Message Agency is seeking a UX Designer to serve our nonprofit, higher education, and foundation clients. Our UX designers collaborate closely with developers, digital strategists, visual designers, and clients to create a structured, intuitive experience for end users. They also collaborate with the broader design team to continually improve our practices and processes.

You would work directly with clients during the discovery process to collect and document requirements and translate them into website and workflow specifications. You would develop user research protocols and conduct interviews and focus groups to help inform our design thinking. You would produce sitemaps, content models, wireframes, and workflow diagrams to communicate experience design. You should be able to apply principles of user-centered design, human factoring, and design for usability and accessibility. You would also help to perform design fidelity review and quality assurance on developed sites.

We are looking for a sharp, creative professional who understands how to exceed expectations. We need a strong communicator, thinker, and designer, whose attention to detail is impeccable but who also can listen to peers and clients while also advocating for the user.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Participate in planning and conducting discovery sessions with clients and derive insights from discovery activity to help formulate design concepts.
2. Conduct research on user behavior patterns using focus groups, Google Analytics, and other user research tools.
3. Develop strategic and maintainable content and layout systems for clients.
4. Evaluate business processes and develop requirements and user stories for major site features.
5. Estimate effort and evaluate feasibility for design tasks based on budget constraints and timeline.
6. Define sitemaps, content models, and taxonomies for client projects.
7. Develop wireframes, workflows, and schema diagrams for client projects.
8. Assist with the refinement and expansion of our component library for site design.
9. Implement best practices for SEO and Accessibility standards in designs.
10. Collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of designers, information architects, project managers, and developers to deliver content and design approaches that meet client business goals.

Required Skills and Experience

A candidate should have:

1. A bachelor’s degree, preferably but not necessarily in digital design, psychology, or a related field.
2. At least three years of professional experience (not as an intern) as a UX designer or in a digital strategy role.
3. Awareness of user research and/or market segmentation.
4. Served in a client facing role in a digital or creative agency, or as a freelancer.
5. Strong writing, communication, and organizational skills.
6. Experience developing wireframes, layouts, and digital strategy.
7. Experience designing for Drupal, WordPress, or other content management systems.
8. Demonstrated examples of original website designs, either through wireframes, mockups, or other documentation.
9. Strong knowledge of user experience (UX) design, including design for usability and human-centered design.

Ideal Skills and Experience

An ideal candidate would have:

1. Knowledge of Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and/or SEO
2. Understanding of web accessibility
3. Experience working in an agile team environment
4. Experience working with nonprofit organizations, universities, or foundations
5. Experience participating in discovery sessions with clients

About Message Agency

Message Agency delivers digital impact for the greater good. Founded in 2007, we are an established and growing web development company with a social mission. We build sites in Drupal and WordPress—open source content management systems (CMS)—and work with both regional and national nonprofits, universities, foundations, and government agencies. As a certified B Corporation that’s been awarded “Best for the World” status three times, we are a triple bottom line business that believes:

• We must be the change we seek in the world.
• All business ought to be conducted as if people and place mattered.
• Through their products, practices, and profits, businesses should aspire to do no harm and benefit all.
• To do so requires that we act with the understanding that we are each dependent upon another and thus responsible for each other and future generations.

Message Agency is committed to our staff’s professional growth, and as such encourages and offers employees professional development opportunities and invites them to join teams outside of their discipline, such as our marketing team, Happiness Committee, and other internal initiatives. We frequently hold employee-led lunch and learns, company-wide “class trips” and outings, and the occasional bowling league.

Compensation and Benefits

This is a full-time position, and salary and compensation are commensurate with experience. The pay is competitive for this role. We offer profit sharing, 100% paid health/dental/vision, 401(k) with employer contribution, generous paid vacation/holidays, professional development budget, commuter benefits, FSA plan, life insurance, short-term disability insurance, and a great working environment. We are located in Philadelphia, PA, and would prefer to hire talent from our region. However, this is a remote role and open to anyone in the United States.

Diversity and Inclusion

Message Agency is an equal opportunity employer, and we value diversity at our company. We strongly encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Check us out at: http://messageagency.com.

Applying for this Role

To apply, please submit a cover letter, resume, references, and samples or links to your portfolio site.

Cover letters are important to us. You will be required to complete a cover letter that describes why you think you are qualified for this role and how your past experience makes you an outstanding candidate. Applications without cover letters will not be considered. 

Also, please be patient. Our screening process takes longer than most other employers’—but we’re worth the wait. We want to be sure that anyone we hire is a perfect fit for both the agency and employee, so our process is thorough.