Senior Visual Designer

SENIOR VISUAL INTERACTION DESIGNER

Location: San Jose, CA
Job Type: Regular, full-time position.

The Gaiaonline.com team is seeking a Senior Visual Interaction Designer to help make Gaia's User Interface more intuitive, frictionless and cohesive.

The ideal candidate will join our User Interface Team and will be responsible for designing the next generation of exciting Gaia features as well as ever improving and optimizing existing core features of the website. Working closely with the Product, Development, Creative, and Marketing Teams, the candidate will help define and communicate the broader 'Gaia World' vision and apply that to each feature.

Strong candidates will have experience leading the designs of one or more complex web application(s) or services and a broad understanding of the methods used in their creation, including participatory design, rapid iterative prototyping, and asset optimization. Qualified candidates should posses the ability to carryout UI projects from brainstorming, diagramming, and wire-frames through to high fidelity visual composites and asset creation, The candidate will balance multiple projects while considering the larger picture to best make strategic decisions.

Requirements include:
- A passion for web interfaces and an advocate for user-centric design
- A strong desire to understand, and to take interest in, our wonderful users
- The ability to support experiences that are both fun and engaging as well as task-driven
- An eye for detail and consistency
- A general understanding of branding and the ability to consider our brand strategy through all experiences
- A passion for video games and their interfaces is a plus

Responsibilities:
- Help make Gaiaonline easier to use, more intuitive, and more fun!
- Assess current site features and usage patterns
- Translate high-level objectives and requirements into conceptual interaction flow diagrams
- Create fast and iterative structural wire-frames design solution
- Resolve wire-frames into high fidelity visual composites
- Create optimized web assets for both PHP and Flash environments
- Help drive methodology and actively promote good UI patterns

Skills & Qualifications:
- 4+ years of user interface visual design experience
- Strong communication and collaboration skills
- Dedication to detail and deadlines
- The ability to effectively communicate interactions to developers
- MS in human-computer interaction or related field preferred; BS in either Computer Science or Graphic Arts a plus
- Strong graphic design skills
- Demonstrated experience in designing extremely usable, consumer-oriented web-based interfaces
- Excellent communication and teamwork skills
- Experience working with HTML, Javascript, and CSS
- A basic understanding of how web-based presentation layer technologies work, including DHTML, Flash, and AJAX (do not need to be able to code)
- Strong understanding of human factors and usability best practices
- Experience working within the Agile development process is a plus

This is a regular, full-time senior position based in our HQ just across from the San Jose airport.
All applicants must be prepared to provide references and work samples.