Our company > Jobs > Usability Specialist

Usability Specialist

Make a difference

Become part of a dynamic and close-knit team of educationalists, designers and engineers who devise and create content that is used by millions of pupils every day.

Espresso Education supplies educational browser-based services featuring video, online activities, applications, tools, printable resources and worksheets to primary and secondary schools across the country and abroad. Our services have a reputation for being friendly, lively and easy to use. Espresso is winner of the BETT Award for Inclusion. We’re looking for an experienced usability specialist to put together a formal usability testing programme and help us build upon our strengths in user-focused design and technology.

You’ll be fired up by the possibilities that technology offers to enhance children’s learning, and by the opportunity to work in an environment which has some unique and exciting usability challenges. This is a full-time staff role, based at our offices in Hammersmith, London, but involving frequent travel in the UK and possibly abroad.

Responsbilities

The Usability Specialist will:

Help us build rigorous usability testing into our production processes.
Establish and develop informal relationships with schools.
Organise and/or carry out:
- user testing of new and existing content, formats, applications and templates
- a programme of regular visits to schools for Production staff
- qualitative and quantitative research that may include user focus groups, user surveys and questionnaires, in conjunction with Product Managers and Marketing
- reports on usage statistics
Document, analyse and distill the findings of the above, present to the Production team for discussion, and make recommendations based on the outcome
Develop and document usability guidelines and design patterns, in collaboration with other senior members of the Production department; brief company partners on usability guidelines
Increase awareness within the Production team of the usability implications of different choices and techniques
Ensure adherence to usability guidelines

Special tasks will include:

Carry out usability reviews of key pages and formats, with a view to stimulating usage
Work with our Senior Designer to consolidate our interface elements and icongraphy
Develop customer-driven usability guidelines which acknowledge different…
- Audiences
  - Primary, Secondary
  - Pupils aged 3-16, at different curriculum stages - Foundation, Key Stages 1-4
  - Pupils and teachers with special needs
  - Teachers
  - Parents
- Environments
  - The classroom (individual and group use)
  - The assembly hall
  - The home
  - Mobile
- Educational cultures
  - UK
  - Sweden
  - Other international services in pipeline

Skills and experience required

Essential

At least three years experience working in website and web application usability
Excellent ideas about how to stimulate usage through page design and layout
Highly organised – able to quickly and efficiently record and keep track of multiple concurrent issues
Awareness of common accessibility issues and relevant legislation
Experience designing user tests, focus group sessions, questionnaires, etc in order to elicit useful feedback – both formal and informal
Abreast of current thinking and debates in the usability and accessibility industries
A basic understanding of website production processes and technologies (HTML, Javascript, Flash, XML, etc)
An appreciation of the limitations of web technology, and ideas about how to get around them
Experience working to regular, fixed deadlines

Advantageous

In-depth understanding of accessibility issues, particularly relating to schoolchildren.
Visual design skills
Experience working in the education sector
Experience developing e-learning applications and/or games
Experience of internationalisation / localisation

Person spec

Self-starter
Excellent communication skills
Strong research and analytical skills
Able to interact comfortably with staff at all levels of seniority as well as, for example, teachers, pupils, school secretaries, educationalists, local authority representatives and administrators.
Collaborative approach
Articulate, insightful and persuasive
A good balance of:

theoretical and practical expertise
scientific and imaginative thinking
high standards and pragmatism

Willingness to travel

If you are interested in this post, please forward your cover letter and CV to:

Sandra Molloy, Espresso Education, Hythe House, 200 Shepherd's Bush Rd, Hammersmith, London W6 7NL
Tel: +44 (0)20 7870 4543 Fax: +44 (0)20 7870 4501 or email jobs@espresso.co.uk

Further information on the company and this job is available by contacting Sandra Molloy at the address above.

Closing date: Tuesday 4th May. No agencies please.

Please note that Espresso will only consider applications from those who already have the right to live and work in the UK. This is because in order for Espresso to apply successfully for a work permit, we need to show that there are no suitable candidates who are normally resident in the UK or who are nationals of the European Economic Area (EU States plus Norway and Iceland). We apologise for any disappointment this may cause and thank you for your interest.