Contract

Education :
• Bachelor's degree in a related field Required with an experimental and/or UI design related bend (e.g., social sciences) a Plus.
• Master's degree in related field Preferred. 

Experience :
• Minimum three (3) years of digital experience moderating usability tests with large team and/or stakeholder engagement.

Additional Requirements: 
• Experience designing usability tests, analyzing results and forming recommendations based on those results. 
• Strong knowledge of user-centered design principles, best practices, and heuristics. 
• Advanced use of Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, and Word. 
• Proficient using Microsoft Visio. 
• Proficient with Web design/coding best practices. 
• Working knowledge of policies, practices and systems. 
• Frequent use and general knowledge of industry practices, techniques, and standards. 
• Full use and general application of standard principles, theories, concepts, and techniques. 
• Deep knowledge of online design principles, trends, competition, technical limitation in order to design products and relationships between suites of related products appropriately. 
• A detailed knowledge of the Web development process. 
• Proficient with setting up, installing and configuring computer hardware and software. 
• Must be able to work in a Labor/Management Partnership environment. 

Soft Skills: 
• Clear communication in a consensus driven environment, enabling teams to understand your perspective and recommendations 
• Ability to work well in a large team environment, no egos! 
• Works independently and proactively 

Preferred Qualifications: 
• Experience in computer and/or Web programming preferred. 
• Web design experience preferred. 
• Proficiency in prototyping tools and its uses preferred.

Job Description:
The User Research family is responsible for assessing end-user needs with respect to company's digital presence, and based on those needs, combined with business goals, recommend use and guiding the direction for the overall User Experience for visitors.Members of the User Research team must understand both the business and the technical aspects of the Web. They need to understand business stakeholders perspectives and the end-user's needs.One should  fully understand the different languages used and processes employed, is critical to the success of this team. This team evangelizes the user perspective in the design and development activities for the entire Digital Presence.Through a combination of influence and standards, they guide the online user experience that will produce optimal results. 
The User Researcher team member performs user research in one-on-one sessions, or with groups, as appropriate, either in-person or remotely and/or asynchronously – for both generative and summative settings. They use the information gathered during this research to advocate for use-centered online interactions and drive business decision-making. The ability to collect, analyze, and interpret user research is a critical component of this job family, as is the ability to translate user and stakeholder needs into an effective user interface. 

Essential Function:

• Engages with large stakeholder groups to identify research needs and evangelize for appropriate user research early and often in the solutioning process 
• Synthesize cross experience findings and results, which may be done by other team members or secondary research sources, with keen eye to inform and influence decision making, advocating for user and identifying trade-offs as needed 
• Comfortable presenting to large stakeholder groups 
• Conducts user interviews and research, from goals/needs assessment all the way to summative evaluations. 
• Using qualitative and connecting quantitative data to inform results to guide and make impactful user-centered experience decisions 
• Suggests and pilots internal work process efficiencies that the team can align to. 
• Works to build a collaborative, end-to-end engagement process both internally and externally with teams so that user research is a trusted partner early-on and through-out the product development cycle in reflecting consumer and business values. 
• Advocates for meaningful use even when it might not be popular. 
• Utilizes/Draws from personas to carry out research and heuristic analysis. 
• Writes, moderates and reports on usability studies using established testing methodologies and configurations. 
• Creates test plans for straight-forward and complex projects. 
• Evaluates and integrates feedback from stakeholders to create moderators guides for testing. 
• Works independently and/or with stakeholders to create participant recruiting screeners. 
• Conducts qualitative and quantitative analysis of testing results using standard methodologies. 
• Develops recommendations based on test results. Reports on test results. 
• Conducts and coordinates Usability tests using standard and best practice testing methodologies and configurations. 
• Coordinates testing logistics including recruiting, incentives, parking validation, locations (room scheduling, may be multiple locations, or outside vendor). Sets up and tears down usability lab and observation room(s) including configuring the software and computer hardware (camera, laptop, networking, cables, etc.). Recruits participants as needed. Manages overall experience of participants- escorting them to and from the testing room and handling incentives. 
• Provides support for creating test stimuli - producing cards for card sorts, basic HTML click paths, or paper prototypes. Arranges testing materials - ensuring that there are an 
appropriate number of collated copies of moderator's guides and participant demographics for the test and observation rooms. 
• Adheres to our compliance practices for user and data protection. 
• Strong ability to be self-organized and proactive in suggesting and bringing about positive change. 
• Ability to juggle multiple, concurrent projects and collaborate toward maturing the user research processes for the team.