Responsibilities
- Pure UX research and design role. No coding expected.
- Graduates of ISU HCI (Human Computer Interaction) program highly desired.
Primary Focus
- UX research
- User-centered design
- User journey mapping
- Wireframes and prototypes
- Design recommendations
- Accessibility-first design
- Design documentation and annotations
Required Skills
- Advanced Figma
- UX research methodologies
- User flow creation
- Prototyping
- Accessibility (WCAG)
- Stakeholder collaboration
- Design documentation
Preferred Experience
- Heat maps (Crazy Egg, Hotjar, etc.)
- Card sorting
- Usability testing
- Nielsen Norman Group training
- Google UX Certification
- Formal UX/HCI education
Research Experience Desired
- Heat maps
- Crazy Egg or similar analytics tools
- Card sorting
- User behavior analysis
- Data-driven design recommendations
- Screening Priorities
- UX research experience
- Figma proficiency
- Accessibility knowledge
- Design thinking methodology
- Analytics-driven recommendations
- No Coding Required
- No .NET
- No SQL
- No front-end development
Core Responsibilities
- User Experience Research: Design, plan, and execute formal user experience research to evaluate complex workflows, ensuring applications are intuitive and efficient for educators and state employees.
- Usability Testing: Moderate hands-on user testing sessions and run usability labs to actively identify and resolve workflow friction.
- Heuristic Evaluation: Audit early layouts and interfaces against usability best practices and design standards.
- User Journey & Persona Mapping: Translate complex district data reporting and environmental workflows into clear, intuitive user journeys and behavioral personas.
- Information Architecture: Structure massive, data-heavy reporting categories logically using techniques like card sorting.
- Accessibility Alignment: Integrate digital accessibility from the ground up, aligning design systems and user research with WCAG standards to ensure digital services are universally accessible to all Iowans.
- Collaborative Design: Partner with our lead Architect to scale technical user experience and research practices across multi-agency initiatives, chatbot interfaces, and global state projects.
- Clear Communication: Collaborate effectively with cross-functional agency teams, product owners, and technical stakeholders to clearly articulate design findings and research data.
Required Technical Skills & Qualifications
- Senior UX Design Expertise: Extensive experience designing responsive web application interfaces, wireframes, and interactive prototypes.
Specialized UX Research Skills
- Demonstrated mastery in moderating user testing sessions, executing usability labs, performing heuristic evaluations, mapping user journeys, and managing information architecture.
- WCAG 2.2 Level AA Mastery: Practical knowledge of implementing WCAG 2.2 Level AA requirements, focus management, keyboard navigation mechanics, and color contrast principles within visual layouts.
- Strong Communicator: Ability to clearly explain user research insights, interface design choices, and usability standards to technical team members, developers, and agency stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications (Optional Assets)
- Front-end engineering experience writing semantic HTML5 and modern, responsive CSS/SASS.
- Experience integrating interface designs into Angular or MVC .NET framework environments.
- Experience utilizing or extending the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS).
Required Skill sets
- User Experience Research
- Usability testing
- Usability labs
- Heuristic evaluation
- User journey mapping
- Persona development
- Information architecture
- Card sorting
- Wireframing
- Interactive prototyping
- UX design
- WCAG 2.2 Level AA compliance
- Focus management
- Keyboard navigation mechanics
- Color contrast requirements
- Accessibility auditing
- technical communication
- Design system vs usage
Rate:
Not specified
Location:
Remote
IR35 Status:
Outside
Remote Status:
Remote
Industry:
Design & UX
Seniority Level:
Senior