Startup Weekend wants YOU!

Got any plans for the first weekend of February? Yes? Well, cancel them. Because you’re starting a company instead.

This year’s edition of Startup Weekend happens at the Communitech Hub on February 6-8, and UX designers are a hot commodity. Anyone is welcome to pitch a startup idea, then teams organically form to turn the top ideas into reality. It’s a 54 hour frenzy of business model creation, coding, designing, and market validation. And it’s loads of fun.

Check out the details and get registered.

Job: Information Architect at Kobo

Company: Kobo
Location: Toronto, Ontario

Work downtown at one of Canada’s most exciting tech companies and design software architecture for our top-rated Device portfolio.

At Kobo, Information Architects design user interfaces, inform functional specifications, perform competitive reviews and create flows, wireframes and process maps. You must be able to visualize concepts quickly and clearly.

Ideally, you will have at least 5-7 years of experience, a portfolio of successful projects, be extremely proficient in site-mapping and wire-framing software, and possess a keen eye for detail. You will also require significant experience developing mobile applications. The successful applicant will have experience developing applications for mobile devices, tablets and the web.

Information Architects work closely with the Product Owners and Team Leads to determine scope and prioritize feature sets, with the development team to ensure their designs are implemented as intended, and the Usability team to ensure designs and implementations are user friendly.

You should have excellent verbal communications skills and be able to rationalize your designs. You welcome feedback and see collaboration as a natural part of the creative process.

Key Responsibilities

• Conceive, design and prototype useful, usable, and compelling user experiences and user interfaces for mobile applications (represented by scenarios, paper prototypes, storyboards, wireframes, site maps, screen flows, etc.).
• Document user interface requirements
• Apply domain knowledge, user interface design best practices, and knowledge of emerging UX related presentation/gestural technologies.
• Bring strong design, conceptual and problem-solving skills to translate conceptual ideas (business needs and user goals) into simple yet meaningful user interfaces.
• Have a keen understanding of (and interest in) visual design, and enjoy working with graphic designers.
• Assess data from multiple sources (product requirements, tech constraints, UX research, web analytics) and synthesize it in order to develop efficient user scenarios, taxonomies, classification schemes, navigation systems, design patterns, etc.
• Create and effectively present UX deliverables (wireframes, workflows, paper prototypes, etc.) to explain and negotiate design solutions to key stakeholders.
• Help define, request and incorporate relevant and recent UX research and data from customer feedback to appropriately inform design decisions.
• Help define UX performance metrics
• Uphold UX guiding principles and style in project execution.
• Create, maintain and share project documentation and UX guidelines after project execution.
• Develop competitive assessments and perform site/application/device reviews.

Required Skills

• Applicants should have 5-7 years interaction design experience in a product development context
• Must have experience in developing mobile applications
• Is up-to-date on User Interface Guidelines for small and large devices, and knowledgeable about best practices for touch screen devices
• Embrace and champion a collaborative approach in resolving difficult design questions and issues
• Ability to successfully execute multiple projects and tasks simultaneously
• Ability to quickly visualize concepts through sketching or other rapid prototyping methods (experience with Axure a plus)
• Ability to help define site strategies, concepts, content and features
• Experience developing user personas, functional specifications and wireframes
• Understanding of HTML, DHTML, and JavaScript and the capabilities of web browsers, mobile applications and user interactions
• Strong time management skills, is self-motivated, organized and accountable

Apply now!

Job: Interactive Designer at Kobo

Company: Kobo
Location: Toronto, Ontario

Conceive, design and support the implementation of projects with a focus on the visual appearance and interaction design of products, applications and web initiatives.

The range of responsibility in this role requires working closely with members of the UX team, developers, QA and product managers to initiate new features and deliver on approved design requests.

Key Responsibilities

• Produce high-fidelity creative with multiple options for feedback.
• Responsible for creating user interface designs, graphics, icons, colour schemes, layouts and some wireframes.
• Ensure consistency and brand attributes are represented consistently across multiple software applications and experiences.
• Apply domain knowledge, user interface design best practices, and knowledge of emerging UX standards.
• Work closely with other members of the UX team to solve problems and offer multiple options and alternatives to interface and interaction challenges.
• Support the development and quality assurance teams to help optimize the user experience iteratively in an agile development and design environment.
• Share and communicate designs with team members for feedback, implementation limitation considerations and assist in creating stories for sprint planning.
• Monitor and review the execution of the designs through the development cycle.
• Process and deliver graphical assets for developers as required for implementation.
• Create and share detailed layout specifications of final mocks.
• Flash device(s) with the latest build to ensure accurate implementation compared against final designs.
• Attend daily scrums to share information.
• Explore examples of other product designs for inspiration, animations, gestures, layouts, and interaction for future reference.
• Keep up to date on design trends to ensure our designs are current and relevant to the business.
• Strive for and support the creation of highly usable software experiences
• Support usability team members with information required for testing.
• Observe usability testing for design iteration considerations and offer feedback as needed.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Proficiency in industry standard software programs: Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator specifically) in a Mac environment.
• Experience designing mobile applications and websites; in particular designing for small and large devices with knowledge about best practices for touch screen devices.
• The ability to multi-task across multiple projects simultaneously.
• Problem-solving skills and the ability to translate conceptual ideas into high-fidelity creative.

Apply now!