[Sigia-l] JOB: IA at Blurb (San Francisco)

[Chad Jennings]

SENIOR IA-UE DESIGNER
Blurb, Inc, San Francisco (Full Time)

If you never get on a bus or a plane without at least one book in  
hand, you could be the ideal candidate to join Blurb (www.blurb.com),  
a venture-backed startup located in downtown San Francisco near  
public transit and ferries.

Since people first put ink to papyrus, books have captured our best  
thinking, learning and experiences. They are the legacy that each  
generation provides for the next. Everywhere you look, new technology  
is letting regular people participate in parts of our culture once  
accessible only to the elite few. Today, anyone with Web access can  
share their opinions online, with the click of a mouse. In the same  
way, Blurb helps ordinary people express their passions and record  
their experiences in books to share with their families, communities  
and the world.

We’re developing a complete platform that allows anyone – blogger,  
chef, marketer, parent, student, traveler, etc -- to create  
professional-quality books.  You can create one book as affordably as  
five hundred.  We're putting the power of traditional print  
publishers into everybody's hands. We believe in books, and the  
people who make them, too. In the weeks and months to come, we'll be  
launching a community of authors and bookmaking specialists – a place  
to find the content, camaraderie, inspiration and guidance to make  
your books everything they can be.

This is your chance to join an exciting company in the early stages  
of our development.

:: ENVIRONMENT
Blurb is a startup, which means you’ll likely wear multiple hats and  
be involved in various aspects of building and running the business.   
We are looking for smart people who learn fast, solve problems, and  
get the job done.  Our products are focused on the user experience,  
so you will need to be. We have a world-class team drawn from  
companies such as Apple, Intuit, Corbis, Kodak, Microsoft, Taschen  
Publishers, Chronicle Books, Smart design, MetaDesign, Method, Lonely  
Planet and Sony.

:: RESPONSIBILITIES
• Be a true advocate for our customers and help fulfill our vision of  
continually building usable, useful, and desirable products and services
• Plan and facilitate qualitative user research to define experience  
models, product strategy and requirements
• Define, document, prioritize and track user requirements for  
Blurb's online and software products
• Employ human-centered design processes and tools including  
experience models, personas, use scenarios, prototypes, sitemaps,  
wireframes, task flows, etc...
• Audit competitive products, documenting best practices and  
opportunities
• Actively and effectively mentor, teach, contribute to and promote  
the growth of the user experience team within the company
• Facilitate brainstorms and work sessions with cross-disciplinary teams
• Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate.
• This position reports to the VP of Design and User Experience

:: QUALIFICATIONS
• At least 4 years of experience developing interactive products as  
an Experience designer, Information architect, or Interaction designer
• A degree in a related field, such as human-computer interaction,  
design planning, library science, graphic design, or industrial design
• Experience developing and applying user-centered design processes,  
techniques, and tools.
• Demonstrate excellent communication skills with staff, peers,  
management and executives
• Demonstrate and model deep understanding of the value of other  
disciplines, and their interaction with design/ user experience
• Exceptional information presentation (graphic and written) experience
• Experience running, assisting or moderating end-user testing
• Previous experience in a small and multidisciplinary environment
• Previous experience designing for AJAX or Ruby on Rails web  
applications a plus
• A love of books and an eye for design.

:: RECENT PRESS
• NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/technology/20basics.html
• Demo 2006 conference: http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/ 
demo2006/62972.html
• CNet: http://news.com.com/1606-2_3-6037127.html?tag=ne.vid
• Springwise: http://www.springwise.com/media_publishing/ 
a_publisher_for_anyone/
• Business Week: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/02/demo_show/ 
index_01.htm?chan=tc?campaign_id=rss_tech

:: INTERESTED?
Please email your resume and a URL to examples of work to  
designjobs at blurb.com