User Interface Designer

Job Name

User Interface Designer

Brief description

The role is to create practical, effective designs for interfaces of web sites, intranets and software applications and conduct usability tests and heuristic evaluations. (Seek.com.au, 28 July, 2007)

Duties & responsibilities of this role

Conduct user needs analysis and stakeholder interviews and liaise with clients.
Translate business requirements and user goals into successful user interface designs
Create task analyses, mock-ups, UI models, information architecture, wire frames, mock-ups and prototypes, design briefs, design specs and guidelines, and screen flows with some supervision.
Design innovative user interfaces based on user research and design standards and create low fidelity user interface paper prototypes.
Create effective large scale information architecture for web sites, intranets and software applications.
Create process diagrams and navigation flowcharts based on analysis of user needs.
Develop detailed wire-frames.
Conduct expert reviews of web sites, intranets and software applications in line with established heuristics and guidelines.
Conduct usability tests: develop test plans, build prototypes, conduct the tests and analyse the results.

Job requirements

A tertiary qualification in Design, Fine Arts, Psychology, HCI, Journalism, Computer Science, Engineering, Industrial Design, or other related discipline. (Seek.com.au, 28 July, 2007)

Ability to translate requirements, identify and solve problems (for both business and design type problems).
The ability to or potential for effectively executing the iterative design process.
Excellent analytical and conceptual design skills.
Develop innovative approaches to complex design problems (Seek.com.au, 28 July, 2007).
2-3 years experience in interface design for websites, intranets and software applications (Seek.com.au, 30 July, 2007).

Salary

$85K + Super (Seek.com.au, 1 August, 2007).

$80,000 - $100,000 package; Negotiable (employer not specified).

Industry/Organisation

IT and Telecommunications Industry.

Sirius Technology (Seek.com.au, 28 July, 2007).

Job listings

Seek.com.au. (27 July, 2007). User Interface Designer. Retrieved 6 July, 2007 from http://it.seek.com.au/users/apply/index.ascx?Sequence=12&PageNumber=1&JobID=10048629

Seek.com.au. (30 July, 2007). User Interface Designer. Retrieved 6 July, 2007 from http://it.seek.com.au/users/apply/index.ascx?Sequence=25&PageNumber=1&JobID=10057774

Seek.com.au. (28 July, 2007). User Interface Designer. Retrived 6 July, 2007 from http://it.seek.com.au/users/apply/index.ascx?Sequence=36&PageNumber=1&JobID=10036353

Employer not specified. Listed by MitchelLake Consulting, through Byron Employment
http://employment.byron.com.au/tpjob_details.asp?id=10119769 (Retrieved 09/08/07)

Differences observed

It is important to note the difference between designing interfaces (GUI's) for internal client and web users. Nielsen (1997) denotes the designing of GUI's for the latter as Web Design. For instance, the designer working on an interface for organisational purposes would have in mind the specific nature of the software, as well as the systems used to facilitate access to it. Therefore, what the designer has on their screen will most likely be exactly what the client will, too, have on their screen.

Web Design, however, presents some interesting nuances to the designer - stemmed from the mobile nature of the web. The interface may be accessed at any time from any device; the limitations of the device may prohibit the interface from being viewed as the designer intended (Nielsen, 1997). For instance, a web page constructed of vibrant colours and attractive animations may not be so easy to view, and thus navigate, when accessed from a mobile phone or palm PC.

Following from this, Nielsen (1997) also points out that web users may access different sections presented in the interface, without first knowing what context it is presented in. For instance, 'google-ing' a company or product may take the web user to a page or interactive form related to their search, without actually having to initially navigate the related interface. Web Design must, therefore, provide more 'Trace-a-bility' for the user - whereas the GUI designer for corporate software has specific control over how the client will access it.

In short, GUI Design and Web Design essentially do entail the same thing - that is providing the user with the means to facilitate, access, and view information. It is important, however, to differentiate the interface for different users (Hobart, 1995).

Other References used

Hobart J, Principles of Good GUI Design, October 1995
http://www.classicsys.com/css06/cfm/article_1995_10.cfm (Retrieved 09/08/2007)

Nielsen J, Web Design vs. GUI Design, May 1997,
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9705a.html (Retrieved 09/08/2007)