UX Designer

General

There are four (4) distinct delivery phases in which user experience designers (task based I&IT consultants) produce deliverables following Ontario Digital Service Design playbook, which outlines the standard process for user experience design.

Delivery Phase 1) Discovery:

Before building a solution, a project team needs to find out whether users need it and whether other solutions exist. The UX Designer’s responsibilities during this phase are to build an understanding of the problem space/statement, the long and short-term business goals, and the user and business needs.

Deliverables:

• Facilitate the Kick-off meeting with the project team to produce such outputs as:

• • Business Model Canvas
  • 5 Whys
  • User Personas
  • Stakeholder Mapping
  • Strategy Map
  • Short- and Long-Term Goals
  • Fears and Challenges
  • Problem Statement
  • Facilitate user research activities to produce such outputs as:
    
    

• • User interview topic Maps, a summary of interrelated topics for the user interview
  • User Interview Scripts to plan and guide user discussion
  • User Interview Synthesis (collection, aggregation and analysis) of written observations recorded during each interview
  • User research findings report
  • Inception (Science Fair Day):
    
    

• • Showcases the work and key findings from this stage to stakeholders outside of the core project team
  • Aligns entire team (business, technical) on what the next steps will be
  • Planning activities for next phase (Alpha)
  • Other deliverables typically delivered in this phase include:
    
    

• • User Storyboard to communicate a story through images displayed in a sequence of panels that chronologically maps the story’s main events.
  • Technical Service Blueprint, a diagram that displays the entire process of service delivery including support systems by listing all the activities that happen at each stage, performed by the different roles involved
  • Defined business Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
    

Delivery Phase 2) Alpha:

Alpha is about testing hypotheses and experimentation. The purpose of Alpha is to determine how to meet the user needs that were identified in discovery. This phase is an opportunity to quickly test different approaches with users before building a service.

Deliverables:

• Optionally conduct Google Ventures five (5) Day Design Sprint (or variation). This sprint is a five (5) day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers
• Produce “clickable” prototypes of multiple possible solutions
• Validate “clickable” prototypes with users through usability testing sessions and produce research findings report
• Iterate (improve) on “clickable” prototypes with insights garnered from research findings report
• Identify and document existing processes or policies that will need to change to support the new product or service
• Produce a business proposal to justify funding for the next phase (Beta)
• Define a clear vision for the solution that will be built in Beta
• Create a plan and prioritized list of features to be completed in the Beta phase
• Define user solution, and delivery of KPIs
  
  

Delivery Phase 3) Beta:

The goal of Beta is to build a real service that works well for a larger group of people. The prototypes that were developed and tested during Alpha are used to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for deployment in a live, user-facing environment. Executed within the context of Scrum methodology, the UX Designer performs the following Agile ceremonies: Stand-up meetings, Sprint Planning, Backlog grooming, Reporting, Acceptance, and Retrospective.

The designers are at the spearhead of this methodology, creating and validating user stories for the developers (typical) one iteration ahead.

Deliverables:

• User story creation and validation:
• • Participates in deciding which priority to tackle
  • Sketching workshop to create visual representation of ideas or user flows
  • Create designs
  • Enhancements made to designs
  • User Interviews (for validation)
  • Synthesising individual and overall interview findings
  • Enhancements to designs made from synthesis
  • Get product owner sign off and input story into backlog for future iteration planning
  • Rinse and repeat for each feature, function within a given iteration
• Conduct accessibility compliance testing of the solution within each iteration.
• Conduct regular usability testing sessions on the MVP built as part of the Beta phase.
  

Delivery Phase 4) Live:

Live begins when the service has reached a point of maturity and all of the main features in the backlog have been built. While most people understand the purpose of live, it’s not always given the attention and resources it deserves.

Continuous improvement is one of the core principles of service design and that’s what live is all about. The goal is to continuously monitor, research, test and iterate for as long as the service is active.

Deliverables:

• Continue to facilitate user research activities to produce such outputs as:

• User interview topic maps, a summary of interrelated topics for the user interview
• User interview scripts to plan and guide user discussion
• User interview synthesis (collection, aggregation and analysis) of written observations recorded during each interview
• User research findings report
• Conduct regular accessibility compliance testing of the live build as improvements are released.
• Conduct regular usability testing sessions on the live build.
• Analyze usage analytics and user behaviour patterns to track and measure key performance indicators.
  
  

Must Have:

• Extensive experience in using UX design best practices to design solutions, and a deep understanding of mobile-first and responsive design.
• Ability to iterate your designs and solutions efficiently and intelligently.
• 3+ years of relevant experience in participating in complex projects (products) of different sizes, ensuring alignment to plans, best practices and incorporating user-centred design processes and agile (scrum) methodologies.
• Demonstrated experience in communication and mediation skills with business teams and core team members to ensure Client projects (products) are progressing according to schedule
• Expertise in UX software such as JustInMind, InVision, Sketch, Adobe Creative Cloud, Axure, Figma, and Zeplin. HTML5, CSS3, and JS skills (React, Angular, NodeJS), are a plus.