Title: GCD Associate
Location: US-MI-Benton Harbor/St. Joseph
Other Locations:
About Whirlpool Corporation
Whirlpool is the industry leader in the manufacturing and marketing of home appliances. Whirlpool is a global company and markets Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Brastemp, Bauknecht, Consul and other major brand names in more than 170 countries around the world.
Whirlpool is a company that creates innovative solutions and products to meet consumer needs. As a result, we have been recognized as one of the world's 100 most innovative companies by Business Week magazine and the Boston Consulting Group. Additionally, Whirlpool Corporation was ranked among the Top 20 Innovators in Consumer Products by The Patent Board and has been consistently ranked as one of the Top 20 Companies for Leaders by Hewitt Associates and Fortune magazine.
Our unique business strategy provides us with an unmatched leadership position and ability to build and sustain loyalty to our brands. Our strategy allows us to move with greater speed to better serve our trade customer and end consumers around the globe.
Currently, we are seeking qualified candidates for an Associate User Experience Designer opening to join our Global Consumer Design organization.
Day to Day (what a typical day or week look like in this role)
As a User Experience Designer, you will be responsible for ensuring the next generation of home appliances are useful, usable and desirable. You will be a key contributor that guides products during the development cycle. Throughout this cycle, your daily activities evolve from understanding our consumers' needs, developing design solutions to evaluating and refining the results. The diversity of working on several projects and brands simultaneously provides a unique experience every day. You will have the chance to work with other talented designers in an that environment fosters a culture of curiosity, creativity, craftsmanship, innovative problem-solving, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
What You Will Do
* Support user-centered design activities within the product development processes in the Fabric Care category.
* Contribute to the interaction design and write behavior specifications describing control panel behavior.
* Conduct usability testing of future products for iterative refinement, and benchmark competitors.
* Analyze ergonomics and other physical touchpoints to improve perceived sensorial quality.
* Understand our consumers' needs, behaviors and abilities and be an advocate for them throughout product development.
* Create innovative user interaction designs for Whirlpool home appliance products and services that stand out in the marketplace.
* Develop, conduct, and analyze usability studies; providing input and actionable recommendations to strategic partners.
* Collaborate with other human factors, interaction design, and usability specialists in nurturing a world-class organization.
* Model Whirlpool core values of respect, integrity, diversity, and teamwork.
What You Need To Succeed
* Graduate degree in Human Factors, Interaction Design, Psychology, or a related discipline preferred.
* Portfolio of classroom or work projects that demonstrate the application of user-centered design practices.
* Familiarity with understanding and synthesizing user needs through methods like: contextual inquiry, persona development or participatory design.
* Familiarity with evaluating products using: heuristic reviews, formative and summative usability studies.
* Familiarity with developing interaction design concepts. Experience creating low-fidelity software prototypes using popular software tools is a plus.
* Familiarity with applying ergonomic and anthropometric data to drive product improvements.
* Excellent communication, presentation, and negotiation skills.
Endless Opportunities
Whirlpool has big plans for the future, just like you. We understand that it takes preparation and hard work to get there. So, we offer challenging purpose, ownership of your role, great teams, and tools to build your capability. In our performance-based setting, you can take your career in exciting new directions - and as far as you want to go.
