Lead Interaction Designer
Belgrade
Do you use the craft and science of Interaction Design to add depth and value to a game's design?
We are looking for a talented and experienced Lead Interaction Designer to join our team!
As a Lead Interaction Designer in Nordeus, you be responsible for the quality bar related to Interaction Design across the studio. This includes providing craft leadership to our Game Designers, Interaction Designers, UI artists and Engineers, with whom you will partner to ensure that we deliver great, intuitive and cohesive end-to-end Interaction Design to all our players and on all our games.
You will bring with you a wide toolbox of UX, Design techniques and methods, all of which means that you are quick to articulate, explore, sketch, visualise and prototype end-to-end user flows that focus on a systematic approach that encompasses gesture design and interaction grammar at any stage of the user’s journey.
What you will be doing:
- Working proactively with nominal supervision to add value to our players’ experiences and advance our Game Designs through the effective use of Interaction Design art and science
- Cultivating a ‘show, don’t tell’ design culture that promotes teamwork, the sharing of ideas and techniques, as well as the growth of the Design craft and overall game production value
- Applying excellent Interaction Design fundamentals (such as problem definition, usability principles, research, ideation, sketching and prototyping) to deliver a strong set of visualized and cohesive Interaction Design ‘grammars’ appropriate to the release platforms and product roadmap.
- Ensuring great, cohesive, responsive end-to-end Interaction Designs for our games including the key areas of:
- Initial discovery phase through new player accessibility, player conversion and ramping/retention strategies
- Ensuring each game’s interaction and gesture design is consistent with its overarching narrative
- Using narrative and emotion effectively to help drive engagement and retention
- Balancing the ever elusive tension between player experience, production values, business objectives and resource limitations.
- Proactively participate in daily concept pitch and critique sessions by visually communicating design concepts clearly and concisely. You remain open to and respond gracefully to feedback in such a manner that open dialogue is encouraged; When you identify or are presented with difficult problems, you work to find a solution for the root cause of the issue
- Partner with producers to ensure presented designs are visually appropriate to the needs of the project and consistent with the time and resources available to deliver quality work on time and budget
- Stays abreast of emerging research from the fields in HCI, Ergonomics, Interaction Design and User Research; you understand and apply appropriately learnings to the studio’s design processes and products
- Help grow, mentor and provide career guidance to junior UX and game design staff across the organization
- Represent Nordeus in the Interaction Design community groups and ensure our needs are well represented and that we maintain an appropriate presence
- Maintain a sense of humor. This can be a tough job with demanding deadlines. We want someone who can handle all of this and still enjoy a good laugh over rakija.
What you should have:
- 8-10 years of experience in Interaction Design, having delivered world-class and compelling experiences on time and in budget (with at least 3 years working on mobile and/or games)
- A collaborative mindset that views iteration, transparency and professionalism as the cornerstones of a creative culture, which views constraints as opportunities to innovate.
- The ability to articulate and present complex concepts in a clear and concise manner, as well as self-motivated, organized and a lifelong learner
- An excellent working knowledge of Design techniques, Interaction Design (user scenarios, task flows, conceptual models), User Research methods, Information Architecture, and game design. You bring excellent problems solving and ideation skills along with a strong working knowledge of modern interaction design and development strategies. As our studio is a highly iterative and collaborative environment, you are very comfortable pitching concepts and receiving critique every day
- A Designer’s toolbox that is a rich collection of different methods and techniques that you deploy with ease, starting with pre-production methods and research, through to production and final tuning. These include:
- Great visualization abilities: You must be able to effectively visualize, sketch and prototype your ideas quickly, with and without a computer.
- Excellent understanding of user research methodologies and principles, as well as good practical research techniques in addition to remaining aware of academic research work in UX, ergonomics and HCI.
- Current rapid prototyping tools (e.g;. Flinto, PowerPoint, Axure, etc).
- Knowledgeable of IxD most major methods and practices. You understand the advantages and drawbacks of different platforms, including mobile and console, multi-touch and natural user interfaces (NUI) and how they’ve been applied across different genres of games (e.g.; sports, city builders, FPS) and different business models (e.g.; premium, freemium, subscription, etc.).
- A good working knowledge of Interaction Design and UX development environments/systems (i.e. HTML 5, JavaScript, Unity, etc).
- An organised approach that enables you to multi-task well and remain self sufficient. You are self driven in varying and ambiguous situations, you efficiently manage multiple areas of production, and work under constant deadline constraints while always paying attention to detail.
- A proven track record with a minimum of 8-10 years’ experience building and shipping world class interaction design work (ideally 5+ credits on shipped titles) in entertainment products, ideally games and/or mobile with at least 2 years’ experience in a supervisory role; You have aa BS/BA from an accredited school in either HCI, Ergonomics, Cognitive Psychology, User Research, Industrial Design or Interaction Design, a Masters is a plus.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills and are comfortable communicating difficult messages, creative concepts, feedback, requirements, etc. in a clear and concise manner. You can communicate complex visual ideas without the use of a computer. You proactively facilitate user centered conversations across the organization.
- Strong interpersonal, critique, negotiation, problem-solving, and analytical skills. You are able to keep long-term implications in mind when you are resolving immediate challenges. You are experienced enough to know your ego isn’t a design tool. You can distinguish between boundaries that should be challenged and those that should not.
- A driven mindset to push boundaries while remaining deeply pragmatic.
If you imagine this being something you would enjoy doing, let’s make it happen! Send us your up-to-date CV, portfolio and cover letter explaining why you believe we are a match.