[Sigia-l] JOB: interaction designer, Redwood City, CA, Full-time

[dytguard-online at yahoo.com]

Niku Corporation in Redwood City, CA, is looking for a
full-time "web producer," which at Niku means a
combination of UI design, interaction design, and
information architecture with some graphic design,
usability, product management, and test engineering
thrown in the mix.

Send cover letter and resume to job at niku.com and put
WEBPROD in the subject line.  Please submit work
samples if possible.

[JOB DESCRIPTION]
The Development department at Niku is responsible for
developing state-of-the-art, web-based enterprise
applications. We develop a flexible,
highly-customizable suite of applications that provide
solutions for portfolio management, project
management, financial management, collaboration,
knowledge management, resource management, opportunity
management, capacity planning, budgeting and
forecasting, time and expense management, data mining
and reports.  As a member of this team, you will be
working closely with other team members to design the
look and feel and flow of Niku's native web
applications.

[JOB RESPONSIBILITIES]
*    Participating in requirements gathering, scoping,
storyboarding and wire frames/schematics, writing use
cases and functional specifications, developing site
maps, prototyping, functional and UI verification, bug
logging and minor bug fixing 
*    Collaborating extensively with architects,
software engineers, test engineers, and documentation
on varied types of projects from point releases to
full releases to product vision demos 
*    Defining, maintaining, and enforcing UI rules 
*    Periodic overhauls to the UI to match the
evolving vision of the product 
*    Following process and suggesting process
improvements 

[REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS]
*    Experience designing web applications, ***not
just small e-commerce sites or static websites***
*    Extensive knowledge of HTML and CSS 
*    Proficiency in Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop 
*    Should have a thorough understanding of software
development processes and methodologies and knowledge
of complete product development life cycle
*    Working knowledge of JavaScript, XML/XSL 
*    Proven ability to define the creative vision of a
product 
*    Experience with information architecture,
prototyping and designing GUIs, and defining and
enforcing UI rules 
*    Familiarity with usability practices, use case
development, technical documentation, and test
engineering (QA) procedures 
*    Aware of Section 508/accessibility issues as well
as cross-browser compatibility and localization
requirements 
*    Excellent interpersonal, verbal, written, and
analytical skills 
*    Ability to multitask while maintaining attention
to detail 
*    BA/BS required (HCI, Information Services or a
related field) 
*    Local applicants only

[DESIRED QUALITIES]
*    Proficiency with Macromedia Dreamweaver 4.0/MX 
*    Programming background 
*    Knowledge of portfolio/project management,
resource management, financial management, or
reporting tools 

[IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION]
*    Our product is a web-based enterprise application
intended to do work (think tables and hierarchies) so
experience with Flash is not very pertinent.
*    While graphic design experience is welcome, and
occasionally new icons are needed, most of the daily
work involves creating new features from UI patterns
we have already, so storyboarding, wireframing, and
quick prototyping skills are more important that
graphic design skills.
*    Enforcing consistency is a prime directive, so
you must get acquainted with thousands of screens in
our app.  Also, several weeks of each release cycle
are spent on UI bug logging and fixing.
*    Our functionality is very complex and requires
strong analytical skills.  For instance, can you
design a clean, simple, usable page flow and UI to
create business object attributes that should appear
one way for one division and another way for another
division, and be managed by different division
administrators but still be centrally controlled? 
Such analytical skills are necessary to succeed in
this position.