UX Designer

Note: APA operates on a 37.5-hour work week with one-hour lunch breaks each day. APA sets salaries based on several considerations, including years of relevant experience, level of education, and previous staff and/or governance experience at APA.

This is a 1-year, time-certain position.

We are looking for a user experience (UX) designer able to understand our business requirements and any technical limitations, as well as be responsible for conceiving and conducting user research, interviews, and surveys, and translating them into sitemaps, user flows, customer journey maps, wireframes, mockups and prototypes, and in some cases, delivering front end code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript).

The UX designer will also be expected to design the overall functionality of the product, and in order to ensure a great user experience, iterate upon it in accordance with user testing. The UX designer should also use analytics to inform all designs.

The UX designer will also help maintain and frequently contribute to a Pattern Library, which showcases responsive and accessible patterns and styles which will be used on APA's web applications. Also, the UX designer will help build out a Persona Library to use for UX discovery tasks on all of APA's web applications which serve multiple audiences.

In addition, the UX Designer weaves iconography, typography, color, space and texture together to help our users successfully navigate our products. We believe that all our products should be beautiful and accessible. The designs should inspire, engage, and excite users.

Education and Experience Required

• BA or MA with focus in user-centered design; or 2 years equivalent experience working as an UX/interaction designer. Preference will be given to candidates who have experience designing complex solutions for complete digital environments.

• Experience in using UX design best practices to design solutions, and a deep understanding of mobile-first and responsive design.
• Familiarity with the agile methodology/scrum is preferred.

• Ability to communicate complex interaction concepts clearly and persuasively across different audiences and various levels of the organization.
• Strong communication and teamwork skills that will ensure success in working across organizational boundaries.
• Strong interpersonal skills, advocating agile approaches and customer focus in everything that is worked on.
• Strong learning mentality, continuously seeking to improve processes and growth opportunities for team members as well as the individual.
• Strong knowledge of how to collect, measure, and translate customer feedback.
• Good time management skills to ensure deadlines are met.

• Ability to work with clients to understand detailed requirements and design complete user experiences that meet client needs and vision.
• Knowledge of user-centered design (UCD), planning and conducting user research, user testing, A/B testing, rapid prototyping, heuristic analysis, and usability, and concerns.
• Knowledge of web accessibility (we strive for WCAG 2.2 AA compliance).
• Desired knowledge with AI tools for UX design and processes (e.g., Figma Make).
• Ability to iterate designs and solutions efficiently and intelligently.
• Ability to clearly and effectively communicate design processes, ideas, and solutions to teams and clients.
• Understands the importance of user-centered design and design thinking.
• Ability to work effectively in a team setting including synthesizing abstract ideas into concrete design implications.
• Be excited about collaborating and communicating closely with teams and other stakeholders via a distributed model, to regularly deliver design solutions for approval.
• Be passionate about resolving user pain points through great design.
• Be open to receiving feedback and constructive criticism.
• Be passionate about all things UX and other areas of design and innovation. Research and showcase knowledge in the industry's latest trends and technologies.

Computer Skills Required

• Skilled in HTML and CSS.
• Basic computer programming skills in JavaScript and other popular programming platforms (e.g., Angular).
• Knowledge of wireframing/prototyping software (e.g., Figma).
• Knowledge of usability testing tools.
• Desired knowledge with Bitbucket/Git and AWS, Salesforce Lightning Design System (SLDS) and the Google Suite (Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console).

Responsibility

• Translate concepts into user flows, wireframes, mockups, and prototypes that lead to intuitive user experiences.
• Facilitate the client's product vision by researching, conceiving, sketching, prototyping, and user-testing experiences for digital products.
• Design and deliver wireframes, user stories, user journeys, and mockups optimized for a wide range of devices and interfaces.
• Help maintain and contribute to the department's Pattern and Persona Libraries.
• Work together with the Web Team in their designs (using Figma) and work with their CMS (Tridion).
• Create A/B testing experiments and usability tests and run them.
• Work across organizational boundaries with Marketing, Designers, and Product Owners to define, manage and prioritize work.
• Identify design problems and devise elegant solutions.
• Make strategic design and user-experience decisions related to core, and new, functions and features.
• Take a user-centered design approach and rapidly test and iterate your designs.
• Collaborate with other team members and stakeholders.
• Ask smart questions, take risks, and champion new ideas.

Other Duties as Assigned:

• Work on search engine optimization (SEO) and analytics tasks for all web applications.

About APA:

The American Psychological Association (APA) represents 146,000 psychologists, students, and affiliates, primarily in the U.S. and Canada but also in other countries around the world. APA is a scientific and professional organization with about 500 employees and is categorized as a 501(c)(3) along with its 501(c)(6) companion organization, APA Services, Inc.

APA offers a generous employee benefits program, including Remote Work/Flexible Scheduling; a 401(k) option with employer match of up to 4%; medical, dental, and vision insurance options and an outpatient mental health benefit; paid personal/vacation time plus 12 paid holidays; Family/Medical Leave; tuition assistance; an Employee Assistance Program (EAP); short- and long-term disability insurance; and more.

Job Location: Remote: APA jobs may be considered for remote work eligibility as defined in APA's Flexible Work Policy and are subject to approval. Remote work employees may not work from the following states or U.S. territories: Alaska, California, Colorado, Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, U.S. Virgin Islands, Washington, Wyoming.

Application Instructions:

Qualified candidates must apply online through APA's applicant system and attach a resume and cover letter specifying your salary expectations. Applications that are submitted without both documents are considered incomplete and will not be reviewed for consideration. Once your application is submitted, you will receive a confirmation email. Please make sure to check your Spam folder if you do not receive an email from us.

The American Psychological Association is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected categories covered under local law.