Information Architect

Information Architect

Sears Holdings is seeking an experienced Information Architect to join our User Experience Team. The ideal candidate should be able to creatively envision, evaluate, and design successful user experiences.

You will work with a team of 3-5 information architects that take on new design initiatives and platform enhancements across , , gathering business requirements, identifying technology constraints in order to synthesizing intelligent and successful design solutions.

As an integral part of the User Experience team you will collaborate closely with visual designers, front-end developers, and business stakeholders on concept generation through final implementation. This will include collaborating on new design concepts, working on win / win solutions with primary stakeholders, consulting with stakeholders on design enhancements, and working on small / mid-size maintenance projects.

Your responsibilities will include making informed recommendations on design strategies, leveraging best practices, accurately estimating and tracking your time across multiple simultaneous projects, as well as working with the UE staff to develop and document methodologies, standards and best practices for the group.

Currently, we are interested in candidates with 5+ years of demonstrable experience and who have had a background involving large scale web initiatives. The ideal candidate will have exceptional analytical skills, be well versed in user-centered design practices, and can turn business and user requirements into elegant user interfaces and compelling interactive experiences.

All candidates under consideration must be able to present a comprehensive portfolio.

Responsibilities :

• Generate and maintain detailed design specifications
• Develop new and effective design solutions on time and in scope
• Collaborate with stakeholders to deliver on new business initiatives and platform enhancements
• Develop methodologies, standards and best practices for the group
• Manage external resources consisting of contractors, design firms and agencies
• Document content structure, page templates, and interfaces
• Develop user interface standards
• Generate and maintain site maps
• Create detailed page-level wireframes and functional specifications
• Conduct user research, profiling and analysis
• Track and analyze customer site behavior / feedback
• Requirements gathering, documenting and tracking
• Process and task flow modeling
• Concept generation and modeling
• Low-fidelity and hi-fidelity prototyping techniques
• User research, competitive research, and usability testing
• Group facilitation
• Project planning and tracking

Core Competencies :

• Deep understanding of user-centered design, usability, information design, interaction design, and goal-oriented design
• Experience and familiarity in the capabilities of HTML, DHTML, CSS, Flash and AJAX-based applications.
• Excellent communication skills – in person, written and presentation.
• Ability to prioritize and track multiple tasks across multiple projects, under tight deadlines.
• Willingness to switch gears quickly and be flexible to work on concurrent projects.
• Ability to create clean, precise and detailed IA documentations.
• Proficiency in industry standard UI software such as Visio, OmniGraffle, Illustrator, Photoshop, PowerPoint and Acrobat.

Desired Qualifications :

• 5+ years experience working as an information architect, interaction designer, or user experience designer.
• 3+ years experience in retail merchandising / marketing, advertising, product development, e-commerce or related field.
• 3+ years experience with usability testing including preparation, execution and analysis.
• Familiarity with current user experience and usability research, theories, best practices and methodologies.
• Degree in a related field, such as information design, human-computer interaction, library science, cognitive science, graphic design, or industrial design a plus.
• Experience with Localization Issues and Web Accessibility Standards a plus.
• Agency / Design Firm experience a big plus.
• A portfolio of your best recent work will be reviewed.