Senior User Experience Designer, Office, 840143

Job Category: Software Engineering: User Experience
Location: Redmond, WA, US
Job ID: 840143-117759
Division: Applications and Services Engineering

Are you a seasoned visual designer who is passionate about improving the daily lives of millions of people? Microsoft Outlook is reimagining itself, and we need the best-of-the-best to help us create the future.

We are looking for an intuitive and driven senior visual designer to join our Design Studio, and to define world-class, consumer-level experiences for the next Outlook.

As a Senior Visual Designer, you will be responsible for researching, creating, developing, refining, and documenting innovative and stunning visual designs that simultaneously support the functional and business objectives, while conveying the emotional dimensions and helping to amplify the brand of the product.

You will need to have a clear understanding of each facet of the design process for shipping delightful products: information architecture and interaction design, research and usability, rapid prototyping, visual and motion design, sensory and audio design, brand integration, and content creation, and to be able to effectively partner with business, technology, and design partners to shepherd end-to-end experiences from concept to ship.

Your Primary Responsibilities include:
Lead/facilitate design brainstorming and work sessions
Produce mood boards, storyboards, design briefs, sketching, visual language guidelines, assist with motion studies, and other artifacts required to develop and evolve user experience designs.
Work (primarily) with interaction and motion designers to ensure the motion and audio design enhances the overall user experience.
Work with and aid the brand designers to ensure the visual design is reflective of and additive to the brand strategy.
Work with user researchers to coordinate testing efforts, interpret test results, and incorporate results into design efforts.
Effectively communicate with developers through implementation phase to realize design vision.
Communicate, defend, and build consensus around the visual design direction.
Working with the Creative Director, lead a significant experience design effort within Office Design's portfolio of projects.

Required Qualifications:

5+ years experience in product or advertising design.
3+ years with common design tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and/or related business and design tools.
A minimum of a BA/BS degree in Graphic Design, Communication Design, Interface Design, Interaction Design, or equivalent experience
Extremely strong visual sensibilities, ability to use visual thinking, storyboards, sketching, and communication design to create breakthrough interaction design
Deep understanding of fundamental visual design disciplines (typography, iconography, composition, color, composition, layout, etc.)
Expertise creating a variety of visual design documents including mood boards, storyboards, creative briefs, motion studies, and visual style guidelines
Meticulous sense of detail and ability to seek out simple solutions to complex design challenges.
Always approach a project from multiple angles, and deliver a variety of solutions.
Exposure to and understanding of variety of design, project management, and development processes and methodologies including agile development methods
Experience in delivering production assets to development counterpart on time and with quality
Fluency in current entertainment and social media trends
Strong skill-set in analytical problem solving.
Outstanding communication, design thought leadership, and presentation and storytelling skills.
Strong interest in and aptitude for learning new technologies and design skills.
A portfolio demonstrating breadth, creativity, and innovation in related fields.

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