Job: Interaction Designer [closed]
NYC Planning Labs is looking for an Interaction Designer to improve the Department of City Planning’s digital products and services by focusing on the people who need them most.
UPDATE: This opportunity is currently unavailable.
How we build is as important as what we build
The mission of Planning Labs is to deliver modern, sustainable, and impactful digital products that improve urban planning processes, while promoting the use of agile methods, human-centered design, and open-source technology to increase capacity for innovation in government.
What is it like to work at NYC Planning Labs?
As an Interaction Designer at Planning Labs, you’ll work with cross-functional teams of experts in design, product strategy, software engineering, and data science. You’ll build useful and beautiful digital experiences, help the agency improve its user-centered design practices, and help teams without those practices get started. You’ll establish, measure, and evolve design patterns which make our work consistent and efficient.
Strong applicants will have experience with front-end web design and passion for multiple user-centered design disciplines such as design research, content design, information architecture, and service design.
You know how to design and build products iteratively, and love to help others discover better ways of designing collaboratively. You’ll lead research activities, derive insights, generate and communicate concepts, and work with Engineers and Product Managers to build solutions and test our assumptions.
You have a clear understanding of web design fundamentals — e.g. color, typography, layout, grid systems, responsive design, and accessibility best practices — and you’re comfortable working with front-end frameworks and design systems.
A successful Designer at Planning Labs will:
- Demonstrate excellence in design research that thoughtfully and ethically identifies user and agency needs
- Define interface logic and behavior, always keeping human behaviors, needs, and accessibility in mind
- Create clear, inclusive, accessible, and extensible visual styles and components in an iterative, collaborative environment
- Iterate quickly by collaborating on prototypes at various levels of fidelity
- Deliver whatever’s needed to guide software development — including wireframes, sitemaps, flowcharts, storyboards, user stories…
- Create and maintain a consistent user experience and meaningful visual language across our portfolio
- Support collaborative decision making by presenting pros and cons of various options derived from user research
- Gather continuous feedback from users, peers, and stakeholders by leading product demos and usability testing sessions — where work is shared in a various states of completion to foster healthy, open critique
- Incorporate design practices into agile development sprints, coordinating with Engineers and Product Managers to achieve strategic goals
- Integrate design guidance and deliverables in shared project management tools (GitHub) to strengthen process, communication, and transparency
- Clearly communicate the value of user-centered methodologies to non-designers and coach them in taking on design and research tasks
- Share knowledge, techniques, tools, patterns, and expert advice with colleagues, partners, and the public
- Continually promote our core values by advocating for iterative, user-centered, accessible, and inclusive design practices in every agency project
- Demonstrate genuine interest in the day-to-day activities that keep the agency running
- Write blog posts to raise awareness about the team’s work, promoting our mission, and sharing lessons learned
You should apply if:
- If you have 2 or more years of professional design experience on a cross-functional app development team and understand the importance of collaboration, teamwork, and clear communication
- You can demonstrate an ability to communicate your design concepts both visually, verbally, and in writing (we’ll ask that you submit a portfolio of your work)
- You’re organized and thorough, with a proven ability to bring order and logic to processes and tools
- You have the ability to synthesize perspectives from a variety of users, ranging from technical experts to non-technical generalists
- You’re interested in helping NYC Planning build a strong design culture
What you get
- Salary: $85,371–$95,000 commensurate with experience
- New York City health benefits, including full dental coverage
- 15 paid vacation days a year, with an additional 11 paid Federal holidays
- Eligibility for a host of NYC retirement plans
- Agency-issued MacBook Pro and dual-monitor workstation
- Modern office in downtown Manhattan (including a rooftop lounge!)
- Strong work/life balance
