THE FEW, THE PROUD, THE NERDERY

User Experience Designer - Minneapolis

We are currently looking for highly motivated and passionate individuals to serve as User Experience (UX) Designers for The Nerdery, voted #1 place to work in the Twin Cities two years in a row.

At The Nerdery, UX Design covers a broad spectrum of practice areas including: Discovery and Analysis, User Research, Information Architecture, and Visual Design. An ideal candidate possesses a broad understanding encompassing multiple practice areas, or a deep and focused understanding of a single facet. We strongly emphasize user-centered design methodologies, so an ability and desire to justify design decisions with supporting research is a must.

As a UX Designer, you will be responsible for crafting the architecture and user experience of our projects in a fast-paced and highly collaborative environment. Your work will be used not only to communicate visual solutions to our clients in a clear and effective way, but will also serve as a detailed specification for our internal development teams. A passion for and ability to work within the constraints of technology is a must.

We create products and tools for a wide variety of clients and technologies, so you should have experience designing interfaces beyond simple brochure sites. A portfolio consisting of web applications, mobile apps, social media platforms, or interactive websites is highly desirable.

Please do not apply without an online portfolio of your interactive work ready to share. Additionally, please send your resume in .PDF format.

Duties:

  • Analyze and understand business and application requirements, prioritize and identify user tasks and goals
  • Develop a wide range of visual deliverables corresponding to your practice area: key insights documentation, affinity diagrams, user personas, research plans, prototypes, and visual design concepts are all examples of documentation we produce on a daily basis
  • Become an advocate for the user and usability centric issues
  • Work effectively within technical, creative, and budgetary constraints
  • Develop innovative solutions for a multitude of platforms including Android, iPhone, Facebook, Twitter and other emerging technologies
  • Arrange and conduct interviews with both users and stakeholders

Required Experience:

  • 3+ years experience as a front end developer, information architect, interaction designer, graphic designer, or related role
  • Proficiency in a variety of design tools including Adobe Creative Suite, OmniGraffle, Visio or equivalent

Personal qualifications:

  • Adapt to a wide range of project types and timeframes
  • Quickly and efficiently identify and prioritize requirements across multiple projects
  • Possess a high aptitude for learning
  • Possess and exhibit a strong affinity for, and attention to, detail
  • Possess a natural inclination towards user experience and general usability, ensuring quality accordingly
  • Think critically and creatively
  • Communicate clearly and concisely
  • Work effectively with multi-disciplinary teams

Bonus Points:

  • Bachelor degree or higher in relevant field
  • Experience with Flash, XHTML/CSS, Javascript
  • Experience working with developers
  • Experience leading creative teams
  • Experience with research techniques such as: usability testing, site analytics interpretation, and contextual inquiry

Nerd Perks

  • Developer-oriented workplace; work on a variety of compelling, challenging projects surrounded by nerdy supergeniuses
  • Created by nerds, for nerds; 85% of staff has development background, including senior management
  • Casual dress
  • Free Breakfast, and convenient lunch ordering and daily delivery
  • Team environment, collaborative learning environment, transparent communications
  • Flexible 40-hour work week, set your hours
  • Benefits package including a 401k, unlimited sick days
  • On-site Yoga classes, massage service
  • Dog-friendly, including monthly dog grooming
  • Arcade games, Chess, Anime, daily hackysack; home of 20+ extracurricular clubs and room for the one you want to create
  • Opp to advance career at growing company always looking for emerging leaders

About The Nerdery

The Nerdery is a developer-driven interactive production shop that partners with creative minds and big thinkers to engineer and execute their interactive projects, including websites, social media and mobile apps. In 2010 and 2011, The Nerdery ranked #1 on the Best Places to Work list published by Mpls-St. Paul Business Journal. With offices in Chicago and Minneapolis, The Nerdery has a staff of 260+ and was founded in 2003 by three programming pioneers. The Nerdery was honored in 2010 with The Quality of Life Award and The Jefferson Award for its record of corporate philanthropy through The Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge, at which volunteers have donated nearly two million dollars worth of web development services to 66 nonprofit organizations. In addition to Biz Journal’s Fast 50 list, The Nerdery has made the Inc 5000 list of fast-growing privately owned companies for four consecutive years.