Sony

Sony Electronics, Inc. look for the risk-takers, the collaborators, the inspired and the inspirational. We want the people who are brave enough to work at the cutting edge and create solutions that will enrich and improve the lives of people across the globe. So, if you want to make the world say wow, let's talk.

The User Experience Design (UX) Group of the Sony UX & SW center in San Diego has an opening for a UX/Usability Researcher. We are looking for a creative researcher with passion for user experience and consumer products who can plan and conduct user research, analyze data, and propose unique, innovative, problem solving, user friendly yet sophisticated experience for Sony products. The UX Group is part of a multi-disciplinary team that designs user interfaces for many of Sony products. Our group gathers market and user requirements, creates scenarios, use cases, plan and conduct research, user test, create and propose user experience, document user interface specifications, and performs usability and benchmarking testing and analysis.

The ideal candidate will have extensive study with user-centered design of consumer products and usability evaluations at various stages of product development, with background of user research. He or she will have experience with effectively negotiating interactions with various stake holders such as designers, engineers, and business development. It is inevitable to have good visual presentation skill such as flash, photoshop, PowerPoint for quick prototyping for internal discussions and/or negotiation with related groups.

Responsibilities:

Primarily

• Conduct user research to examine and understand user’s needs
• Design user experiments and collect/analyze quantitative and qualitative data.
• Plan and conduct usability studies to evaluate new and existing products and making constructive suggestions for change.
• Conduct benchmarking studies of competitor products from a human interface standpoint.
• Coordinate and/or conduct user test, analyze the result and report

Secondary

• Generate creative ideas and solutions Generate scenarios and use cases to build information architecture.
• Communicate with different teams and individuals, including marketing, product planners, hardware and software engineers, GUI designers, QA to define product user interface specifications
• Mockup paper and Flash prototypes
• Create user interface design specification documents.

Qualifications 

• Bachelor's Degree in Graphic Design or Human-Computer Interaction is required or equivalent
• Must have 4 to 6 years of related engineering experience
• Experience in consumer electronic products with a focus on customer needs is required
• Must be able to work independently and in a team environment and possess excellent interpersonal skills
• Extensive experience with interaction design/user-centered design of consumer products and usability evaluations at various stages of product development is required
• Expertise developing user-friendly interfaces for imbedded systems, consumer and home entertainment products
• Expertise in producing high quality conceptual design layout using Photo Shop, Flash, Illustrator or Director is required
• Effectively negotiating interactions between designers and engineers is required
• Requires high-level of attention to detail to produce quality work within tight scheduling constraints
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely to all levels within the organization including verbal and written
• A portfolio of design samples e.g., course work, class projects, or past designs is required
• Ability to work flexible hours and travel internationally and domestically as needed 

Desired Skills:

• Ability to focus on the customer’s needs
• Knowledge of basic interaction design/user-centered design principles
• Familiarity with UI industry standards for interface design and user testing methodologies
• Some experience with statistical analysis of user research
• Working knowledge of documentation tool for specification documents
• Ability to work independently and efficiently on complex projects
• Ability to deliver high quality work on tight schedules
• Careful attention to detail
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to collaborate and work as a team

Sony Electronics is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values employees with a broad cross-cultural perspective. We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond. All applicants will receive fair and impartial treatment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, legally protected physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, status in the U.S. uniformed services, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information or on any other basis which is protected under applicable federal, state or local law.

Disability Accommodation for Applicants to Sony Electronics, Inc.

Sony Electronics, Inc. provides reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in job application procedures. For reasonable accommodation requests, please contact us by email at talenthelp@am.sony.com, or you can mail your resume to: Sony Electronics, Human Resources Department, 16535 Via Esprillo, San Diego CA 92127. Please indicate the position you are applying for.

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