Senior Product Designer

Compensation $110,000

Job Description

It is critical to Maple Media’s continued success that the company hire well-qualified Senior Product Designers to collaborate with our design and engineering departments to be a part of our team that creates the visual experience of our mobile apps, including UX mockups, wireframes, icons, animations, UI style guides, user flows, layout designs, prototypes, user testing, asset creation and a number of other art/design needs. As a Senior Product Designer, the candidate will be involved in all aspects of internal app development, from pre-production to content releases for live operations. The Senior Product Designer must understand human interaction with technology to evaluate user experience (UX) to affect strategy and roadmaps, and to translate user needs to features according to established design guidelines. This knowledge, skills, and training in sophisticated graphics design can only be learned through completion of at least a master’s degree in the specific specialty of graphic design, fine arts, illustration or a closely related field.

 

The nature of the activities performed by the Senior Product Designer within our company are very specialized and complex. Such skills can only be attained through completion of at least a master’s degree program in graphic design, fine arts, illustration, or a closely related field. The person filling this role must have a solid understanding of media design principles including embedded computing/programming, Web/network systems, mechanical design, prototyping, computer aided design/fabrication, machine learning and simulation, and virtual reality and CUI (Conversational User Interface) design – all of which are courses taught in today’s graphic design, illustration, and fine arts programs.

 

More specifically, the position of Senior Product Designer with Maple Media includes, but is not limited to, the following day-to-day activities:

 

- Design mock-ups/iterations using Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash focused on UI and app flow.

- Create appealing, user friendly, innovative, and crisp 2D app assets with a focus on usability and freemium best-practices in mobile styles.

 - Prepare and design all facets of the User Interface, including mockups, wireframes, icons, animations, UI style guides, general art, and documentation.

- Create clear and attractive messaging, buttons, icons, widgets, and other UI elements which work well within tight fixed aspect ratios, and with a wide variety of themes from utility-based apps and casual games.

- Collaborate with the design team to provide UI style guides for new titles to ensure product consistency.

- Work with engineering to ensure artwork is accurately and consistently represented in the app.

- Provide clear creative direction and feedback to improve design processes to keep work on budget and schedule.

- Communicate and influence product design strategy and suggestions for improvement.

- Organize and manage art asset list to ensure all deliverables and goals are met.

- Responsible for all sprint planning for the design department.

- Collaborate with product managers and designers outlining user flows and wireframes.

 

The Senior Product Designer must have knowledge of the theories and techniques related to app design and current industry trends, knowledge of usability factors in Human Computer Interaction; and ultimately, must be able to communicate, identify, and define visual design issues and solutions to enhance the user experience. The Senior Product Designer will use computer programs and illustrations to define user-oriented aspects of our apps, working creatively but within set Maple Media style guidelines. In this role, she will use her knowledge and skills to create usable concepts for apps, incorporating user interface into designs and creating many types of subjects in distinctive styles using software programs and tools. 

 

Drawing from a solid foundation in fine arts and media design principles, the Senior Product Designer will be tasked with creating and designing concepts for screens, maps, structures, units, motion graphics, user interface and particle effects, as well as creating symbol illustrations, logos, menus, and UIs in a friendly, accessible style for our mobile apps across multiple platforms and pipelines.

 

Using her solid understanding of UI design best practices and interaction design fundamentals, she will build and create technical 2D app assets such as icons, buttons, widgets, logos, and other UI elements; as well as design mock-ups, wireframes, and storyboards to support the flow of the app. She will be required to maintain high quality designs and productivity throughout projects, ensuring consistency of designs and presentation across multiple device types; and meeting production deadlines and milestones, as set by Maple Media.