TribeHR is an early stage startup in Waterloo, building a refreshingly simple Human Resources application for small and medium business. If you’re looking to see the fruits of your labor used and loved by customers and if you’re excited by the idea of participating in the creation of a new company, we are the place. Our team hustles, and we’re looking for people who are up for the challenge of keeping pace.
We are looking for a creative UX/UI designer to continue to build the company’s brand online and offline in the field of human resources software. We’re looking for someone who already has experience designing successful web applications. We have a high performing team and if you enjoy the thrill of working with a group that will push you to do the best work you’ve ever done, then you might be the right person.
This person will:
Maintain existing designs and interfaces
Help define new experiences, workflows, and architectures for new features
Conduct user research and testing
Apply principles of interaction design to designing UI, behaviour, and page layout
Generate simple, creative solutions to usability problems.
We iterate quickly and this role will have the opportunity to influence the rest of the development team and product direction. The ideal candidate will have:
A passion for design and user experience.
Examples of work that demonstrate your abilities in interaction and visual design for the Web.
Solid understanding of UI design principles and user-centered design methodologies.
Strong communication and presentation skills.
Hardworking, flexible, and effective in multi-disciplinary teams.
Expertise with design tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.
Fluency in HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Experience designing for mobile apps and web pages will be an asset. Interested? Apply here.
The location for our next event, “Pixels Everywhere!” by Bob Rushby, has been moved to the Google office. If you haven’t yet visited The Hub, here’s your chance to check out this amazing new space!
Thursday June 16, 2010 5:30 to 7:00 pm
Google Waterloo
151 Charles Street West, Suite 200
Kitchener, ONT
[Map]
Desire2Learn makes industry-leading web-based enterprise eLearning systems. Our products are used by hundreds of clients to deliver accredited courses for both on-campus and distance education programs. Our applications deliver material to millions of users worldwide every single day.
Product Designers are responsible for taking requirements from Product Management and refining and translating them into detailed functional specifications that support the overall product strategy. The Product Designers will work with clients, partners, as well as stakeholders from several business units to ensure functionality meets the needs of our targeted markets. Additionally, the Product Designer will assist the Product Manager with assessing cross product and operational impacts of proposed development projects.
Division/Department: Product Development Type of Position: Full-time Location: Kitchener, Ontario
Main Duties
Researches market trends, competitive offerings and industry standards to ensure that designs are informed and complete
Facilitates user-centered design process by conducting focus groups, running surveys and interacting with our user community
Refines and details user and functional requirements as laid out by the Product Manager
Conducts design reviews with internal and external stakeholders
Initiates and manages communications with these parties, escalates to Product Manager when needed
Creates and maintains detailed production-level functional specifications
Creates detailed product designs to meet functional specifications
Utilizes mock-up tools to prepare product prototypes
Works with Architecture and Quality Assurance to ensure feasibility of detailed design
Works with Usability Specialists to ensure adherence to best practices, define usability testing requirements and make appropriate design changes based on design reviews
Work Experience Recommendations
1-3 years of experience directly related to the duties listed above
Superior technical writing skills
Strong analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills
Familiar with web technologies and Software Development Life Cycle
Knowledge of web services and distributed web-based systems
Familiar with Web 2.0, JavaScript, AJAX, XML and other leading-edge web technologies
Proven experience managing people and projects an asset
Education Recommendations
Bachelors degree or equivalent in a technical field with high academic achievement
This is your opportunity to make a big impact in the area of next-generation eLearning applications! Candidates that have the combination of skills and abilities as outlined are invited to submit their qualifications in confidence today.
Some of you may remember Sam Ladner’s presentation to UX Waterloo back in February, in which she mentioned a research project on mobile technology. Sam’s delighted to announce that she’s starting the recruitment phase of this project. More from Sam below.
Call for Participation in Research on Work/Life Balance and Mobile Technology
Are you a smartphone user? Do you want to know more about how this device is affecting our lives? We want to talk to you!
Ryerson University is seeking to recruit smartphone users to participate in a social research study on mobile technology. Hosted at the Ted Rogers School of Management, this project asks the simple question: what happens when workplace technologies like the BlackBerry come into the household? The research team is looking to recruit people who have used a smartphone for work and personal use for the last six months, preferably in the Greater Toronto Area.
The research will be publicly available. We will be sharing white papers and conference presentations with the community at large. Those interested in mobile technology will learn more about how individuals use their phones at home, the kinds of content they typically use, and what frustrates them about current software and hardware design.
All participants will remain completely anonymous.
Participants will be visited at home by a researcher, who will conduct an interview and will spend time visiting and observing the participant’s home experience with their smartphone. All participation is strictly confidential.
Recruitment will begin in April, with field work happening throughout the spring and summer. Participants from across the country will be considered, but those in Southern Ontario are preferred. The project is being lead by Dr. Sam Ladner, postdoctoral research fellow, and co-principal investigators Dr. Catherine Middleton and Dr. Ozgur Oturetken.
Tuesday March 22, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]
An evening of bite-sized ideas
This month, we’re harking back to our roots to repeat one of the very first events we held in 2007: the 7-minute soapbox. At this fast-paced event, we’re giving people a chance to share ideas about UX — for no more than seven minutes each.
If you prefer simply to take it all in, you’re welcome to participate as an audience member. But of course you’re sure to have the most fun by stepping onto the soapbox yourself!
Format
You get up to seven minutes on the soapbox to talk about anything related to user experience. At seven minutes: BZZZZZZT! You’re done. After each soapbox talk, we’ll spend a few minutes in discussion or Q&A.
Visual aids are not required, but feel free to use them if you’d like. We’ll have a laptop hooked up to a projector and speakers. If you have a Powerpoint or Keynote presentation, bring it along on a USB drive or email it to uxgroup@gmail.com in advance. The laptop will also be connected to the Internet if you’d like to demonstrate something online. Available browsers include Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.
Topics
Anything goes, as long as it’s related to user experience. Obvious choices might include design (product, Web, interaction, industrial), usability, and information architecture, but please don’t feel limited by those examples. Our field draws from so many disciplines that we couldn’t possibly list them all.
Want some ideas? Here’s a short list to get you thinking:
Question something you’ve read recently.
Make observations about current trends.
Predict the future.
Share a design problem you’re facing.
Rant about a device you don’t like.
Effuse about your favorite product.
Show some results from a usability test.
Relate an experience from work.
Ask the crowd for advice on improving something.
Perform an interpretive dance on applying game mechanics to enterprise software. (Someone please do this, it’d be a real crowd pleaser.)
No sales pitches, please!
Besides the 7-minute time limit, that’s our only other rule. Please do not sell anything. The goal of this event is to share ideas.
You’re welcome to demonstrate something you’ve worked on. In fact, we love hearing from each other in this way. But please do so in the spirit of teaching or sharing ideas: use your work to illustrate a more general theme or issue about UX.
Thursday February 24, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]
Event description
How do you know which design research method is the “right one” for your project? This month, sociologist and design researcher Dr. Sam Ladner will discuss how research methodologists go about answering that question. Designers rarely get to study research methodology in design school or on the job, so this session will give you the tools to think through research design options. Sam will also discuss a recent research proposal involving the use of mobile phones and how she came to recommend a particular research direction. Designers who are tired of the “how many people did you talk to” question will love this session!
Video introduction
About the speaker
Sam Ladner, PhD, is founder and principal consultant with Copernicus Consulting Group. She uses a range of social research methods including interviewing, observation, ethnography, and survey research. She consults Fortune 1000 companies on digital product design, organizational change, and the social aspects of technological innovation. She also trains and mentors designers, marketers, and account planners on research methodology. She has consulted companies including Citibank, Dell, GSK, VeriSign and Genentech. She is currently teaching in the graduate program at the Ontario College of Art and Design. She holds a PhD in sociology from York University. Follow Sam on Twitter.
Register today
This event is free, but we ask that you please register so we can predict turnout.
This is a full-time position in Waterloo, Ontario.
Enflick, Inc. is a fast growing Waterloo startup creating mobile solutions that expand the potential of today’s leading mobile platforms. With multiple highly acclaimed apps on the iPhone platform, we are looking to further enhance our product line as well as diversify our portfolio to more platforms. Amongst other products, Enflick’s flagship products TextNow and PingChat! are top seller apps in the iTunes App Store.
We are seeking a highly talented individual to take the role of designing the user experience for Enflick’s mobile applications. We are offering extremely competitive compensation for the right candidates.
Responsibilities
Design user interfaces for mobile applications on Android, BlackBerry and iPhone.
Develop high level and/or detailed storyboards, wireframes, and prototypes to effectively communicate interaction and design ideas and validate proposed designs with product development.
Work with the product management team to analyze customer/product requirements and propose application solutions to be developed.
Provide interface design expertise and review from concept development through delivery.
Requirements
1+ years of experience in commercial user interface design experience for mobile platforms (Android, Blackberry, iPhone)
Passionate for design and user experience
Proficient in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, etc.
Understanding of interaction design for mobile platforms
Excellent interpersonal, communication and teamwork skills
A degree in visual or graphic design related studies or equivalent
How to apply
To apply for this position, please email your cover letter and resume to jobs@enflick.com. If possible, please include your portfolio to demonstrate your past work in user experience design.
Monday April 19, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 (Then drinks afterwards if you’re interested!)
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]
A chance to share our work and learn from each other
This month we’re hosting our first UX Show and Tell, an event that’s become fairly popular with other IxDA and UX-related groups around the world. It’s no wonder, as it’s quite a lot of fun and is a great way to learn from each other.
Bring examples of anything from your work: research artifacts, personas, sketches, wireframes, design comps, prototypes, documents… anything goes. Tell us a challenge you faced. Or show us a problem you solved. Bring a question you have, or simply show off something you’re proud of.
We’ll keep things brief, so please choose only one or two pages from that 5-pound design specification.
Do I NEED to bring something to show?
No, it’s not required that you bring something to show. But we certainly encourage you do so, as you’ll be surprised how much fun it can be. Remember, you don’t have to show a lot. Even a single screenshot can be plenty. And yes, you DO have something that others would find interesting or valuable!
RSVPs requested
If you’re hoping to attend, please click here to RSVP via Communitech. As usual, everyone’s welcome to join us, so spread the word!
Join us for informal drinks and chitchat afterwards
After the event ends at 7:00, we’re planning to get together at a nearby pub or restaurant. If this sounds like fun, just hang out for a few minutes afterwards while we see who’s interested and decide where to go.
As the above parody so hilariously illustrates, we have yet see tabletop interfaces in every home. We’re at least a few years away from finding them in Best Buy or Future Shop. However, specialized markets for these devices are indeed emerging — and new applications are on the horizon. This month, Stacey Scott will overview some of the digital tabletop research being conducted in the Collaborative Systems Laboratory at the University of Waterloo. She’ll focus on two specific application areas: military command and control operations, and digital board gaming.
Even before Microsoft announced the Surface system in 2007, the Human-Computer Interaction community was actively researching digital tabletop technologies since Pierre Wellner proposed the DigitalDesk in 1991. Yet only recently have hardware and software advances begun to make digital tabletops a feasible technology for real-world markets. Innovations in operating systems (e.g., Microsoft 7), development environments (e.g., Windows Presentation Foundation), and input technologies (e.g., FTIR and TouchCo “multitouch” technologies) are enabling a move beyond proof-of-concept tabletop systems. We’re also well beyond simple demonstrations of new interface metaphors and interaction techniques for manipulating and sharing digital photos.
RSVPs requested
If you’re hoping to attend, please help us anticipate numbers by registering here RSVP’ing to Wanda Eby at Communitech. Thanks!
About the speaker
Stacey Scott is an Assistant Professor of Human Systems Engineering in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Scott received her Ph.D. in Computer Science (specializing in Human-Computer Interaction and Computer-Supported Collaboration) from the University of Calgary in 2005. She received her B.Sc. in Computing Science and Mathematics from Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS) in 1997. She completed two years of postdoctoral studies in the Humans and Automation Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA) from 2005-2007, where she developed awareness technologies to facilitate collaborative decision-making in time-critical military command and control operations.
Dr. Scott’s graduate research focused on understanding collaborative tabletop work practices with traditional media and developing interface design requirements for digital tabletop platforms. She is now combining this previous theoretical and high-level requirements work with the applied research experience gained in her postdoc to pursue the development of digital tabletop systems that support real-world collaboration in complex task domains. In general, her research interests include computer-supported collaboration, large-screen displays, interface and interaction design, and information visualization.
After 10 years in the field, I woke up one day to realise that my service as a UX practitioner had become a commodity. Usability had become the “in thing” and everyone could do it and show that their products were better than the competition. Usability as a buzzword, populated Product Lifecycle processes in many organizations. So it comes as no suprise when the general attitude of stakeholders these days is one of a shopper saying: “One McUser Experience with usability fries please.”
On January 18, Kem will lead us into a deep dive on this question of whether our practice has become commoditized. Are we producing goods or services that lack differentiation? Is it a problem that user experience is concerned with aesthetics? Can anyone do our job?
Hope you can join us for what’s sure to be a lively, perhaps even heated, UX Group get-together!
RSVPs requested
If you’re hoping to attend, please help us anticipate numbers by RSVP’ing to Wanda Eby at Communitech. Thanks!
uxWaterloo is a professional interest community for anyone concerned about improving the “user experience” of products and services. User experience (or UX) is a somewhat vague term, but we’ve chosen it deliberately because it speaks to the broad range of people and professions who are involved. Located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, we meet once a month and engage in a range of activities. Interested? Learn more about us, or check out our next event.
Join uxWaterloo
To join the group and receive alerts about upcoming events, please sign up (it's free!) with the User Experience Design peer group at Communitech's website.
NOTE: Given our joint relationship with IxDA, Communitech has waived their usual requirement that only paying members may join peer groups. When signing up, please disregard the notice stating "P2P groups are only available to Communitech Members". Thanks, Communitech!
Email change or opt-out?
To leave our mailing list or change your contact info, please send your request to Wanda Eby at Communitech.
