Senior Interaction Designer

Senior Interaction Designer

Senior Interaction Designer
 
We are seeking an experienced, self-directed interaction designer to join AAA Insurances new and growing user experience team. This role will help the organization build, configure and improve AAAs new and existing web-based applications, both internal and customer-facing. Successful candidate will turn ideas, research and business processes into designs that delight our employees and customers by solving important workflow problems end-to-end, being easy and efficient to use, and delivering an engaging and enjoyable user experience.
 
Candidate will also help to build a user-centered design practice within AAA Insurance, which is positioned for rapid growth after recent entry into a number of new markets across the U.S. This position will belong to a cross-functional UX team including interaction designers, visual designers, user researchers and others.
 
Primary Responsibilities:

• Apply user centered design thinking to deliver intuitive end-to-end strategic interactions, user experiences and visual designs. Directly responsible for creating workflows, storyboards, personas, interaction flows, wireframes, low fidelity mock-ups, high fidelity prototypes, and UI specifications.


• Develop partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders to design end-to-end experiences using participatory and iterative design techniques. Stakeholders include:  product managers, end users, user research partners, business analysts, internal and external technology vendors, and QA teams


• Present proposed designs to cross-functional teams with varying degrees of design knowledge, and identify and negotiate optimal trade-offs between business needs, user experience outcomes, and technology constraints.


• Work with marketing and branding teams to ensure final designs comply with brand standards. 


• Manage all aspects of Interaction Design elements of projects including: scheduling, ensuring milestones are met, tracking issues, making design recommendations, developing design artifacts and specs, and seeking approval and buy-in from stakeholders.


• Work closely with development teams to ensure that design specifications are implemented as designed.


• Occasionally supervise contract interaction designers for short-term, supplemental projects.


• Promote adherence to user-centered design principles and standards within project and product teams at AAA Insurance. Collaborate with Interaction Design peers in other AAA business units.


• Stay up to date with new technologies and trends in the design space and the insurance industry.

 

JOB QUALIFICATIONS

• Solid academic background and four-year degree in relevant field, or in non-related field with equivalent work experience.


• 5-7+ years of hands-on interaction design experience producing usable software experiences in the complete product development lifecycle.


• Demonstrated hands-on experience conducting Guerilla User Research


• Must be user focused, demonstrate strong interaction design skills and careful attention to details, and have a solid understanding of user centered design principles.


• Developed skills in mediating and resolving competing requirements and designs.


• Excellent leadership, communication and teamwork skills.


• Experience managing junior designers, contractors, vendors.


• Must work well under pressure and be able to meet aggressive deadlines.


• Proficient in a variety of methods to convey ideas and concepts for user research - including storyboards, wireframes, and interactive HTML prototypes.


• Strong working knowledge of design and prototyping tools, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flex, Visio, or similar.


• Strong portfolio available for viewing


• Be able to successfully communicate conceptual ideas, detailed design, and design rationale, both verbally and visually, to audiences with varying levels of design knowledge


• Extensive knowledge of web-based technologies and their impact on the feasibility of design solutions, including the capabilities and limitations of Web technologies Flex, Ajax, Flash, DHTML, CSS, jQuery/JavaScript/AJAX, scripting, and various other technologies

 
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
 

• Four-year or graduate degree in human computer interaction, human factors, graphic design, or other relevant field..


• Experience in an agile development environment


• Experience designing for accessibility & ADA compliance


• Sense for visual design, and experience and familiarity with Visual Design concepts and processes