Zappos.com offers talented and motivated people the opportunity to do the best work of their lives in a dynamic and growing company. If you have a 'can do' attitude, thrive in a fast paced, team environment - we want to hear from you! Zappos.com is located in the greater Las Vegas area and offers an extensive benefits package for all regular full time employees including medical, dental, vision, 401k and paid relocation assistance!

Senior User Experience/Usability Specialist with strong Information Architecture skills

Position Summary:

Zappos is seeking a Senior UX/ Usability Specialist with strong information architecture skills to join our rapidly growing User Experience team. The Senior UX/Usability specialist will be a major contributor to the development of the User Experience department. He or she will work as part of the User Experience team architecting a compelling user experience that also meets usability requirements, branding requirements and interaction design specifications. This role requires a skilled usability professional with excellent communication and interpersonal skills.  The ideal candidate should be comfortable working both independently and alongside other UX and cross-functional team members.

The Senior UX/ Usability Specialist responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, the following:

-    Contribute to the development and implementation of a customer-centric Experience Design methodology, which will include:  Persona development, User and business goal analysis, Workflow and Information Architecture diagrams.
-    Plan and execute one-on-one usability studies, competitive reviews, focus groups, heuristic reviews, usability tests, and surveys.
-    Conduct user and market research to understand the needs and desires of Zappos’ target audience using varying techniques: observation, surveys, usability testing, cognitive walkthroughs, card sorting and contextual inquiries.
-    Analyze qualitative and quantitative data. Translate findings into actionable and thoughtful recommendations. Write reports, present and justify recommendations to User Experience Manager, UX team members, and other relevant departments/decision makers.
-    Act as a user advocate for site UX enhancements based on data analysis, study findings and best practices.
-    Work closely with cross-functional teams to balance business constraints with UX best practices.
-    Work with User Interface Designer(s) and other key UX team members to create concepts based on business requirements and usability findings. Conduct iterative testing and execute rapid prototyping of designs when necessary.
-    Write/create relevant documentation including wireframes, graphs, user flows, use cases, personas and functional requirements.
-    As part of team, champion usability standards and user experience/user-centered design for the most intuitive website experience, including navigation, page layout, and content restructuring.
-    Actively participate in the development of UX processes, deliverables and best practices.
-    Stay abreast of innovations in UX best practices, tools and topics of interest to the UX community and retail/ecommerce industry trends.
-    Actively mentor junior level team members.


The ideal candidate will have the following skills/qualifications:

o    Knowledgeable and skilled in a variety of usability assessment methodologies, such as heuristics, HCI, eye tracking, creation of personas and use case scenarios.
o    Commercial web site experience - preferably in ecommerce.
o    Experience developing test questions and conducting usability studies (e-commerce specific preferred).
o    Strong writing and editing skills with ability to produce high quality written reports synthesizing both qualitative and quantitative data. (Writing sample required).
o    A strong foundation in the principles and practice of information architecture as it relates to websites.
o    High-level understanding of web site/web application functionality with a solid understanding of the relevant technologies (e.g. AJAX, DHTML) and their inherent strengths and limitations relating to UX design.
o    Demonstrated experience using web analytics data to inform UI design decisions.
o    Minimum four years prior experience in user experience, usability and/or information architecture.
o    Demonstrated experience developing user profiles and personas, user scenarios, navigation flow charts, storyboards, wireframes, mockups and UI functional specifications.
o    Proficiency with UI design tools such as PhotoShop, Illustrator, Visio, Omnigraffle, etc.
o    Excellent communication and collaboration skills
o    Comfortable in a fast-paced, highly dynamic, rapidly growing and evolving environment.
o    Experience with developing semi-functional prototypes (i.e., HTML or Flash) is a plus
o    Experience with online communities and deep content sites is a very big plus.
o    Experience with user generated content and content management systems is a very big plus.
o    Knowledge of internationalization, localization and web accessibility standards is a plus.
o    Familiarity and interest in retail/fashion is a plus
o    BS/BA in HCI, Cognitive Psychology, Human Factors, Technology, Communications, UI Design/Development or related degree preferred or equivalent work experience.


Please be prepared to share examples of deliverables you created.

This is an exciting opportunity for the right candidate to achieve a key position in an evolving UX team environment. Zappos.com is a multi-million dollar ecommerce company and its User Experience department will be growing markedly in the next year.

The right candidate will have a great opportunity for advancement and be encouraged to pursue paid skill-advancement opportunities that will directly benefit them as well as the team/company (such as UX industry conferences and seminars).


If interested, send your résumé to jobs@zappos.com with the job code cs-srux-102907 in the subject line of your email.