International Web Association (IWA)

Profile WSP-G3-004. User Experience Designer

This section is normative.

The profile sheet, listed below and described in appendix B, is an integral part of the document, “G3 Web Skills Profiles – version 1.0 – Generation 3 European ICT Professional Profiles”, official specification of 14 February 2013” [WSPG3-03].

Summary definition

Professional position responsible for the visual design and the interaction between the user and system throughout the entire life cycle of the system, from definition and identification of requirements to production of the final design documents.

Assignment

The User Experience Designer’s duty is to integrate user requests, application requests, accessibility and usability requirements into a visual interface and an interaction model (also called a “user experience”) that is as uniform and integrated as possible. The User Experience Designer is responsible for developing a visual and interactive “style” that can simultaneously characterise the Web application (giving it distinctive characteristics) and guarantee the efficient achievement of user objectives.

Documentation produced

Accountable

  • Visual design documentation
  • Usability test
  • Accessibility test
  • Project Documentation
  • User testing
  • Collaborate with the Web Project Manager to collect user requirements, business objectives, and develop the project timeline
  • Carry out competitive, ethnographic, usability, and accessibility analyses, focus groups, interviews, and user tests
  • Translate user requirements and business objectives into interactive behaviour through the production of scripts, storyboards, user cases, user stories, and personas
  • Facilitate cross duty meetings between the development and production teams
  • Describe customer requirements to the development team
  • Define all visual, colour, typeface, and interactive aspects to enable the Front-End development team to produce a coherent, integrated, and efficient interface
  • Define the architecture, presentation, and organisation of the content
  • Produce design documentation in the form of model pages, model processes, navigation models, and site maps
  • Produce prototypes of screens and content taxonomies
  • Produce wireframes and design documents
  • Produce functional prototypes or functional specifications ready to be developed by the front-end development team
  • A.1. IS and Business Strategy Alignment: Levels e-4, e-5
  • A.6. Application Design: Level e-3
  • A.7. Technology Watching: Levels e-4, e-5
  • D.5. Sales Proposal Development: Level e-4
  • D.9. Personnel Development: Levels e-3, e-4
  • Active listening
  • Collection of requirements and maieutic techniques
  • Developing and conducting user tests
  • Developing and conducting accessibility and usability tests
  • User-centred design
  • Visual design and problem-solving
  • Storyboarding and development of personas
  • Production of documents and guidelines
  • Storytelling, cognitive walkthroughs and presentation
  • Conflict management
  • Tools for planning and prototyping the visual interfaces
  • Tools for planning process flows
  • Tools and languages for rapid prototyping
  • Mark-up and style sheets (e.g. XHTML, HTML and CSS)
  • Scripting languages (e.g. ECMA Script, PHP)
  • ISO/IEC 40500:2012 – Information technology – W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
  • ISO/TR 16982:2002 – Ergonomics of human-system interaction – Usability methods supporting human-centred design
  • ISO 9241-151:2008 – Ergonomics of human-system interaction – Part 151: Guidance on World Wide Web user interfaces
  • OWL Web Ontology Language
  • RDF Resource Description Framework and RDFS Resource Description Framework Schema
  • Elements of cognitive psychology and Gestalt theory
  • Elements of Prospect Theory
  • Knowledge of issues related to the internationalisation of Web interfaces
  • Basic knowledge of laws applicable to the Web (e.g. copyright, privacy)
  • Project management techniques (PMI, PRINCE2)
  • Agile techniques
  • Conversion rate (where applicable)
  • Click rate (when applicable)
  • System Usability Scale
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS®)
  • Task success rate
  • Task time
  • Single Ease Question
  • Second-level diploma in IT Engineering, Information Sciences and Technology, Psychology, Architecture
  • Ability to bring out, acknowledge, and formalise requirements
  • Maieutic and active listening ability
  • Ability to interact directly with customers
  • Ability to coordinate internal and third party teams
  • Ability to interact with various levels within the company
  • Ensure that customer and company requirements are met
  • Excellent knowledge of the English language – minimum level: C1 QCER
  • Excellent linguistic and writing skills in the national language or the language used by the working group.

Responsible

Contributor

Primary duties

Assigned e-CF skills

Abilities, knowledge

Technical

Information Technology

For development

Area of application of the KPI

Qualifications and certifications

Personal aptitudes

Interpersonal and Organisational

Linguistic

Relationships and reporting lines

(This section is for informational purposes)

Interacts with

  • Business Analyst
  • Community Manager
  • Advertising Manager
  • Frontend Web Developer
  • Web Content Specialist
  • Information Architect
  • Web Accessibility Expert
  • Web Security Expert
  • Mobile Application Developer
  • E-commerce Specialist
  • Online Store Manager
  • Digital Strategic Planner
  • Web Project Manager

Reports to


Appendices

Appendix A. Glossary

 

Informational

For the purposes of information and not required for compliance.

Note: The content required for compliance is referred to as “normative”.

Normative

Required for obtaining compliance.

Note: Content listed as “informational” or “non-normative” is never necessary for compliance.

Appendix B. Profile Sheet Structure

The Web skills profiles are identified by an unambiguous code and are structured in reference to paragraph 4.2 of the official CEN reference document, “European e- Competence Framework version 2.0 – CWA Part II: User guidelines for the application of the European e-Competence Framework 2.0” [CWA-01].

 

  • Profile Title. Name – including the identification code – of the Web skill profile according to the unambiguous international catalogue from the IWA/HWG.
  • Summary definition. Lists the primary purpose of the profile. The purpose is to give all stakeholders and users a brief, concise description of the specified Web skill profile, written in a form understandable by ICT professionals, managers, and Human Resources staff.
  • Assignment. Describes the basic assignment of the profile. The purpose is to specify the working role defined in the Web Skill Profile.
  • Documentation produced. Describes the documents produced by the job description as manager (guarantee), representative (support), and employee (contribution).
  • Primary duties. Provides a list of typical tasks carried out by the profile. A task is an action undertaken to achieve a result in a broadly defined context and contributing to the definition of the profile.
  • Assigned e-CF skills. Provides a list of the skills necessary (taken from the e-CF references) to carry out the assignment. A skill is the outcome of the previous definition of the Profile and helps to differentiate profiles.
  • Abilities, knowledge. A list of abilities and knowledge necessary for the definition of the profile, subdivided into technical, IT, and improving abilities (strengthening the profile).
  • Area of application of the KPI. Based on KPI (Key Performance Indicators), the area of application of the KPI is a more generic indicator, consistent with the grade level of the overall profile. It applies for adding depth to the assignment.
  • Qualifications and certifications. These are the recommended, but not essential, qualifications and certifications for carrying out the activities in the profile. However, these qualifications and certifications may be used for developing knowledge of specific skills within the profile.
  • Personal aptitudes. A list of aptitudes supporting the abilities and knowledge, subdivided into interpersonal/organisational and linguistic. This section reports references to the QCER [CE-01], which promotes the understanding of specific language certifications, purely for informational purposes.
  • Relationships and reporting lines. A list of Web skills profiles and not with whom the profile discusses (relationships) or reports (reporting lines). This section is for informational purposes.
  • [CC-01] Creative Commons – Attribution – No derivative works – 3.0  (CC BY-ND 3.0)
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
  • [CWA-01] CEN – European e-Competence Framework version 2.0 – CWA Part II: User guidelines for the application of the European e-Competence Framework 2.0 (September 2010)
    http://www.ecompetences.eu/site/objects/download/5999_EUeCF2.0userguide.pdf
  • [WSPG3-01] IWA – IWA Italy Web Skills Profiles Group

Appendix C. References

http://www.skillprofiles.eu

  • [WSPG3-02] IWA – IWA Italy – International Webmasters Association Italia

http://iwa.it