Scholastic is a $2+ billion multimedia company with 12,000 employees operating globally in education, entertainment and publishing businesses serving teachers, parents and children. Scholastic.com is a leading education and entertainment web site, providing free and paid content, services, social media, e-commerce and web based productivity tools.
At Scholastic, interaction designers define the form and behavior of an interactive product. They work closely with end-users (kids and grown-ups alike), producers, analysts and visual designers to ensure the overall goals of the user experience are captured and translated in to compelling designs. Our small internal team takes on projects that include everything from complex web tools, social sharing applications and ecommerce applications to kid’s games and product mini-sites.
We plan our projects for a 35-hour work week (Yes, 35). We don’t think chaos and all-nighters are a necessary ingredient for creativity and success. We believe in collaboration and a happy workplace that’s as much a community as it is a company.
We need bright minds with new ideas to grow our internal UI capabilities and help craft the next generation of our web experience.
In this role you will need to:
· Conduct stakeholder interviews and user research to guide and inspire your designs so they satisfy the needs and motivations of real people, while at the same time meeting our business, brand and marketing objectives.
· Craft high quality scenarios, wireframes and prototypes (as needed) to communicate both the spirit and details of your design (architecture, information design, page flow and functionality).
· Validate designs through end user testing and usability evaluations when appropriate.
· Present your work before a room of curious (and sometimes skeptical) developers, interested (and sometimes demanding) marketers, and time-challenged (and sometimes impatient) executives.
· Learn new things. Talk to strangers. Ask questions. Understand complex systems and processes. Have opinions.
Required Competencies, Skills & Experience
We’re looking for candidates with at least 3 years of professional experience designing diverse digital products and services in a professional environment. Your current job title may be interaction designer, interface designer, user experience engineer or information architect. In any case, you’re smart, progressive and passionate about design. You should:
· Have experience in designing (to a lesser degree prototyping) web interfaces and user interfaces in a software and/or Internet development environment.
· Possess a deep understanding of UCD philosophies and methodologies, interface design, and usability.
· Be excited by the evolution of the internet, design and emerging interaction and media technologies. Know what advanced technology can do, and recommend where to use it.
· Know how to present the vision of your design.
· Demonstrate initiative, excellent judgment, independence, and problem solving ability.
· Have balanced Interaction Design (IA and UI) skills and visual design sensibilities with an understanding of how all disciplines must exist together to craft excellent design solutions.
· Formal human factors/HCI degree or training desired.
· Agency/Design Studio experience desired.
· Graphic Design experience a plus.