The University of Virginia Library seeks applicants for a User Experience (UX) Researcher on the User Experience Team within the Communications Department. The ideal candidate is responsible for leading, designing, conducting and analyzing user research to ensure user-centered design of library's interfaces, research tools, spaces and services. They are responsible for developing and maintaining user requirements and research objectives with project stakeholders and delivering actionable results and recommendations. The User Experience Researcher is also responsible for bringing an ethos of user experience to communications objectives, project plans and deliverables. The UX Researcher works both independently and collaboratively with team members in the department, as well as colleagues across the organization.

The Communications Department, as part of the Library's mission, seeks to build a culture of teamwork and learning as we do our part to foster a welcoming and inclusive library culture. The department, including the UX Researcher, will be based in the brand-new main library building when it opens in 2023.

The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, VA. It sits on a historic central campus partially protected by UNESCO. UVA has over 20,000 students enrolled in its 11 graduate and undergraduate schools. It has been noted particularly for its law program and English department. The university is also associated with an academic healthcare center, UVA Health. Careers at UVA and UVA Health reflect a wide breadth of professions, ranging from teaching to administration, medical professions to financial analysis, research to grounds management, and much more. UVA as an employer is dedicated to developing the talents of its employees, as well as keeping them in good health through various employee wellness programs and comprehensive benefits packages.

What you will do:

• Help build UX research practices, communicate the value of great research inside the organization, and play a key role in the organization's research strategy and its tactical implementation.
• Collaborate with communications and user experience design teams to uncover user needs.
• Champion design-centered approaches grounded in research and analysis.
• Conduct research using a wide variety of qualitative or quantitative methods, such as usability testing, focus groups, interviews, card sorting, tree tests, surveys, personas and other methods, to achieve research objectives.
• Communicate results and illustrate suggestions in compelling and creative ways.
• Develop workflows and standards to ensure the user experience on the library web is clear, consistent and functional.
• Review and remediate digital assets to meet or exceed WCAG 2.0 AA standards.
• Serve as the library's captioning coordinator, partnering with Accessibility professionals across the University to ensure digital accessibility.
• Advise, write and edit content that is clear and consistent.
• Understand communications initiatives, strategic positioning and key audiences.
• Cooperate with the rest of the communications team across different types of media.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in UX research, UX design, interaction design, library information science, computer science, human-computer interaction or equivalent and at least 3 years of related work experience.
• 7 or more years of related work experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods.
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills.
• Passionate about developing simple and clean user experiences.
• Possess strong attention to detail, focusing on behavioral patterns.
• Experience with a collaborative culture; collaborate with local and remote research teams conducting frequent feedback sessions.
• Champion of user-centered design and user-research methodologies.
• Ability to absorb and apply constructive criticism from peers and stakeholders.
• Solid experience and proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite.

Anticipated hiring range: $75,000 - $85,000

The selected applicant will be required to complete a background check prior to their first day of employment per university policy.

For more information about UVA and the Charlottesville community, please see www.virginia.edu/life/charlottesville and https://embarkcva.com/

COVID Vaccination Requirement and Guidelines

 

Please visit the UVA COVID-19 Job Requirements and Guidelines webpage prior to applying for current information regarding vaccination requirements and guidelines for employment at UVA.