Product Designer - Six Months (W2 Temp)

As a Product Designer at Friends From The City, your primary responsibilities will include designing user interfaces for the VA’s financial management system, ensuring accessibility and usability, collaborating with cross-functional teams, conducting usability testing, and creating wireframes and high-fidelity mockups that enhance the user experience for veterans and their families.

To qualify for the Product Designer role at Friends From The City, you should have 5-7 years of hands-on experience in product design or UX/UI roles, a strong portfolio that showcases your design process, as well as expertise in creating user flows and prototypes using tools like Figma or Codepen. Additionally, experience with designing for accessibility (WCAG 2.1 compliance) is essential.

At Friends From The City, inclusivity is at the heart of the design process. Product Designers collaborate deeply with users and stakeholders to gather insights, validate concepts through usability testing, and ensure that designs adhere to accessibility guidelines. This approach ensures all digital solutions cater to the diverse needs of veterans and their families.

As a Product Designer at Friends From The City, you will primarily use Figma for designing interfaces and prototypes. Additionally, Codepen may be utilized for coding and testing your designs to ensure they are functional and user-friendly, adhering to the necessary technical specifications.

Friends From The City fosters a supportive and collaborative culture where innovation, inclusivity, and ethical design are core values. You'll work with a diverse team that values your input and believes in making a meaningful impact, creating a workplace that encourages continuous learning and personal growth.

When explaining your design process, focus on the steps you take from research to final mockups. Highlight how you engage users, sketch initial ideas, develop wireframes, and conduct usability tests to validate designs. Providing a structured answer shows your methodical approach and your commitment to user-centered design.

Discuss your understanding of accessibility standards and how you implement them in your designs. Mention specific accessibility practices you follow and tools you use, such as WCAG guidelines, and perhaps give examples from your portfolio illustrating how you've incorporated accessibility in previous projects.

Share a specific project experience and outline how you communicated with different stakeholder groups, understood their needs, addressed feedback, and achieved a successful outcome. Emphasize your collaborative skills and ability to balance diverse perspectives to drive optimal design solutions.

When answering, describe a particular design challenge, such as redesigning a complex feature. Discuss the obstacles you faced, the strategies you implemented to solve the problem, and what you learned through the experience. This shows resilience and problem-solving capabilities.

Explain your openness to feedback by citing how you actively seek input from peers and stakeholders. Illustrate that you value constructive criticism and see it as a chance for growth and improvement in your design work, emphasizing your adaptability and teamwork.

Share your strategies for prioritizing tasks, such as using project management tools or adopting a systematic approach to assess impact and urgency. Discuss how you keep open communication with your team to ensure alignment and meet project deadlines effectively.

Discuss what drives your passion for design, such as a desire to make technology accessible or improve user experiences. You can reference influences from design trends, user feedback, or personal experiences that motivate you to create meaningful design solutions.

Illustrate the significance of user journey mapping by describing how it helps you understand user needs, frustrations, and motivations. Explain how this insight directly influences your designs and contributes to a better overall user experience.

Provide examples where you tailored your designs based on user research or feedback, especially for varying user capabilities or demographic diversity. Highlight your awareness of user needs and your commitment to user-centered design principles.

Express your alignment with the company's mission to create inclusive technology, emphasizing your appreciation for their commitment to ethical design. Discuss how you believe your skills and experience can contribute to their goal of simplifying complex governmental processes for users.