Looking For Ui/Ux Designer - Hartford, Ct [Remote]

Job Title: UI/UX Designer

Location: Hartford, CT [REMOTE]

Duration: 12+ Months

Work Schedule: Monday to Friday 8:00AM to 5:00PM

This is Us

The State of Connecticut is embarking upon a digital transformation to uplift the lives and well-being of our residents, businesses, and employees. Our goal is to improve access to our programs and services, making interaction with government easier. When you join the Connecticut Digital Service, you'll be part of a team creating simple experiences personalized for everyone. If you enjoy solving complex problems with a curious, supportive, high-performing team, then the State of Connecticut is the place for you.

Is This You?

Innovation. You enjoy designing services, products, websites, and graphics tied to existing and new digital products.

Big Picture Thinking. You strive to improve internal processes and externally facing solutions.

User-centric. You derive joy from working with people to drive user-centered research and testing.

Embrace Change. You have experience thinking outside of the box, understand the perspectives of others, interpret, and validate with data.

Service-Oriented. You are passionate about government innovation and improving services for citizens.

About The Role

The UI/UX Designer will work closely with our cross-functional project team focused on building and improving the State of Connecticut's digital government services. The UI/UX Designer will support the mission by developing and implementing service design, graphic design, and website design with new and ongoing projects. Furthermore, the UI/UX Designer will work with the team to implement user-centric analysis and testing methodologies to improve each digital product.

An ideal candidate should be a talented and knowledgeable designer with fresh, creative ideas, and an excellent eye for detail. In addition to understanding user experience design and development methodologies, the candidate should also have experience working in an Agile environment.

Experiences Required For This Role

User Centered Service Design At least 5 years of experience and use cases with the following:

• Designing and redesigning services
• Providing insights on how users interact with the service or product
• Working with a cross-functional team to prioritize work to meet user needs
• Building and communicating understandings of the users and their behavior

Website & Graphic Design At least 5 years of experience and use cases with the following:

• Performs the most complex duties in design and preparation of electronic graphic artwork using various media
• Understanding component-based development within a CMS
• Design and maintain websites
• Understanding of design thinking and design principals related to designing and developing graphics, user interface, user experience, content for website development, social media and print
• A portfolio of work including examples of at least 2 real-time projects
• Understanding of image optimization for web and mobile
• Confers with supervisors and others as to most appropriate media and method of design
• Experience in responsive development across all media platforms: web, mobile, etc.
• Designing layouts, typography, line composition, color, and other graphic design fundamentals
• Coding experience and understanding HTML 5, Bootstrap 4.0+, CSS 3
• Experience working with an enterprise CMS platform such as Sitecore, Adobe Experience Manager, Drupal, Joomla, etc.
• Performs a full range of graphic art activity

User Acceptance Testing At least 3 years of experience and use cases with the following:

• Recruiting and leading testing groups; running research sessions with users
• Helping to discover problems while the service is being developed, not once it is live
• Helping reduce the risk of reputational damage
• Building and running tests (ideally automated) to confirm the service or product meets user and stakeholder needs
• Understanding accessibility issues and engage with team to build with equality
• Helping increase user and agency confidence in future service or product delivery
• Checking the operating environment to make sure test results are valid

Digital Platforms, Tools, & Discipline At least 3 years of experience and use cases with the following:

• Experience working in the Agile development methodology
• Working with enterprise scale digital platforms and products
• Using of productivity and analysis tools to manage iterative delivery, such as JIRA, Google Analytics, Git Repository, MS TEAMS, Confluence

Performance in Complex Situations At least 3 years of experience and user cases with the following:

• Government-specific task management
• Communication and collaboration with state-wide partners
• Judgement fitting to the ever-changing environment
• Comfort in blazing a path through an ambiguous work environment
• Encouraging of an interactive, cooperative, collaborative, and customer-focused work environment

Knowledge, Skills And Ability

UI/UX Design

• Experience in Agile development process
• Understanding and application of visual design principals
• Proficiency in Zeplin, Sketch, Miro
• Experience working in an enterprise component-based CMS
• Proficiency in HTML 5, Bootstrap 4.0+, CSS 3
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite: including Adobe XD, InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop
• Experience in wireframing, prototyping, mock-up creation, IA mapping, user flows
• Understanding responsive design
• Understanding of image and video optimization for online media
• An understanding of social media management and content creation
• Experience in designing, managing, and optimizing websites

User Acceptance Testing

• Knowledge of best practices for user experience research and testing
• Willingness to participate ethnographic research and interviews

Performance in Complex Situations

• Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines, handle and prioritize simultaneous requests, and manage laterally and upwards
• Ability to distill complex concepts into simple ideas
• Comfort in blazing a path through an ambiguous work environment
• Understanding of the Agile development process
• Prioritization, organization, and triage in an independent environment
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills

Team Player

• Supporting teammates' skills and behaviors development and delivery
• Ability to maintain strict confidentiality
• Communication and collaboration with state-wide partners
• Judgement in dealing effectively and diplomatically with government staff
• Creative and analytical thinking with strong problem-solving skills

Preferred Skills & Qualifications

• 1 year of customer relationship management platforms such as Salesforce
• 1 year of user-centered design
• 1 year of web content management platforms such as Sitecore
• A portfolio of work including 2 examples of real-time work
• An associate degree or higher in UI/UX design, HCI design, graphic design, web design, or web development
• 1 year of user research and analytics
• 5 years professional experience in web design, graphic design, web development

Administrative Considerations

The UI/UX Designer will work as part of an iterative team using agile sprints. Work will be assigned based on items in the product backlog associated with Website Improvements. These tasks may be adjusted, reduced, or expanded as the project progresses through various phases. The contract employee shall be expected to maintain and provide written documentation on any work performed in conjunction with this engagement.

The engagement will be for a term of up to 12 months. All work will be performed in eight (8) hour shifts, Monday to Friday, excluding State holidays. If workflow dictates an on-site presence is not needed, consultant may work remotely. All extended remote work will need approval by Chief Digital Officer or the designated manager. Payment will be on a time and material basis and paid only for hours worked. Travel to various state offices will be required. State Agencies are in downtown Hartford and the Greater Hartford area. Local Travel Reimbursement is not provided.

Use of State Resources: The contractor will share a dedicated office space and will be provided with all computer hardware and software needed to execute and perform the duties for this program.

Security/Privacy Considerations: Information accessible by the contractor may be sensitive, confidential, or subject to the Privacy Act and/or HIPAA considerations. Contractor personnel must be familiar with and comply with the provisions of appropriate regulations and/or instructions. Signing of a confidentiality agreement will be required. Daily sign-in to the facility may be required. The contractor employee must always display an access badge while present in state facilities. A background check will be required.