Experienced UX Designer – Role Description

PikPok Games

Wellington, Wellington, NZ

4d ago

source : WHATJOBS

About PikPok

We’re PikPok, New Zealand’s longest-standing game developer, and we strive to make great game experiences for our players.

We want to bring success and joy by working together to entertain the world.

Over the years, we have built lots of games for all sorts of platforms, most recently titles like Into the Dead 2, Rival Stars Horse Racing, Agent Intercept and My Cat Club.

Our teams are small, and everyone involved can contribute to the decisions that shape the products.

We’re always working to build and maintain an inclusive, safe and fun studio culture. We are based in Wellington, NZ and we have an amazing group of designers, artists, programmers and support staff from all over the globe.

Now, we’re looking to add a new Experienced UX Designer to the team.

About the role

To us, game development is about creating amazing play experiences that engage and entertain.

As an Experienced UX Designer, you play a key role in helping us create those engaging experiences through the design of intuitive interfaces that allow our players to get the maximum enjoyment out of our games, while encouraging them to engage with our community, and monetise.

All UX Designers are part of the Design Division, but work closely with all other disciplines.

The purpose of the Design Division is to improve company revenue through designing highly engaging, entertaining and retaining games with systems that maximise the monetisation potential in the target audience.

In your role you may work on many different aspects of UX design, and on multiple projects. As such it is unlikely that you will be working on ALL of the below elements at any given time, but may work on all of them throughout your time in the role.

1. Live and Advocate the PikPok Company Values

Be Curious - Be interested in everything. Ask questions often. Seek to understand our players, their motivations and behaviours.

Frequently challenge your own ideas and positions.

Understand that everyone has something to teach and learn. Bring a level of enthusiasm and passion to your work.

Take Ownership - Don’t procrastinate. Be willing to make a commitment and own any subsequent successes and failures. Have the maturity to learn from mistakes and be hungry for feedback.

Understand that quality is everyone’s business and push yourself and others to own the delivery of quality. Be reliable, with a willingness to take a feature (or similar) and own it, including driving it, ensuring it is completed, looping in others, updating artifacts, and more.

Collaborate Well - Have a willingness to collaborate with others and think beyond yourself.

Have the ability and willingness to actively listen to others and see their side of the issue. Be willing to take advice without being defensive and to separate work critique from personal critique.

Understand the common purpose, support and nurture colleagues. Work toward the benefit of the company and project. Be respectful. Be understanding. Be kind.

2. Games Industry Knowledge

Learn, use, and share appropriate industry knowledge and experience, including but not limited to :

Nuances and needs of different platforms;

Relevant market knowledge, such as detailed understanding of systems in leading games (both made within PikPok and in the wider industry);

Best practices related to systems, economies, player motivations, and progression;

Intuition of future trends and opportunities.

3. Communication

Design is all about communication, both to the user through the game and to the team through your work. As such, communication skills, including but not limited to the below, are vital :

Be able to speak with confidence and clarity, even to authority;

Stay positive in challenging situations, and work with people to find a path forward;

Be able to persuade others and sell an idea or vision, without bullying;

Take feedback and input from others constructively and non-defensively;

Speak and present to wide groups in a clear and enthusiastic manner, engaging the audience;

Create documents and artifacts (including presentations, mockups, wireframes, flowcharts, etc.) in a clear, concise and timely manner.

Phone : +64 4 471 2638 · Fax : +64 4 471 2639 · Online : Website · Facebook · Twitter · Linked in · YouTube · Instagram 4.

Organisation and Quality-Based Practices

Demonstrate a good sense of prioritisation, including being able to express why you made the choices you made;

Show initiative in finding appropriate work if none is assigned;

Work on multiple projects at the same time, as required;

Work well with different teams;

Follow appropriate design and industry practices;

Be able to pivot ideas and behaviours to match new directions;

Have a good sense when additional refinement is required, while also knowing when enough is enough;

Use game data to inform decision making. Ask the right questions and make reasoned arguments based on results;

Show a smart sense of scope (such as designing in a well organised and layered approach);

Have a positive attitude to both QA and User testing;

Assist others, as required, to ensure goals are met and quality is paramount.

5. Hold and Drive the Project Vision

Demonstrate ability to hold the vision for a project (or feature) and represent it to others;

Be able to enthuse others, and get them on board;

Participate in brainstorming and vision development, including engaging and encouraging cooperation and input from others, as required.

6. Work Ethic & Leadership Skills

Demonstrate enthusiasm for your work, the project, the work of others, and PikPok as a whole;

Demonstrate good self management skills, while still being able to follow the team plan;

Demonstrate good self motivation, with an ability to push through the tough times;

Demonstrate the efficiency to do what’s necessary, while not relying on overtime as a solution;

Be decisive, without being dictatorial or aggressive. Be able to clearly explain why you made the decisions you did;

Show courage and clarity in advocating for your project / team / dept. / PikPok;

Demonstrate a smart sense of scope, and the ability to design in layers;

Show ability (and enthusiasm) to mentor others;

When teaching, do so in a clear patient way, with an understanding of the learner’s needs;

Demonstrate ability to delegate sensibly to others;Inspire, motivate and encourage those around you.

Work with your team to come up with creative solutions to a problem that consider the project and business goals as well as the users' needs;

Iterate, brainstorm, and incorporate the best ideas from all sources;

Use intuition as appropriate;

Use data and research to validate solutions, where available. Seek data when it is not.

Act as an advocate for the significance and well being of user experience design as an art and as a discipline within PikPok;

Demonstrate an excellent level of knowledge and understanding of requirements in order to foster optimal UX in the UI;

Demonstrate ability to design & optimise mechanics and interfaces to create an experience that is both easy and painless for players to learn and use;

9. Consistency & Standards

Demonstrate knowledge and ability to maintain consistency across UI elements, including considering standards with which players are familiar in order to maximize usability;

Understand PikPok’s internal standards. Applying them as appropriate;

Work with the Chief Design Officer and other UX designers to develop new, and existing, standards as required;Mockups & Wireframing

Demonstrate skill at creating & iterating clear, well considered UI mockups encompassing all required elements with desired hierarchies;

10. Loop & Flow Design

Show skill at mapping out meaningful game flows that encourage desired user behavior;

Use UI flows and affordances to see the experience end to end, to achieve both user satisfaction and business goals.

11. Interaction Design

Consider and design UI interactions that are intuitive, responsive, and feel good to use;

Visualize juicy UI interactions through mockups or demos;

Demonstrate knowledge about using UI elements to market and sell content or experiences.

12. Understand and work within PikPok’s Agile Framework

Attend and contribute to teams’ relevant rituals;

Acknowledge that priorities and requirements frequently change;

Phone : +64 4 471 2638 · Fax : +64 4 471 2639 · Online : Website · Facebook · Twitter · Linked in · YouTube · Instagram Be a cooperative, collaborative and willing team player;

Acknowledge that PikPok’s Agile framework is itself adaptable as required.

13. Help deliver the goals of the Design Division

Actively communicate any problems, or needs to your manager, so that they can be appropriately addressed;

Help promote the needs and goals of the Design Division to the greater company;

Help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the division through your attitude, day-today work and forward-thinking strategies.

14. Actively support Health and Safety initiatives in the Studio

Promote and encourage process improvement opportunities to further improve health and safety;

Health and safety procedures are understood and adhered to;

All identified hazards are reported to HR pikpok.com within five working days;

Report all accidents, incidents or near misses to HR pikpok.com withi

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