Location: Asheville, NC / Anywhere
URL: http://www.soomopublishing.com/
Soomo Publishing creates and publishes webtexts that replace traditional college textbooks with rich, engaging online environments. We work across many academic disciplines and are used by instructors at hundreds of colleges.
As a freelance UX/UI Designer, you will lead both problem-setting and problem-solving on individual projects ranging from cross-discipline tool development (e.g. browsing for new assignments via tags) to discipline-specific page and site design (e.g. optimizing an interface for learning statistics.)
Currently, this is a freelance, project-based position, but it could convert to full-time later this year.
Our site is built in HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript, undergirded by Ruby on Rails and MySql, provided as SaaS and cloud-hosted. You will be working with instructional designers and project managers to help define needs, and with a graphic designer, javascripter and systems architect to implement your plans.
Your portfolio should include strong evidence of your ability to
- analyze and understand user needs (in our case, college instructors and students)
- design simple, powerful interfaces
- explain your choices
- be the user's best advocate
Succeeding in this role requires striking a balance between
- working independently AND having good interaction with the rest of the team
- making the most of standard conventions AND innovating where needed
- letting others do what they can do best AND stepping into any and all gaps as needed
- giving problems careful consideration AND not getting bogged down in low-value loops
Keeping these things in balance is often the most difficult part of the job, especially when working remotely.
You know you are the ideal candidate if?
- you sketch compulsively, share eagerly and accept ideas hungrily
- you have taught, are married to, or are the child of an instructor
- you have always wanted to live in Asheville and really enjoy street buskers
- you have considering writing for O'Reilly but are conflicted about what the focus of your book should be
- you find the chance to radically improve textbooks and distance learning awakens something inside of you and suddenly the seemingly random events of the past decade make sense as preparation for this opportunity.
To apply: Please send the following to jobs@soomopublishing.com: (1) a portfolio of your work; (2) descriptions of the roles you played in each relevant project; (3) the time and money you require to do such work; (4) contact information for a reference from each p
Source: 37 Signals Jobs