User Experience

Helping the World Get More from Technology
You can help make technology easier to use and understand for people all over the world. You’ll work side-by-side with world-class technical writers, editors, programmer writers, and usability specialists when you join one of our teams within our User Experience organization. Every product we create is touched by these groups, who generate a broad assortment of product help, user manuals, books, Web sites, usability studies, and prototypes that help our customers and partners reach their full potential.

Some of our User Experience positions include:
Technical Writer
Programmer Writer
Usability Engineer
User Experience Researcher
User Experience Designer

Technical Writer

Combine your love of technology with your ability to communicate complex ideas in simple terms. You’ll produce meaningful product documentation, user interface support, and a variety of technical content designed to help business and home users, system administrators, and software developers get the maximum benefit from Microsoft technology.

Qualifications:

•	Pursuing a BA in Technical Communications, Journalism, English, or related communications field
•	1-2 years of work or classroom experience related to user interface support preferred
•	1-2 years of product documentation experience preferred
•	Ability to communicate complex ideas into simple terms

Programmer Writer

Combine your knack for code with your passion for writing to create lucid documentation for software developers and hardware manufacturers. You’ll collaborate with Program Managers and Software Design Engineers to develop relevant code samples and explanations that help our customers create better solutions using Microsoft products.

Qualifications:

•	Pursuing a BA/BS in Computer Science or related field
•	1-2 years classroom or work experience writing or reading C/C++/C#/VB.NET preferred
•	1-2 years of product documentation experience preferred
•	Strong written and verbal communication skills

Usability Engineer

If you yearn to make software that’s easier to use, this is an ideal opportunity. You’ll bring your strong research skills, usability expertise, and design knowledge to bear on the challenge of creating software that’s more intuitive and valuable for end users. Building prototypes and conducting field studies, benchmark studies, and surveys are just some of the things on which we’ll turn you loose.

Qualifications:

•	Pursuing a BA/BS, MS or PhD degree in Psychology, HCI, Human Factors or related field
•	1-2 years of co-op or internship experience in usability desirable
•	1-2 years classroom or work experience working with computer systems (client and/or server systems) preferred

User Experience Researcher

Are you interested in turning software products into world class experiences for end users? If so, Microsoft’s UX Research group needs you! Our mission is to think end-to-end about the user experience both broadly and deeply. Giving end users an experience without problems isn't good enough; we want the experience to be an immersive, pleasurable experience that is appropriate for each and every customer. We need to know our users inside out, by understanding their perceptions, desires, needs, frustrations, environments, and problems related to the Windows PC & services experience and beyond.

We are looking for someone to join the team who has passion around holding user experience decision makers accountable to users, prioritized through understanding users and the business strategy. The ideal candidate will be excited at the prospect of finding creative ways to evangelize the rich research data we have to both internal and external audiences and drive the results of those communications into the final experience.

Qualifications:

•	Pursuing a BA/BS, MS or Phd degree in Computer Science, HCI, Human Factors or related field
•	1-2 years experience in academic or industrial research preferred
•	The ability to find creative ways to evangelize rich research data to both internal and external audiences
•	Strong communication skills, both oral and written

User Experience Designer

Innovate and improve some of the most popular software products in the world. As a User Experience Designer you’ll be responsible for driving cross-team collaboration with the world’s best user experience researchers, program managers, product planners and developers from the early stages of planning through implementation. You’ll need to think strategically, be creative and negotiate design solutions in relation to business goals. Using your abilities to identify new opportunities and generate innovative ideas, you will influence the design direction and make our already popular product even more successful.

Qualifications:

•	Pursuing a BA/BS, MS or Phd degree in Computer Science, HCI, Human Factors or related field
•	1-2 years of collaborative work or related classroom experience preferred
•	1-2 years of practical work experience in JavaScript, Lingo, and ActionScript knowledge preferred
•	Excellent communication and presentation skills as well as self confidence
•	Strong problem solving with balanced interaction and visual design skills