflows, and architectures for new features
• Conduct user research and testing
• Apply principles of interaction design to designing UI, behaviour, and page layout
• Generate simple, creative solutions to usability problems.
• Write scenarios, sketch storyboards, draw wireframes, and create production-ready design specifications
• Implement new application and website designs

We iterate quickly and this role will have the opportunity to influence the rest of the development team and product direction. The ideal candidate will have:

• A passion for design and user experience.
• Examples of work that demonstrate your abilities in interaction and visual design for the Web.
• Solid understanding of UI design principles and user-centered design methodologies.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Hardworking, flexible, and effective in multi-disciplinary teams.
• Expertise with design tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.
• Fluency in HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Experience designing for mobile apps and web pages will be an asset. Interested? Apply here.

Update: June 2011 event location changed to the Google office

The location for our next event, “Pixels Everywhere!” by Bob Rushby, has been moved to the Google office. If you haven’t yet visited The Hub, here’s your chance to check out this amazing new space!

Thursday June 16, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Google Waterloo
151 Charles Street West, Suite 200
Kitchener, ONT
[Map]

Job: Product Designer at Desire2Learn

Product Designer

Desire2Learn makes industry-leading web-based enterprise eLearning systems. Our products are used by hundreds of clients to deliver accredited courses for both on-campus and distance education programs. Our applications deliver material to millions of users worldwide every single day.

Product Designers are responsible for taking requirements from Product Management and refining and translating them into detailed functional specifications that support the overall product strategy. The Product Designers will work with clients, partners, as well as stakeholders from several business units to ensure functionality meets the needs of our targeted markets. Additionally, the Product Designer will assist the Product Manager with assessing cross product and operational impacts of proposed development projects.

Division/Department: Product Development
Type of Position: Full-time
Location: Kitchener, Ontario

Main Duties

• Researches market trends, competitive offerings and industry standards to ensure that designs are informed and complete
• Facilitates user-centered design process by conducting focus groups, running surveys and interacting with our user community
• Refines and details user and functional requirements as laid out by the Product Manager
• Conducts design reviews with internal and external stakeholders
• Initiates and manages communications with these parties, escalates to Product Manager when needed
• Creates and maintains detailed production-level functional specifications
• Creates detailed product designs to meet functional specifications
• Utilizes mock-up tools to prepare product prototypes
• Works with Architecture and Quality Assurance to ensure feasibility of detailed design
• Works with Usability Specialists to ensure adherence to best practices, define usability testing requirements and make appropriate design changes based on design reviews

Work Experience Recommendations

• 1-3 years of experience directly related to the duties listed above
• Superior technical writing skills
• Strong analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills
• Familiar with web technologies and Software Development Life Cycle
• Knowledge of web services and distributed web-based systems
• Familiar with Web 2.0, JavaScript, AJAX, XML and other leading-edge web technologies
• Proven experience managing people and projects an asset

Education Recommendations

• Bachelors degree or equivalent in a technical field with high academic achievement

This is your opportunity to make a big impact in the area of next-generation eLearning applications! Candidates that have the combination of skills and abilities as outlined are invited to submit their qualifications in confidence today.

Apply now!

Call for Participation in Research on Work/Life Balance and Mobile Technology

Some of you may remember Sam Ladner’s presentation to UX Waterloo back in February, in which she mentioned a research project on mobile technology. Sam’s delighted to announce that she’s starting the recruitment phase of this project. More from Sam below.

Call for Participation in Research on Work/Life Balance and Mobile Technology

Are you a smartphone user? Do you want to know more about how this device is affecting our lives? We want to talk to you!

Ryerson University is seeking to recruit smartphone users to participate in a social research study on mobile technology. Hosted at the Ted Rogers School of Management, this project asks the simple question: what happens when workplace technologies like the BlackBerry come into the household? The research team is looking to recruit people who have used a smartphone for work and personal use for the last six months, preferably in the Greater Toronto Area.

The research will be publicly available. We will be sharing white papers and conference presentations with the community at large. Those interested in mobile technology will learn more about how individuals use their phones at home, the kinds of content they typically use, and what frustrates them about current software and hardware design.

All participants will remain completely anonymous.

Participants will be visited at home by a researcher, who will conduct an interview and will spend time visiting and observing the participant’s home experience with their smartphone. All participation is strictly confidential.

Recruitment will begin in April, with field work happening throughout the spring and summer. Participants from across the country will be considered, but those in Southern Ontario are preferred. The project is being lead by Dr. Sam Ladner, postdoctoral research fellow, and co-principal investigators Dr. Catherine Middleton and Dr. Ozgur Oturetken.

Learn more at mobileworklife.ca and on Twitter @mobileworklife.

(March 2011) 7-Minute Soapbox on User Experience

Tuesday March 22, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

An evening of bite-sized ideas

This month, we’re harking back to our roots to repeat one of the very first events we held in 2007: the 7-minute soapbox. At this fast-paced event, we’re giving people a chance to share ideas about UX — for no more than seven minutes each.

If you prefer simply to take it all in, you’re welcome to participate as an audience member. But of course you’re sure to have the most fun by stepping onto the soapbox yourself!

Format

You get up to seven minutes on the soapbox to talk about anything related to user experience. At seven minutes: BZZZZZZT! You’re done. After each soapbox talk, we’ll spend a few minutes in discussion or Q&A.

Visual aids are not required, but feel free to use them if you’d like. We’ll have a laptop hooked up to a projector and speakers. If you have a Powerpoint or Keynote presentation, bring it along on a USB drive or email it to uxgroup@gmail.com in advance. The laptop will also be connected to the Internet if you’d like to demonstrate something online. Available browsers include Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.

Topics

Anything goes, as long as it’s related to user experience. Obvious choices might include design (product, Web, interaction, industrial), usability, and information architecture, but please don’t feel limited by those examples. Our field draws from so many disciplines that we couldn’t possibly list them all.

Want some ideas? Here’s a short list to get you thinking:

• Question something you’ve read recently.
• Make observations about current trends.
• Predict the future.
• Share a design problem you’re facing.
• Rant about a device you don’t like.
• Effuse about your favorite product.
• Show some results from a usability test.
• Relate an experience from work.
• Ask the crowd for advice on improving something.
• Perform an interpretive dance on applying game mechanics to enterprise software. (Someone please do this, it’d be a real crowd pleaser.)

No sales pitches, please!

Besides the 7-minute time limit, that’s our only other rule. Please do not sell anything. The goal of this event is to share ideas.

You’re welcome to demonstrate something you’ve worked on. In fact, we love hearing from each other in this way. But please do so in the spirit of teaching or sharing ideas: use your work to illustrate a more general theme or issue about UX.

RSVP and grab a soapbox timeslot

(February 2011) Designers designing research: what methods do you choose?

Thursday February 24, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

Event description

How do you know which design research method is the “right one” for your project? This month, sociologist and design researcher Dr. Sam Ladner will discuss how research methodologists go about answering that question. Designers rarely get to study research methodology in design school or on the job, so this session will give you the tools to think through research design options. Sam will also discuss a recent research proposal involving the use of mobile phones and how she came to recommend a particular research direction. Designers who are tired of the “how many people did you talk to” question will love this session!

Video introduction

About the speaker

Sam Ladner, PhD, is founder and principal consultant with Copernicus Consulting Group. She uses a range of social research methods including interviewing, observation, ethnography, and survey research. She consults Fortune 1000 companies on digital product design, organizational change, and the social aspects of technological innovation. She also trains and mentors designers, marketers, and account planners on research methodology. She has consulted companies including Citibank, Dell, GSK, VeriSign and Genentech. She is currently teaching in the graduate program at the Ontario College of Art and Design. She holds a PhD in sociology from York University. Follow Sam on Twitter.

Register today

This event is free, but we ask that you please register so we can predict turnout.

Job: UI and UX Designer at Enflick

This is a full-time position in Waterloo, Ontario.

Enflick, Inc. is a fast growing Waterloo startup creating mobile solutions that expand the potential of today’s leading mobile platforms. With multiple highly acclaimed apps on the iPhone platform, we are looking to further enhance our product line as well as diversify our portfolio to more platforms. Amongst other products, Enflick’s flagship products TextNow and PingChat! are top seller apps in the iTunes App Store.

We are seeking a highly talented individual to take the role of designing the user experience for Enflick’s mobile applications. We are offering extremely competitive compensation for the right candidates.

Responsibilities

• Design user interfaces for mobile applications on Android, BlackBerry and iPhone.
• Develop high level and/or detailed storyboards, wireframes, and prototypes to effectively communicate interaction and design ideas and validate proposed designs with product development.
• Work with the product management team to analyze customer/product requirements and propose application solutions to be developed.
• Provide interface design expertise and review from concept development through delivery.

Requirements

• 1+ years of experience in commercial user interface design experience for mobile platforms (Android, Blackberry, iPhone)
• Passionate for design and user experience
• Proficient in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, etc.
• Understanding of interaction design for mobile platforms
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and teamwork skills
• A degree in visual or graphic design related studies or equivalent

How to apply

To apply for this position, please email your cover letter and resume to jobs@enflick.com. If possible, please include your portfolio to demonstrate your past work in user experience design.

(April 2010) UX Show and Tell

Monday April 19, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 (Then drinks afterwards if you’re interested!)
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

A chance to share our work and learn from each other

This month we’re hosting our first UX Show and Tell, an event that’s become fairly popular with other IxDA and UX-related groups around the world. It’s no wonder, as it’s quite a lot of fun and is a great way to learn from each other.

Bring examples of anything from your work: research artifacts, personas, sketches, wireframes, design comps, prototypes, documents… anything goes. Tell us a challenge you faced. Or show us a problem you solved. Bring a question you have, or simply show off something you’re proud of.

We’ll keep things brief, so please choose only one or two pages from that 5-pound design specification. 🙂

Do I NEED to bring something to show?

No, it’s not required that you bring something to show. But we certainly encourage you do so, as you’ll be surprised how much fun it can be. Remember, you don’t have to show a lot. Even a single screenshot can be plenty. And yes, you DO have something that others would find interesting or valuable!

RSVPs requested

If you’re hoping to attend, please click here to RSVP via Communitech. As usual, everyone’s welcome to join us, so spread the word!

Join us for informal drinks and chitchat afterwards

After the event ends at 7:00, we’re planning to get together at a nearby pub or restaurant. If this sounds like fun, just hang out for a few minutes afterwards while we see who’s interested and decide where to go.