Information Architect
- Responsibilities to include employ a user-centered methodology to create a functional vision and documented artifacts to meet the needs of both product users and developers
- Design product functionality, navigation flows, site architecture plans, wireframes, user interface design, and functional specifications for the presentation layer
- Coordinate regularly with teammates on the creative team to ensure product remains true to the user experience design throughout the product development life cycle. Communicate solutions and progress to business owners, creative directors and managers, usability engineering, project management, and software engineering teams
- Collaborate with visual designers and other information architects on large initiatives
- Ideal candidate must be able to communicate effectively with members of a diverse multidisciplinary team. Along with having the ability to keep the big picture, the vision, in mind with attending to the details required for organization structure and day-to-day problem solving
- Must be highly creative, technically savvy, self-motivated, conceptual thinker.
- Must have extensive understanding of innovative graphical user interface design, information design, interaction design, and in particular, the design of complex frameworks for dynamic, database-driven content along with a solid understanding of and experience designing for presentation layer technologies including XHTML/CSS/JS and Flash
- As the ideal candidate for this position, you must have a thorough grounding in online interaction design
- Must be able to produce and refine brilliant ideas that work with existing solutions and be able to communicate these ideas easily.
- Must be comfortable working in diverse teams while facilitating the development of design solutions
- Above all, you must have a clear understanding of how to balance user needs and business drivers.
- In this capacity you will:
- Identify key user-interaction requirements by participating in JAD sessions and other business requirement forums
- Facilitate user interface definition sessions by leading teams through white boarding exercises and discussions
- Pin-point important issues that may require further discovery research by collaborating with usability resources
- Architect user interaction solutions/schema based on sound usability principles, research and technical feasibility
- Express these solutions through design documents. These documents include site-maps, process/page flows and thumbnail flows
- Partner with Usability Manager on research plans and integrate findings into design through an iterative process
- Manage contractors as needed
- Perform expert reviews on concepts and wire frames and integrate this into the design process on an iterative basis by presenting the findings and suggesting changes where necessary
- Create and maintain a centralized repository of IA documentation
- Provide IA support for ongoing site production and bug fixes
Requirements:
- Minimum of an MS degree in Interaction Design, Cognitive Psychology, MIS, Industrial Design or related discipline required
- 4+ years of information architecture/interaction design experience in a corporate or consulting environment required. Strong background in e-commerce a definite plus
- Must be able to translate business strategies into conceptual diagrams, task flows, and site maps. Expertise in using Visio Preferred
- Must be a strong presenter and communicator with excellent interpersonal skills
- Ability to lead high-level, cross-functional definition meetings that map out the user experience of new projects
- Understanding of ecommerce usability testing practices and theory required
- Experience managing information architecture or interaction design on large-scale projects required
- Managing internal and contract employees essential
- Background in system development methodology including the Software
- Development Life Cycle and techniques for contextual inquiry, task analysis and interaction design required
- Strong technical skills and versed in coding languages such as HTML and JavaScript
- Strong understanding of computer platforms and browsers and the effects those variables have on the design of a system and ensuing impact to the user
- Knowledge of DHTML and AJAX a plus
- Approximately 10% travel required
If you are an experienced, creative professional, please submit your resume to The Creative Group today. We will work to match your unique qualifications with our clients’ needs. The Creative Group is a specialized staffing service providing marketing, advertising, creative and web professionals on a project basis. Contact our Philadelphia office at philadelphia@creativegroup.com
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