Daily Brad, the blog

The Omniture UI team is growing continually, and we’re always looking to get some talented people on-board. It seems the UI designer is one of the most difficult to find. Someone who is not only talented in the aesthetic realm (our highly graphic applications depends on creativity and innovation), but who is also adept at creating easy-to-use interfaces for a highly technical and complex web-based software. And someone who’s willing to work in Orem, Utah. (Utah rocks!)

Here’s the latest job description we’re getting out there for a new hire. If you’ve got questions about the position or what it’s like to work at Omniture, drop me a line.

User Interface Designer Job Opening

Omniture is looking for an innovative, visual UI Designer with a strong sense of graphic design, layout, color, and usability. The ideal candidate will have an appreciation for sleek and usable interfaces, a solid understanding of the design process for web applications, strong technical know-how and a great attention to detail.
The UI Designer will work closely with product managers, researchers, engineers, and technical writers to visually and creatively take product ideas to concept by rapidly prototyping through conceptual sketches and mockups. The UI Designer will continually refine concepts to reflect input from internal and end-user testing. This is a high-profile role in a company that places high importance on creating a web product that combines cutting edge graphic technique with an easy-to-use interface.

Description

• Take direction to implement the creative vision and overall look and feel for projects based on design objectives, product requirements, functional specs, and an iterative feedback process.
• Assist in defining and developing the user experience for Omniture’s award-winning web-based products. Work with product manager and engineers in drafting initial concepts.
• Convey design ideas via storyboards, and prototyping tools.
• Create deployment-quality mocks and prototypes on tight timelines.
• Maintain graphic standards and corporate branding throughout the product’s interface.
• Review completed projects for consistent and correct look and feel.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of professional web design experience with an emphasis on creative, visual, and interaction design.
• Prefer web product design experience.
• BA/BS or equivalent in Graphic Design or related field preferred.
• Understanding of graphical web design principles, typography, composition, and iconography.
• Ability to set conceptual design and product direction from functional requirements.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with a group of creative individuals to produce highly polished and professional finished works.
• Ability to accept and design against feedback in an iterative development process.
• Ability to produce effective ideas under tight timelines.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Strong computer skills and a demonstrated expertise in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Comfortable in Microsoft Windows environment.
• Willing and able to contribute to the creative spirit and teamwork of the company.

I had an “ah-ha!” moment over the past couple days. CSS is awesome!

Perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve been so focused on the aesthetic design of websites for so long, and not how they’re engineered that I took CSS for granted? (I have always been able to surround myself with excellent programmers who’ve spoiled me.) So maybe the power of CSS hasn’t sunk in due to the fact that I’ve never gone in and tweaked it for myself?

But now I get it. CSS is awesome! (Did I say that?)

I’ve been blogging for a couple years now off and on, and really took what Wordpress does for granted. I enter the content, click publish and Worpress takes care of the rest. I was never concerned about the look of my blog (if that wasn’t obvious enough with my hats-off approach to the default template), nor did I think how a “blog tool” could translate into a content management system for a regular website. (Though the thought had crossed my mind) I always thought I’d get some help (the excellent programmers I mentioned before) in making any content I created in my blog work - somehow - in a future design of my portfolio site.

Now that I’ve considered how to implement and populate content into bradmccall.com in the easiest possible fashion (remember, I’m not a programmer), I now have an answer to the age-old question - what came first, the chicken or the egg? (Insert drum roll here) It’s doesn’t matter.

When I coded my first website in 1994, (did I mention I’m not a programmer?) I created every page individually by copying and pasting code on similar designs. I designed the chicken, cloned it repeatedly, and then designed each of the eggs one-by-one.

In 1999 when I designed the first (and current with the date of this post) iteration of bradmccall.com, the engineer who programmed it used CSS on each page to format the text. I got a feel for how this allowed me not have to constantly copy and paste long font attributes tags when I went in and tweaked parts (though you still may find some here or there). This simplified the production of the eggs considerably, but still left some of the chicken cloning process.

In 2003 this same engineer introduced me to PHP with a new website I created for a small side-business called SpinHouse. Now it seemed that the chicken could be randomly assembled and the mother chicken managed from one place. (Cloning on the fly?)

Now comes along Wordpress and the full realization of content management meets CSS. I can create all the eggs I like - in any fashion - and adopt them to any chicken I’d like. The content does not depend on the design, nor the opposite. It doesn’t matter.

Well, so much for writing about an ah-ha moment in the morning. I think I’ll grab some breakfast - scrambled eggs anyone?