Job: UI Visual Designer at Christie

Type: Full-time
Location: Kitchener, Ontario
Position: UI Visual Designer
Company: Christie

At Christie, we give bright minds the tools to be truly creative and innovative. The results can be amazing!

We keep raising the bar by consistently setting the standards and being first to market with some of the world’s most advanced projectors and complete system displays. Christie is recognized as one of the most innovative visual technology companies in the world and offers careers that allow you to exceed your potential and collaborate with some of the brightest minds in the industry.

The Visual Designer role calls for a strong background in graphic design for digital environments, a keen design sense, and a passion for bringing products to life. You will be an integral member of the UX design team — also comprised of interaction and industrial designers — through the creation of visual interface design concepts, specifications, and visual artifacts for web, desktop, and mobile product development. You will work with a senior visual designer to help apply and evolve visual design style guides that can span multiple product lines and that link to an overall Christie brand identify. You ideally have the ability to prototype at different levels of fidelity for use in evaluation and testing. You will also be expected to contribute to and bring consistency to physical product graphics, labeling and packaging. Ultimately, you will have a role in creating the face of Christie as seen through our product-related visual material.

Desired skills and experience

To meet the challenge of being a Visual Designer you will need:

• A strong portfolio of UI and graphic design work. It should show a breadth of experience and illustrate the entire design process from ideation through to the final design. Note: Applicants must provide a portfolio with their application.
• Exceptional graphic/visual design capabilities including typography, sketching, composition, layout, colour, presentation of information. You will be responsible for creating the final look and feel of our user interfaces.
• Experience documenting design rationale, design specifications, and visual style guidelines.
• Experience in motion graphics.
• Experience in interaction design is an asset. Curiosity and a desire to understand the end user is a must.
• Experience in print graphics is an asset but not necessary.
• Excellent communication skills. Must be able to communicate your ideas at all stages of the design process to a wide variety of audiences.
  Proficiency in a variety of design software applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.
• Experience creating interactive prototypes in Flash, HTML/XHTML, CSS, etc.
• Degree in design or relevant field. Industry experience is an asset.

To apply

Please apply online here. Remember to include a portfolio with your application.

Christie is an equal opportunity employer that does not unlawfully discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion, gender identity, gender expression, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, record of offences, marital status, family status or disability.

Christie is committed to a fair and inclusive work environment. We will endeavor to accommodate the needs of qualified applicants in all parts of the hiring process.

All offers of employment at Christie are conditional upon the successful completion of a background screening. Christie engages a third party vendor to complete all background screening. Your consent is required prior to the process beginning.

Job: User Experience Designer at Blue Coat

Type: One year contract
Location: Waterloo, Ontario
Position: User Experience Designer – 2265BR
Company: Blue Coat

The Company

Blue Coat empowers enterprises to safely and securely choose the best applications, services, devices, data sources, and content the world has to offer, so they can create, communicate, collaborate, innovate, execute, compete and win in their markets. We have a long history of protecting organizations, their data and their employees and are the trusted brand to 15,000 customers worldwide — including 86 percent of the FORTUNE Global 500. With a robust portfolio of intellectual property anchored by more than 200 patents and patents pending, Blue Coat continues to drive innovations that assure business continuity, agility and governance.

The Opportunity

The Waterloo UX group is responsible for the design and evolution of our customers’ user experience. As a User Experience Designer, you work closely with product managers to define use cases and user workflows. You work closely with the software development team to articulate these requirements, enabling the team to deliver elegant and useful user interfaces. The ideal candidate knows how to work with an existing product suite, while also advancing the usability of new solutions.

The typical duties for this position would include:

• Working with Subject Matter Experts, Systems Engineers and end users to ensure that designs meet the task and user goals.
• Designing usable Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)
• Documenting the designs in a structured and traceable manner.
• Writing style guides to ensure consistency and a common look and feel to our products.
• Coordinating and facilitating all phases of usability study preparation, including recruiting, scheduling, questionnaire development, and scenario scripting.
• Performing usability testing on GUIs in both a lab and field setting
• Presenting findings with actionable recommendations, working with team members to help prioritize recommendations into feasible solutions.

The Requirements

We are looking for someone with:

• At least 3 years of user interface design experience, preferably in complex systems.
• Post secondary education in Psychology, Information Systems, Computer Science or related discipline.
• Understanding of interaction design and experience in applying user-centered design methods

The following would be a real plus for the position:

• Ability to translate user needs analysis or other engineering analysis to design requirements.
• Background in requirements gathering (interviewing and observation skills)
• Ability to work in cross-functional teams
• Excellent communication and team working skills
• Ability to create effective documentation
• Graphic design

To Apply

Please apply directly to our corporate web site requisition number 2265BR.

December 2015: What is beautiful software?

Throughout 2015, Matt Nish-Lapidus has been thinking deeply about what it means to be “beautiful” in today’s age of software. He has presented the results at events such as MidwestUX and CanUX — and now, he joins us in Waterloo to share his thoughts and lead a spirited discussion. Hope to see you there!

Thursday December 17, 2015
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Communitech Hub
Atlas/Matrix Room

Beauty doesn’t have to be just skin deep, and many of the best designs throughout history have shown that. The need to make beautiful things is as critical now as it was to designers and architects over the last hundred years, only our materials and outputs have changed dramatically. Beauty is more than a layer on top of the product, it’s not superficial and “nice to have”, it’s a critical part of the human experience.

Every era has a different sense of beauty, from the renaissance through pop-art. Each of these evolutions has accompanied changes in the world, technology, culture, and politics. As the work of designers changes, so does our need to understand beauty and how to make beautiful things to put into the world. Design’s traditional critical language doesn’t adequately account for the aesthetic properties of these new kinds of design outputs and practices. We will explore a frame for beauty that extends tradition and works to evolve how we think about, and do, design in the age of the network.

About Matt Nish-Lapidus

Matt holds a degree in new media art from Ryerson University and has a rich background as a practicing designer, musician, and artist. His work has included everything from the digital library catalog in use by the New York Public Library to enterprise software for hospitals, video games, and large-scale public installations. He spent the first few years of his career assisting international new media artists such as Stelarc, David Rokeby, and Haruki Nishijima, while developing his own art and design practice.

Matt is an independent designer and creative technologist in Toronto, Canada where he focuses on design practice development in for the 21st century, a deign instructor at Sheridan College and CIID, and is also the Vice President of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), a global organization dedicated to the advancement of the interaction design practice.

Please register for this free event

November 2015: Behind the Scenes of UX Research at Microsoft

Please note: For November only, we’ve shifted from our usual date in order to take advantage of a visit from special guests Kimberly and Kristen, from Microsoft HQ in Seattle.

Wednesday November 4, 2015
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Kitchener Public Library, Central Branch
Meeting Room C
85 Queen Street North, Kitchener
[View on map]

What to expect

Over the past few decades, UX research has come a long way from its roots in user acceptance testing and usability engineering. In this talk, Kimberly Tee and Kristen Warren will share what it’s like to do UX research in the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft, working with large teams to build the experiences that support Windows and Xbox.

They will describe some of the UX research methods used at Microsoft to discover, describe, and predict user behavior, and discuss ideas for how some of those could also work at smaller companies.

About the presenters

Kimberly Tee is a User Researcher in Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, working with the Microsoft Edge team on the new web browser for Windows 10. Prior to joining Microsoft, she was a UX Designer and Researcher at SMART Technologies. She completed her MSc in Computer Science and HCI at the University of Calgary, and her BSc in Computer Science at the University of British Columbia.

Kristen Warren is a User Researcher for the Xbox Ecosystem focusing on Social and Identity, including community health and women in gaming. Kristen completed a BA in Psychology at the University of Waterloo and a Masters in HCI from Carleton University. Kristen is published in several domains including Persuasive Systems Design, Bendable Displays, and Motivating Behavior Change through Computer Interfaces.

Note the new location

We’re getting together at Meeting Room C at the newly-renovated central branch of the Kitchener Public Library. This room is located in the basement, accessible through either the elevator or the stairwell adjacent to the main entrance off Queen Street.

Parking is available at meters on nearby side streets, on the surface lot next to the library, or in the library’s underground lot.

Remember that construction will snarl traffic at that time of day, so leave plenty of time to get there!

Please register for this free event

Job: UX Developer at LBMX

Location: London, Ontario

Are you half designer half developer? Do you love to create beautiful and user friendly experiences, then help turn them into a reality? Then you’re the candidate for us.

We (LBMX Inc.) are looking for an individual that can help guide the look, feel and user experience of our line of business applications as an engaged member of our software development team.

The Must Have Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Interaction Design, Information Systems or related discipline.
• 2 or more years of experience in UX design and development.
• Proven ability to coach others on design and development techniques.
• History of designing and building excellent User Experiences.
• Solid understanding of Web Application design principles and what makes a good UX.
• Experience presenting data in a clear and workable fashion to users from a back end services.

The Must Have Technical Qualifications

• Experience programming with an emphasis on developing for the web.
• Expertise utilizing a graphic suite like Adobe Creative Suite.
• Mastery of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and 3rd part JavaScript libraries and frameworks.
• Knowledge of how to properly utilize LESS or SASS.
• Experience with UX testing.

The Nice To Have Qualifications

• Familiarity working with Microsoft Tools and Languages.
• Working knowledge of SQL Server and NoSQL packages.
• Knowledge of MVC and MVVM patterns.
• Familiarity with Telerik Controls.
• Knowledge of software development best practices.
• Previous experience as a member of an agile software development team.

How to apply

E-mail a resume and cover letter with salary expectations to jlediet@lbmx.com. The subject line of your e-mail must read “Job Application – UX Developer”.

Job: Senior User Experience Designer at McAfee

Type: Full-time
Location: Waterloo

As the world’s largest dedicated security technology company, McAfee delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that secure systems and networks around the world, allowing users to securely browse, shop and socialize on the Web through PCs, Macs and mobile devices. Our consumer products now extend well beyond anti-virus to include protection of identity, family, data, and mobile devices. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel, McAfee enjoys the benefits of independent operation but now with Intel’s global reach, access to world-renowned technology leadership, and even greater financial stability.

McAfee’s Consumer division is looking for a full time User Experience Designer to join the Consumer Experience Design team to design user interfaces and experiences that are useful, usable and desirable.

Key Responsibilities

• In this role, you will help create the user interaction model, information architecture, visual design, prototypes, and guidelines for McAfee user interfaces.
• You will create UI requirements based on product requirements, UI guidelines, user research, functional requirements, business goals, and company-wide strategic objectives.
• You will also participate in rapid design exploration and presentation of future product concepts, present ideas and designs in tangible forms (e.g., sketches, graphic mockups, prototypes), and work closely with development teams to ensure that design specifications are implemented accurately and integrate with existing frameworks.
• You may also have the opportunity to participate in or conduct user and design research including: usability studies, ethnographic field research, user surveys, prototype testing, competitive product analysis, and latest industry & design trend research.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years designing user interfaces as a member of a user experience and design team
• Excellent understanding of principles of interface design and use of interactive technologies to build relationships with users
• Understanding of how Interaction Design relates to Web Design and Visual Design in building useful and compelling products
• Proven experience developing innovative and creative solutions to complex problems
• Ability to be self-managed while working on several projects simultaneously in a collaborative environment
• Experience with any of the following a strong plus: HTML/DHMTL, CSS, JavaScript AJAX
• Experience working on Consumer and Mobile products a strong plus
• Bachelors or Masters in Graphic Design, Information Systems, Interface Design, HCI, Human Factors, Computer Science, and/or Cognitive Psychology

To apply

Please apply online for this position.

Job: Senior UX Lead at Quarry

Type: Full-time
Location: St. Jacobs, Ontario

Quarry helps clients connect with their buyers and build their businesses by utilizing the power of customer insight. We leverage deep, global experience in persona development, strategic segmentation, user experience design, digital strategy and solution development, demand generation strategies and tactics, marketing automation, creative services and content asset development, channel marketing, and sales enablement tools to create buying experiences that fit with the way customers want to engage.

Currently, we have an immediate need for a full-time Senior UX Lead to join our fast-paced, talented team. The UX Lead will champion the role, contributions and practices of information, and interaction design, working to bring the power of well-designed experiences to Fortune 500 clients. The UX Lead will work alongside our creative arts, digital development and project management professionals, collaborating firsthand with clients to produce effective designs on time and on budget. As the Senior UX Lead on the team, you will also leverage your leadership and coaching abilities to nurture the talents and contributions of other UX Designers under your supervision

What you’ll be doing:

• Leading and acting as champion for the user throughout the user-centered design process
• Conducting contextual research for user and task analysis
• Gathering and incorporating the needs, requirements and perspectives of product managers and end users into designs
• Generating consistent and compelling user experiences across all products and services you work on
• Constructing prototypes and writing design specifications
• Designing and facilitating usability tests and other assessment activities
• Presenting to both colleagues and clients, as required

What we’re seeking:

• Bachelor’s degree with 4–5 years of industry experience
• Expertise in key tenets of engaging interface design and methods
• Proficiency in designing UI architecture and creating wireframes that address interactions, behaviors and page layout
• The ability to bring simplicity and usability to complicated data interactions and flows
• Experience with Illustrator, Photoshop, Fireworks, Visio, Axure and similar tools is required
• The ability to create functional prototypes would be an asset
• Experience with Responsive Web Design (RWD) principles and practices would be an asset
• An understanding of current front-end web technologies like HTML5, CSS3, etc. would be an asset
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work well as part of a team
• The ability to effectively express ideas and opinions in a constructive and productive manner, both verbally and in writing
• Experience with coaching and leading a team of UX Designers to help them contribute effectively as well as grow in their professional capacity
• A positive and optimistic attitude towards the role, confidence to tackle tough design challenges and a desire to exceed client expectations

About Quarry

Quarry is the buyer experience agency for savvy marketers who want to transform their brands. Our clients span a broad range of industries and audiences, with one element in common: all market highly engineered goods and services across a complex buying journey.

Interested applicants, please send an email to Shelley Facey, Director of People (careers@quarry.com) with your resume and cover letter to let us know why you’re the perfect fit for this role.

June 2015: UX Show and Tell

Have you ever wondered what others in our UX community are working on? What challenges they’ve wrestled with, and what accomplishments they’re proud of? Join us this month to satisfy that curiosity while connecting with your peers in the region.

Event Format

We’ll schedule a series of short presentations followed by round-table discussions with the whole group. Presenters will show examples of their work with the purpose of either:

• receiving useful feedback, or
• sharing effective solutions they’ve created to design problems.

If you don’t want to bring anything to show, you’re more than welcome to attend and contribute to the discussion.

Presenters

Presentation slots are open to anyone who RSVPs. We may not have time to accept all applications, so please tell us a bit about what you have in mind when you RSVP (Meetup will provide a place for you to do this). We’ll then select presentations to ensure a good variety that sparks interesting discussions.

Note that people of all experience levels are invited to participate: you don’t have to be a seasoned expert to show off what you’re working on!

What to Present

Feel free to show deliverables from your current work, old jobs, side projects, or anything else you need help with or think could benefit others.

Drafts, work in progress, and finished products are welcome from across the UX spectrum from research through design in all its flavours. All we ask is that you have something tangible to show and that it will be of general interest (in other words, your demo won’t require knowledge of a niche domain).

Examples include but aren’t limited to:

• Personas, scenarios, and other research artifacts
• Concept and mental model diagrams
• Journey maps
• Wireframes
• Visual comps
• Prototypes
• Finished products

If you have paper artifacts, we suggest capturing digital versions (even photos) so they can be displayed on a projector for all to see. Wireless internet will be available.

Please RSVP for this free event

Remember, we’re now using Meetup.com to manage our monthly sessions. Join us there!

Thursday June 25, 2015
5:30-7:00pm
Boltmade Inc.
187 King St North
2nd Floor
Waterloo, ON
N2J 1R1

[View on Google Maps]

Job: Interaction Designer at Deloitte

Location: Kitchener-Waterloo @ Communitech Hub
Type: Full time

Role Description

We are currently seeking driven and qualified candidates to join our newly formed D{ } Lab (pronounced “D Space Lab”). D{ } is a new, dedicated prototyping lab located within the Communitech Hub, where you will be working alongside some of the brightest startup people within the Kitchener/Waterloo region. You will be part of a new, multi-disciplinary, high performance entrepreneurial team that designs and prototypes innovative solutions that solve complex business problems and helps launch new technology-based business opportunities.

The D{ } team is highly collaborative, focused on building and developing tangible, innovative solutions that are visionary as well as pragmatic. These solutions are software/hardware based and leverage the technologies and concepts in emerging spaces such as 3D printing, wearables, biometric authentication, and the Internet of things.

As an Interaction Designer, you will work with a small team of entrepreneurial-minded developers and co-op students in a unique startup environment. You will need to be curious and nimble explorer of new ideas. You will be asked to wear multiple hats, juggle multiple responsibilities, and apply your creative and technical skills to deliver engaging, innovative and beautiful prototypes for Deloitte and our customers. Leveraging state-of-the-art technologies, you will work on a variety of projects within small agile/scrum teams with a focus on prototypes, design, MVP implementation, and solution validation.

Qualifications

To qualify for our Interaction Designer position, you should possess the following:

• 5-10 years experience on diverse projects across the design lifecycle
• Minimum 3 years experience working on mobile-centric products
• Ability to lead a small team to deliver tangible results
• Ability to be a team-player and action-oriented
• Open-minded and self-driven
• Familiar with agile/scrum/lean UX and enjoy working in a dynamic environment
• Proficient in developing personas, detailed storyboards, mockups, and prototypes for communicating interaction, experiences, and interfaces
• Keen design sense mixed with an empathy for and attentiveness to customer feedback
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Ideally, you have a degree that includes Design (including graphic, visual communications, product, and industrial design), Human-Computer Interaction, and Computer Science (or equivalent through work experience)

You have demonstrated expertise in:

• HTML5, Javascript, CSS, Illustrator, Photoshop, and OnScreen Prototyping Tools
• Information Architecture
• Concept Model Design
• Usability Testing
• Visual UI Development
• Programming skills a bonus

Next steps…

If this sounds like the right next move for you, apply online. If you have some questions, contact Norm Malloch by email at nmalloch at deloitte dot ca.

February 2015: Reasonable people shouldn’t use design thinking

Design Thinking is itself contradictory. It is not about designing and not limited to thinking; it is large and contains multitudes. It also won’t solve your big problem because the problem is, we don’t understand the problem.

Design Thinking provides a guided iterative process of addressing problems that are difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. The outcome sometimes addresses fundamental needs that your users didn’t know they had, which negates — rather than solves — the original big problem. Design thinkers sometimes are required to change reality to what they need it to be, before a solution can be found. This is not a process for reasonable people, as George Bernard Shaw observed: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him… The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself… All progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

In this discussion, David Loop from SAP Canada tells two stories that illustrate how the problems we try to solve are not generally the right problems — and how Design Thinking can help guide us to success.

About the speaker

David Loop is a Senior Design Thinking coach and facilitator for SAP Canada. He has been assisting informatics, business, and industry teams in finding their insights and advancing to solutions. David brings a wealth of knowledge and varied experience to his talk with his past in knowledge management, software development, consulting, education and theatre

Please RSVP for this free event

We manage our monthly events at Meetup.com. Join us there!

Thursday February 19, 2015
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Atlas/Matrix room
Communitech Hub
Kitchener, Ontario

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