UX Designer

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co; Round Rock (TX); On-site; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is seeking an energetic UX Designer to craft engaging digital experiences for students and teachers within K-12 education. You will work on a cross-functional team and help ensure solutions are delightful, accessible, and easy to use.

Your portfolio should demonstrate UX process proficiency, and you will collaborate with product managers, marketers, designers, and engineers to prototype and refine concepts from low to high fidelity.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in UX Design, Human-computer interaction, interaction design, or related field.
• 1-3 years of experience as a UX designer.
• Strong work portfolio demonstrating UX process and product design.
• Ability to predict use cases including edge and corner cases.
• Experience in cross-functional teams or large-scale software development lifecycle using agile methodology.
• Understanding of UX research methods.
• Proficiency in visual design programs.

Responsibilities

• Being the voice of the user on the team, focusing on problems and value for users.
• Create digital design solutions that are delightful and frictionless.
• Plan and facilitate workshops with cross-functional teams.
• Create experience maps, storyboards, user scenarios, wireframes, mockups, and flows.
• Validate ideas using accessibility and UX research best practices.
• Collaborate with internal teams and stakeholders.
• Own user experiences from rapid prototypes to hi-fidelity mockups.
• Provide detailed specifications and design intent to engineers.
• Stay updated on design trends and external inspiration.

Skills

UX design

Cross-functional teamwork

Agile methodologies

UX research

Visual design tools

Education

Bachelor's degree in UX Design / HCI / Interaction Design

Job description

You are an energetic UX professional and a creative problem-solver who can’t wait to design engaging digital experiences for students and educators as part of an organization dedicated to improving the lives of K-12 students and teachers. Our UX design team is an international group of light-hearted, like-minded creatives who want you to help propel us into a new age of innovative and effective digital educational solutions.

As a UX Designer, you’ll be part of a cross-functional team where you’ll concept and develop unique digital products for our users that are delightful and easy to use. Your portfolio should show how you can break convention for more engaging results. While experience in Educational Technology is not a prerequisite, having the ability to adapt great design solutions to different users (e.g., age, accessibility) is desired.

Realistic Preview of Job:

As part of a cross-functional team of product managers, marketers, designers, engineers, subject matter experts and other key stakeholders, you must be a team player. Your tasks will include:

• Being the voice of the user on your team, ensuring we are focusing on the right problems and value for our users.
• Creating digital design solutions that are a delight to use and provide a frictionless path through content and connected products.
• Planning and facilitating workshops to involve your cross functional team in the design process.
• Creating experience maps, storyboards, user scenarios, wireframes, mockups and user flows for rapid testing and iteration.
• Validating ideas and designs using best practices in accessibility and UX Research.
• Collaborating and communicating professionally with other internal teams and key stakeholders.
• Designing and exercising ownership of user-experiences from low-fidelity rapid prototypes to hi-fidelity mockups.
• Creating and communicating detailed specifications and design intent to engineers.
• Staying abreast of design trends and looking for creative ideas and inspiration in parallel / analogous worlds.

What You Need to be Successful (Required to perform this role)

• Bachelor’s Degree in UX Design, Human-computer interaction, interaction design, or related field
• 1-3 years of experience as a UX designer
• Strong work portfolio that demonstrates your capabilities in the UX process, and product design
• Strong ability to recognize and predict use cases and user interaction, including happy path as well as edge and corner cases, and incorporate them into designs
• Experience or understanding of working within a cross-functional team or large-scale software development lifecycle using agile methodology
• An understanding of UX research methods
• Proficient in visual design programs such as:

Nice to Have (Preferred, but not necessary)

• Strong UI Skills
• Familiarity with foundational HTML, CSS, and front-end frameworks
• Experience in Agile development working in Scrum multi-discipline teams

Physical Requirements

• Might be in a stationary position for a considerable time (sitting and/or standing).
• The person in this position needs to move about inside the office to access file cabinets, office machinery, etc. Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machinery, such as a calculator, copy machine, and computer printer.
• Must be able to collaborate with colleagues via face to face, conference calls, and online meetings.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is a learning technology company committed to delivering connected solutions that engage learners, empower educators and improve student outcomes. As a leading provider of K–12 core curriculum, supplemental and intervention solutions and professional learning services, HMH partners with educators and school districts to uncover solutions that unlock students' potential and extend teachers' capabilities. HMH serves more than 50 million students and 3 million educators in 150 countries. For more information, visit www.hmhco.com .

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an equal employment opportunity employer and participates in E-Verify. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, or other protected group status.