Senior User Experience/Usability Specialist
Position Summary:
Zappos is seeking a Senior UX/ Usability Specialist with strong
information architecture skills to join our rapidly growing User
Experience team. The Senior UX/Usability specialist will be a major
contributor to the development of the User Experience department. The
Senior UX/ Usability Specialist responsibilities will include, but are
not limited to, the following:
- Contribute to the development and implementation of a customer-centric
Experience Design methodology, which will include: Persona development,
User and business goal analysis, Workflow and Information Architecture
diagrams.
- Plan and execute one-on-one usability studies, competitive reviews,
focus groups, heuristic reviews, usability tests, and surveys.
- Conduct user and market research to understand the needs and desires
of Zappos’ target audience using varying techniques: observation,
surveys, usability testing, cognitive walkthroughs, card sorting and
contextual inquiries.
- Analyze qualitative and quantitative data. Translate findings into
actionable and thoughtful recommendations. Write reports, present and
justify recommendations to User Experience Manager, UX team members, and
other relevant departments/decision makers.
- Act as a user advocate for site UX enhancements based on data
analysis, study findings and best practices.
- Work closely with cross-functional teams to balance business
constraints with UX best practices.
- Work with User Interface Designer(s) and other key UX team members to
create concepts based on business requirements and usability findings.
Conduct iterative testing and execute rapid prototyping of designs when
necessary.
- Write/create relevant documentation including wireframes, graphs, user
flows, use cases, personas and functional requirements.
- As part of team, champion usability standards and user
experience/user-centered design for the most intuitive website
experience, including navigation, page layout, and content restructuring.
- Actively participate in the development of UX processes, deliverables
and best practices.
- Stay abreast of innovations in UX best practices, tools and topics of
interest to the UX community and retail/ecommerce industry trends.
- Actively mentor junior level team members.
The ideal candidate will have the following skills/qualifications:
o Knowledgeable and skilled in a variety of usability assessment
methodologies, such as heuristics, HCI, eye tracking, creation of
personas and use case scenarios.
o Commercial web site experience - preferably in ecommerce.
o Experience developing test questions and conducting usability studies
(e-commerce specific preferred).
o Strong writing and editing skills with ability to produce high quality
written reports.
o A strong foundation in the principles and practice of information
architecture as it relates to websites.
o High-level understanding of web site/web application functionality
with a solid understanding of the relevant technologies (e.g. AJAX,
DHTML) and their inherent strengths and limitations relating to UX design.
o Experience using web analytics data to inform UI design decisions.
o Minimum 4 years prior experience in user experience, usability and/or
information architecture.
o Experience developing user profiles and personas, user scenarios,
navigation flow charts, storyboards, wireframes, mockups and UI
functional specifications.
o Proficiency with UI design
o Excellent communication and collaboration skills
o Comfortable in a fast-paced, highly dynamic, rapidly growing and
evolving environment.
o Experience with developing semi-functional prototypes is a plus
o Experience with online communities and deep content sites is a very
big plus.
o Experience with user generated content and content management systems
is a very big plus.
o Knowledge of internationalization, localization and web accessibility
standards is a plus.
o Familiarity and interest in retail/fashion is a plus
o BS/BA in HCI, Cognitive Psychology, Human Factors, Technology,
Communications, UI Design/Development or related degree preferred or
equivalent work experience.
Please be prepared to share examples of deliverables you created.
This is an exciting opportunity for the right candidate to achieve a key
position in an evolving UX team environment. Zappos.com is a
multi-million dollar ecommerce company and its User Experience
department will be growing markedly in the next year.
If interested, send your résumé to jobs@zappos.com with the job code
cs-srux-102907 in the subject line of your email.