Senior UX Designer

You possess the innate ability to simplify and bring clarity to almost anything that gets displayed on a glowing LCD screen. You’re a strong advocate for end users and know that putting their needs first is the only way to create an intuitive digital experience that gets results.

We’re seeking a Senior User Experience Designer to help us craft beautiful, engaging, user-friendly websites and mobile applications for our clients. In this role, you’ll work closely with different project teams to solve complicated interaction problems and ensure that UX best practices are always being followed. As part of the team, you’ll get to weigh in on design decisions, but you’ll be primarily focused on how sites function and how to make the entire experience more intuitive for users.

The role encompasses upfront discovery (interviews and surveys), concept development (site maps and wireframes) and user research (usability testing). You’ll also be responsible for leading, promoting and continuing to evolve the User Experience components of our process.

You need to be passionate and plugged in about all things digital (desktop and mobile) and thrive on turning the complex into simple. We also like to laugh while we work, so having a great sense of humor is a must.

Toolhouse is a small(er) digital marketing agency full of passionate and creative people that work hard and play hard. Despite our size, we have some really big (make that huge) clients from coast to coast - all leaders in their respective industries. We’re located in Bellingham, Washington. 45 minutes from Vancouver, BC and 90 minutes from Seattle. It’s the perfect mix of small-town tranquility and big-city amenities. Do you like to snowboard? Sail? Shop? Bike? Run? Hike? Fish? Dine Out? Listen to live music? So do we. And that’s just on a Wednesday.

We offer full benefits including medical, dental, vision and 401K contribution matching.

Interested in the job? Send us an e-mail to jobs@toolhouse.com.

Please include the position you are applying for in the subject line of your e-mail. No phone calls please.

Here’s the nitty-gritty:

Responsibilities

• Lead, promote and continue to evolve the User Experience components of our process
• Work closely with different project teams to solve complicated interaction problems and ensure that UX best practices are being followed
• Conduct analytics research, user research, concept testing and usability testing
• Create personas that define target audience’s needs, tasks and goals
• Create information architecture and interaction models
• Create low-fidelity visual concepts (wireframes) and working prototypes for internal discussions and presentation to clients
• Document User Experience specifications and functional specifications for internal use and client sign off
• Conduct content inventories/audits for existing client sites
• Participate in UX-focused thought leadership within the agency, to clients and within the industry as a whole
• Work with client services to estimate timing requirements for UX-related elements of project opportunities

Required Skills and Experience

• 5+ years experience in information architecture, user interface or interaction design role (preferably within an agency environment)
• Candidates should have a strong portfolio showcasing their UX-related work, tools and methodologies across a variety of platforms
• Strong familiarity with a variety of mobile platforms and standard user controls/features unique to them
• Ability to take complex interaction problems and distill them down into simple elements
• Ability to produce visual concepts and prototypes using industry-standard tools
• Technical understanding of informational and transactional websites as well as mobile platforms and touch interfaces
• Demonstrated experience using web analytics data to inform strategy and design decisions
• Demonstrated experience conducting user research and preparing summary reports
• Strong analytical abilities and the ability to carefully manage details
• Ability to work with a diverse range of personalities while juggling multiple projects
• Ability to focus and work under pressure during tight deadlines with humor, tact and professionalism
• Excellent communication skills with internal and external audiences at all levels
• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Human-Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, Technical Communications or other related fields
• Preference for experience working within an agile development process