User Experience Designer

About the Role

The USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute is seeking a User Experience Designer to help design websites and database-based web applications that are inviting, intuitive, interactive, and can present complex information with simplicity and elegance. You will guide the user experience from research to design to implementation, working collaboratively with a team of talented visual designers, developers, and scientists. The ideal candidate will have worked in-house developing innovative solutions that incorporate a holistic approach and deliver extraordinary user experiences to a wide variety of users.

You will employ a holistic, strategic, and creative approach to create user-centric experiences that support our users' behaviors, needs, and goals as determined through data-driven research and usability testing. You will establish the look and feel for websites and interfaces for desktop and mobile that incorporate appropriate brand guidelines.

About the Institute

The USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute and Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (INI, www.ini.usc.edu) are world leaders in the development of advanced computational and scientific approaches for the comprehensive mapping of brain structure and function. LONI’s unique multidisciplinary environment and cutting-edge resources allow for the integration of clinical, psychological, and genotypic information with neuroimaging phenotypes for research questions in neurology, psychiatry, and developmental neurobiology.

Qualifications

• Minimum of four years of work experience as an information architect, interaction designer, user experience designer, or similar role.
• Solid understanding of the best practices and principles of visual design, user-centered design, interaction design, and responsive web design.
• Ability to capture requirements via stakeholders and domain research.
• Ability to create information architecture diagrams, user experience workflow diagrams, wireframes, proof-of-concepts, interactive prototypes, and conduct user testing.
• Ability to communicate design approaches to different audiences, including non-designers.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to multitask.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Online portfolio required.
• Experience designing complex data visualizations and in-depth knowledge of content management systems is a plus.
• A degree in interaction design, information architecture, or equivalent is preferred but optional.
• Minimum Education: Bachelor's degree.
• Minimum Experience: 4 years in user-centered design, research, modeling, testing, and assessment.
• Minimum Field of Expertise: Bachelor’s degree in visual design, computer science, human-computer interaction (HCI), psychology, or related discipline.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of front-end development, design principles, and information architecture practices, methodologies, tools and services.
• Strong knowledge of current/relevant web and applications technologies, trends and standards.
• Expertise in creating a variety of design documentation including (but not limited to) user scenarios, task flows, conceptual models, personas, competitor analysis, heuristic analysis, wireframes, and prototypes.

Responsibilities

• Conduct user tests and analyze how our users think and behave in pursuing their goals.
• Brainstorm, storyboard, wireframe, and prototype to support a variety of experiences.
• Present drafts to communicate processes and iterate based on feedback to meet user needs.
• Prepare design assets for development and collaborate with developers to ensure successful implementation.
• Collaborate with management, scientists, designers, and developers to ensure users’ needs are met and expectations exceeded.

Compensation

The annual base salary range for this position is $114,510 - $130,000. When extending an offer of employment, the University of Southern California considers factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the candidate’s work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, federal, state, and local laws, contractual stipulations, grant funding, as well as external market and organizational considerations.

Key skills/competency

• User Experience (UX) Design
• Information Architecture
• Interaction Design
• User-Centered Design
• Wireframing
• Prototyping
• User Testing
• Responsive Web Design
• Data Visualization
• Content Management Systems