Senior User Experience (UX) Designer/ Researcher

Digital products and services are becoming increasingly meaningful for AZ, whether these are sought at patients (e.g. an asthma inhaler connected to a mobile app to remind patients to take their medicines), doctors or colleagues (e.g. a web tool for scientists to visualise real-time data coming from a clinical trial).  To address this, ~7 years ago, we built an in-house global User Experience team to promote User-Centered Design (UCD) across AZ and ensure that these products are both usable and desirable.

The UX team is currently made up of 18 authorities in UX Research, UX Design and UI/ Visual Design, across the UK (Cambridge, Macclesfield), US (Wilmington, DE; Gaithersburg, MD) and China (Shanghai).  We’re an empowered, growing team, offering great opportunities and able to make a real difference to people’s lives.

Role Description:

The UX practitioner is responsible for researching what users want/ need from digital products & services then using the insights to craft those products to be easy and fabulous to use.  These products and services will include both external (patient- and/or doctor-facing) and internal colleague-facing tools, and cover a range of platforms (devices, websites, mobile apps, etc.).  We are looking for someone who can own and run a full, end-to-end UCD process, not just an ‘expert designer’.

You will carry out qualitative/ quantitative user research studies and/ or analyse data from existing research.  To do this, you will have experience with a range of user research methods including interviewing and observation.  You will use the outputs of the research to advise the early design process; for example, crafting personas or user journey maps. 

Using the available insights, you will then craft the product’s high-level UX (e.g. via flows and wireframes), plus lower-level interaction designs (e.g. via interactive prototypes) which unambiguously describe the product experience.  The focus is on maximum usability, not aesthetics.

You will iteratively improve your designs based on results from usability testing (carried out by yourself or others).  You will work closely with technical developers during the build process to manage compromises and ensure the best possible UX is launched. You will find ways to measure and prove the value that your research and design interventions have made.

As well as the tactical side of UX Design and Research, the role also includes a more strategic side.  You will support the Head of UX and the UX Leads in evangelizing the benefits of UX/ UCD across AZ, using a set of excellent case studies where UCD has made a measurable difference to business performance.

You will help to develop new business for yourself and the wider UX team.  You will also support training non-UX colleagues into UX/ UCD methods.

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree-level qualification or equivalent
• Understanding of UX principles, both from academic learning and on-the-job experience
• 2 or more years as a UX Practitioner in an industrial (not just academic) environment – working either in or for large, client-side companies
• Experience across UX Research methodologies – e.g. interviews, surveys, usability testing, field trials – and how they fit into a full UCD process.  (Direct experience moderating such research is helpful).
• Experience using research insights to make design decisions, and in crafting strategic design documents such as Personas, User Journey Maps and Storyboards.
• Experience creating high-level information architectures, low-level flows and wireframes, interaction designs, interactive prototypes, etc.
• Experience with UX design and interactive prototyping tools (e.g. Figma, Sketch, InVision, Axure, Adobe XD) 
• Specific experience crafting for mobile apps, with up-to-date knowledge of UX/ Interaction Design patterns for iOS and Android.  Also experience working across digital channels, including fixed-web and tablet too.
• Strong analytic skills; comfortable working with big, sophisticated, numerical data
• A portfolio of case studies where good UCD has made a measurable (quantitative) difference to the quality of digital products and services
• Experience in Accessibility/ Inclusive Design – i.e. ensuring the best experience for all users

Requirements (Soft Skills):

• A self-starter with the energy and pro-activity to develop new business opportunities for yourself and the wider UX team
• An active member of the external UX community, with an interest in sharing and keeping up with the state-of-the-art in design tools and research methods 
• An excellent listener, with the ability to quickly filter the relevant user insights for design 
• An excellent presenter, succinctly imparting UX designs, with appropriate rationale, in both written and spoken formats, and in plain, non-technical, language
• Great influencing skills, including the ability to evangelize UCD to collaborators
• A great teammate, able to work well as part of a small UX team and also collaborate closely with Product Managers, Business Analysts, Technical Developers, etc.
• Motivated to both give and receive constructive criticism on UX designs
• Able to effectively juggle the exciting demands of multiple concurrent projects within a global corporate environment
• An active member of the external UX community, with an interest in sharing and keeping up with the state-of-the-art in design tools and research methods 
• An excellent listener, with the ability to quickly filter the relevant user insights for design 
• An excellent presenter, succinctly imparting UX designs, with appropriate rationale, in both written and spoken formats, and in plain, non-technical, language
• Great influencing skills, including the ability to evangelize UCD to customers
• A great standout colleague, able to work well as part of a small UX team and also collaborate closely with Product Managers, Business Analysts, Technical Developers, etc.
• Motivated to both give and receive constructive criticism on UX designs
• Able to successfully juggle the competing demands of multiple concurrent projects within a global corporate environment

Desireable Education, Qualifications, and Experience:

• Master's Degree qualification preferably in Ergonomics, Human Factors, Human-Computer Interaction, Interaction Design or a related relevant field

WHY JOIN US:

Join us at a crucial stage of our journey in becoming a digital and data-led enterprise. Make the impossible possible by building partnerships and ecosystems, creating new ways of working and driving scale and speed to deliver exponential growth. Focused and committed, and backed with the investment to succeed, we’re driving cross-company change to disrupt the entire industry.

SO, WHAT'S NEXT?

Are you up for an exciting challenge and ready for making a difference? If so, hit Apply today - we can't wait to hear from you!