UX Specialist -Product Designer (Temporary)

University of Washington • Seattle, WA

13d

About The Position

The UX Specialist - Product Designer contributes user-centered experience research and interaction design to the University of Washington Office of Research’s software portfolio. Reporting to the Technology Project Manager, the role is involved throughout product development, from formative research and ideation through interaction design, user testing, and system assessment. The specialist applies human-centered design skills to understand user and business needs and to help ensure system implementations are useful, usable, accessible, and clear for the University’s research enterprise.

The position conducts research and design work in an agile product development environment; collaborates with product, business analysis, technical, and user experience colleagues; and advocates for user-centered design across systems used throughout the research lifecycle. Depending on specialty, the role may lead interaction and visual design or primary user research. It also supports stakeholder communication, workshops, product adoption, and continuous improvement of UX and product development practices.

This is a temporary, one-year term appointment with an opportunity to renew. The position is full-time (100% FTE) and primarily follows standard working hours aligned with Pacific Time. Non-standard or off-hours work may be necessary for go-lives, incidents, and deployments. Work takes place in a collaborative shared-space environment using meetings and synchronous and asynchronous communication tools. Inflexible deadlines are common. The annual pay range is $96,000 to $100,536.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in human-computer interaction, Human Centered Design & Engineering, Informatics, Psychology, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• At least 3 years of progressively responsible UX design and/or UX research experience for web or application products, including work on cross-functional agile teams.
• Experience facilitating user sessions such as formative interviews, observation or contextual inquiry, card sorts, evaluative interviews, usability testing, or co-design sessions.
• Competence in survey design, including writing unbiased questions and matching response data to appropriate analytical methods.
• Broad working knowledge of user-centered design processes and tools, with the ability to select techniques based on product goals and constraints.
• Ability to translate complex requirements, policies, and workflows into clear design artifacts such as flows, wireframes, and prototypes.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, including the ability to clearly convey complex ideas to technical and non-technical audiences through visual, verbal, and written means.
• A strong online portfolio or body of work demonstrating user-centered process, design or research craft, and impact on shipped products or services.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a shared-space teamwork environment and use synchronous and asynchronous communication tools.
• Primarily work standard hours aligned with Pacific Time; off-hours work may be required for go-lives, incidents, and other deployments.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with one or more enterprise-scale system implementations or transitions.
• Experience with technology for research administration, higher education, sponsored public sector projects, budgeting and financial management, or similar complex domains.
• Ability to independently conduct intermediate-level quantitative data analysis for product and user research questions, using tools such as Excel or PowerBI.
• Skill in UX research planning, including choosing study and analysis methods, adapting to product development constraints, and scoping research to meet pressing needs.
• Experience working with and presenting to strategic leadership.
• Comfort with prototyping and vibecoding tools, such as Figma and generative AI tools, and ability to quickly generate proof-of-concept prototypes from sketches and ideation.
• Experience designing for mobile and multi-device experiences and familiarity with responsive and adaptive design patterns.
• Experience contributing to or maintaining design systems, UI component libraries, or pattern libraries.

Responsibilities

• Conduct user experience research, including interviews, surveys, usability testing, and focus groups, in an agile product development environment.
• Write UX research reports describing research activities, analysis, findings, and design recommendations.
• Collaborate with analysts and senior designers to use quantitative data to inform design decisions and define, monitor, and refine UX success measures.
• Partner with product managers and business analysts to translate research, analytics, and stakeholder input into scoped features and user stories reflecting user needs, policy requirements, and product strategy.
• Create design artifacts such as user journeys, information architectures, user flows, and storyboards.
• Build or modify low- and mid-fidelity prototypes to communicate interactions and test functionality with users; refine prototypes to communicate design intent to stakeholders and technical contributors.
• Participate in stakeholder demos, solicit unbiased feedback, facilitate focused discussion, and identify actionable findings.
• Participate in design critiques, incorporate feedback, and provide actionable critical feedback on others’ work.
• Collaborate with technical contributors and facilitate working sessions to assess design feasibility and cost-effectiveness.
• Evaluate application systems against WCAG accessibility guidelines and inclusive design practices, and present remediation recommendations.
• For the UX Design Specialist area, lead interaction and visual design for assigned products; translate complex workflows, policies, and data into detailed prototypes; maintain information architectures and navigation; help refine the ORIS design system; apply accessibility practices; and conduct heuristic evaluations that inform prioritized improvements.
• For the UX Research Specialist area, lead research planning and execution, including drafting questions, selecting methods, designing studies, recruiting and scheduling participants, and moderating sessions.
• Analyze qualitative and quantitative research data using appropriate methods and maintain the ORIS UX Research repository and related best-practice standards.
• Design and facilitate discovery sessions, co-design activities, prioritization exercises, and other collaborative workshops.
• Present design concepts, research findings, and recommendations to audiences ranging from end users to senior leaders.
• Partner with product, BA, and CX teams to develop communications, demos, and training materials that support campus end-user understanding and adoption.
• Advise business units and project teams on user problems and opportunities and align proposed solutions with ORIS product strategy and design vision.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of UX and product development processes, tools, and practices, including communities of practice and cross-team initiatives.
• Keep abreast of emerging product, design, and technology trends and suggest new ways of working.
• Perform other related responsibilities as needed to support ORIS products, teams, and campus research stakeholders.

Benefits

• Benefits are referenced, with details provided through the University of Washington benefits webpage for temporary, per-diem, and less-than-half-time employees.
• The University describes opportunities for professional growth and an inclusive, intellectually engaging work environment.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level