Made up of design leads, experience designers, content designers, design researchers, UI engineers, and visual designers, our Experience Designer Team works collaboratively across departments to capture the emotions and needs of our end users – which are reflected in all the ways they experience Arity and our products. Using a lean and agile approach, our XD team works across areas focused on driving data visualization, driving behavior analysis, urban planning, and shared mobility. They meet each project with deep empathy in order to craft useful and usable interface design solutions. Together, we design experiences that have real impact on the personal transportation industry and its future. Are you ready for the challenge?

The Senior Design Researcher supports products within a business area working in close partnership with the Design Lead and Experience Designers for that area. The Senior Design Researcher will execute a variety of design research programs ranging from discovery and exploratory research to interface evaluations and usability testing. This position will either work on products of critical importance with experience designers or with other researcher(s). The Senior Design Researcher will lead or support the planning, recruiting, and execution of the research, analysis and reporting of the research activities.

The Arity Experience Design (XD) team is a multi-disciplinary group that designs user interactions and experiences with devices, systems and services that provide a positive, engaging and productive experience. The team is made up of Design Leads, Experience Designers, Content Designers, Design Researchers, UI Engineers, and Visual Designers who work together to design delightful experiences.

The XD team is responsible for applying knowledge of user-centered design methods, human-computer interaction and industry best practices to drive useful and usable interface design solutions.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to defining and leading design research at Arity
• Support, guide and mentor Experience Designers with their research activities
• Partner with various disciplines (product, design, data science, engineering) to answer strategic research questions 
• Own the Design Research activities across products/business area(s)
• Understand and interpret brand, user, and business needs and develop innovative, creative, and results-oriented digital solutions that address these needs
• Conduct and/or lead both qualitative and quantitative research
• Scope and define research objectives that are aligned with project and business goals
• Create project plans and artifacts that describe design research efforts, timelines, and outcomes
• Create research deliverables that include reports, journey maps, user profiles and user scenarios - as needed to support product and business goals
• Prepare for and conduct sessions to gain user feedback on interaction design hypotheses on complex projects
• Plan and conduct formal user interface design reviews and/or heuristic reviews
• Leverage partnerships with analytics and other research disciplines within Arity to gather relevant evidence for design direction
• Independently plan and conduct other in-depth exploratory and evaluative studies
• Assist in defining and refining design research processes to improve the impact and promote the value of user research
• Develop or coach peers and other team members in proper research and testing techniques

Education and Experience 

• Demonstrated competence with usability testing, cognitive walkthroughs, heuristic reviews, and gathering qualitative and quantitative measures using design artifacts at any level of fidelity
• Facility with generating and applying frameworks to organize research findings and provide decision framing for different stakeholder audiences
• Reliable test-plan management, skillful session facilitation, and clarity in communicating research methods and outcomes
• Proclivity for balancing “lean” philosophy with the need for concise documentation of user insights and design recommendations for design backlog and team reference
• Excellent communication skills, including storytelling, writing, and presentation
• 3+ years of relevant experience within a behavioral research function; interdisciplinary design and research background preferred. Experience being integrated with a multidisciplinary product team is a plus.
• 4-year degree (Master’s preferred)–or equivalent years of work experience–in Human Factors/Human Computer Interaction, Cognitive or Experimental/Social Psychology, Cognitive Science, Sociology, or related field (or equivalent work experience)
• Ability to meet and serve design teams where they are, and set them up for success
• Experience/familiarity with UserZoom, Validately, InVision, Sketch, Typeform, SurveyMonkey, Adobe analytics, Tableau, and other usability and analytical software tools a plus
• Comfortable acting and moving activities forward despite uncertainty

Functional Skills

• Arity Designers care about making transportation safer, smarter and more useful for everyone.
• We create collaboratively and think flexibly, partnering with product, engineering, data science, marketing, and each other.
• We are naturally curious, empathetic, humble and passionate about human-centered design. Arity trains XD team members in a set of design methods to create a common approach and shared vocabulary. 
• Arity Designers handle and enjoy projects from huge initiatives to simple requests, and we always give our best to our work.
• We work within a variety of methodologies and processes, and help to improve upon them.
• We are organized and able to manage personal and project timetables.
• Arity Designers are engaging and effective communicators of ideas.
• We keep up-to-date in our respective fields by monitoring trends, attending workshops and conferences, joining professional groups, and sharing our craft and successes.
• We are curious about each other’s disciplines and have the opportunity to learn outside of our specialties.
• We inspire others with our enthusiasm and work ethic.