Description :
Job Title: User Experience Researcher
Job Category: Usability
Product: Hardware
Date Posted: 07/24/2008
Job Code: 237048
Location: WA - Redmond
Travel Required:
Innovation. A lot of people use the word. We make it happen. Join Microsoft Hardware as a user researcher and help us deliver innovation by creating exceptional user experiences for our highly successful products.
The Microsoft Hardware User Research team is looking for an experienced user researcher to focus on product development and interaction for our PC peripheral products focusing in our Mouse and PC Gaming categories.
You will be responsible for planning and implementing user research for future integrated product experiences incorporating hardware, software and services. You'll develop research plans for multiple program needs across the end-to-end development cycle ranging from explorative front end research to detailed performance and technology evaluations, and will need to have command of a wide range of user research methods for identifying, understanding and translating user needs to actionable guidance for design, development, and business decisions.
You'll work in a fast-paced environment with interdisciplinary teams and will have multiple stakeholders for the work you do including design, engineering, marketing, product planning, and program management teams -- so you will need to think strategically, be creative and be able to communicate a lot of information in a simple and organized way. You'll need to define new ways of measuring success and will need to answer challenging research questions -- so you'll need to be detail-oriented and results-driven. Most importantly, you'll need to be a passionate advocate for our users throughout the development process - consumers who want great user experiences.
Prior gaming industry experience is not required, but candidates must be familiar with the game mechanics associated with PC based FPS, RTS, and RPG game genres. The candidate need to be able or quickly develop the ability to converse credibly with PC gamers who spend 10+ hours a week gaming. The ability to understand participant feedback within the context of the gaming industry and/or gaming culture is a plus.
At least 2-3 years of experience in the technology consumer product industry conducting user research
Familiarity with a broad range of research methodology including explorative, generative and evaluative methods
Solid understanding of the field of human-computer interaction, experimental design, usability research and data analysis
Ability to work effectively with multidisciplinary product teams to drive application of results into products
Experience generating research plans, defining and tracking user experience metrics, coordinating work on multiple products/releases and managing the work of additional resources.
Strong written and oral communication/presentation skills are required.
Strong aptitude for understanding new technologies is a plus. Additional, hands-on experience in a secondary field such as interaction design, industrial design, mechanical or software engineering, or consumer product marketing/market research etc. is highly desired.
Education requirements include either an MA/MS or PhD in human factors, psychology, user -centered or human centered-design, social or behavioral science, HCI or highly related field, OR a BA/BS in one of the above fields with significant industry experience.
Help us evolve the discipline of user research and demonstrate what a strategic business asset it is.
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