About Us
We’re in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. We’re a boutique firm that works with leading brands and progressive public sector clients. Clients include Comcast, Ancestry.com, the University of Lethbridge, and the Canadian Patient Safety Institute.
Founded in 2003, nForm has two partners – Jess McMullin and Gene Smith. They both are active in the user experience community and are recognized industry leaders.
About You
We’re happy to talk with people with different levels of experience – from recent grads to seasoned veterans. Your fit and attitude are as important as your resume. We’re looking for friendly people who care about user experience, who want to do meaningful work, and who will push us to see the world in new ways. You’re also open to new ideas, perspectives, and you let other viewpoints affect your own. You need to have experience in a mix of things like information architecture, interaction design, quantitative or qualitative user research, business analysis, interface design, or usability evaluation. Blogging, front-end code, and community participation are a plus. Your portfolio, process, and mindset trump formal education, though we appreciate good schools and programs. Based on your experience and fit, we’ll discuss the level that you would fit into our team.
Working at nForm
All our consultants are involved in research, design, and evaluation activities. Excellent interpersonal skills are required for client-facing engagements. As a boutique firm, you’ll be called on to serve in a variety of roles – flexibility and the ability to tackle new challenges is important. Senior consultants also have project management, account management, and business development skills.
Why work with us?
Well, there’s the basics:
- Competitive salary based on experience, plus benefits.
- Three weeks holidays, plus personal days to deal with family health issues, moving, etc.
- We will review salary in 6 months, and then annually. Raises and optional bonuses based on billings, skill development, and achieving career objectives.
- Cost of living in Edmonton is substantially lower than many cities – your money goes further here.
- Some relocation assistance may be available. For the right candidates in Calgary, remote work may be a possibility.
Working at nForm User Experience is really about more than money though:
Work | Life balance
- We work a 37.5 hour work week. The rare times when it’s needed, overtime is allocated as time off in lieu.
- We think that relationships and family are more important than your day job.
- We are flexible about working hours (come in early, or stay late – please don’t do both).
Industry Leadership
- We regularly speak at conferences and contribute feedback to books (like The Elements of User Experience, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, and Ambient Findability).
- Jess co-founded the IA Institute, and recently finished a term on the Board of Directors.
- Gene’s thoughts on social classification and design beyond the page have shaped Web 2.0 conversations all over the world (he just got back from speaking in Chile).
- It’s not just community involvement – we also work with people like Lou Rosenfeld on key projects.
- We founded, organize and sponsor CanUX, the annual Canadian User Experience workshop.
We want you to grow professionally
- Our consulting team attends CanUX and has a professional development budget to be involved in other career development opportunities.
- We want you to contribute to the company’s reputation by writing, speaking, and contributing to the community.
- We have weekly practice lunch (the company buys lunch, we learn about new methods, ideas, or case studies together)
User Experience gets more than lipservice
- Many large agencies sell user-centered design, but don’t really walk the talk. At nForm, it’s the core of what we do. If that’s important to you, we’d like to hear from you.
How to Apply
Email your resume (word or PDF) and link to your portfolio to [email protected]. If we’re going to go ahead with an interview, we’ll let you know within a week. Unfortunately we can’t respond to everyone who applies, so if you haven’t heard from us in a week, we’re probably looking for a different skillset.