RQ00778 - UX Designer - Senior

The proposed candidate must demonstrate:

• A minimum of seven years of professional experience in user experience, user interface, interaction, product, or service design, including senior-level responsibility for complex digital products or services.
  
• Extensive experience planning and conducting discovery, user research, stakeholder interviews, usability testing, and evidence synthesis, and translating findings into prioritized design recommendations.
  
• Extensive experience creating user journeys, task flows, service blueprints, information architecture, wireframes, interactive prototypes, and high-fidelity responsive designs for web and mobile services.
  
• Advanced proficiency with Figma, including components, variants, libraries, prototyping, file organization, documentation, and developer handoff.
  
• Experience designing and documenting accessible digital experiences in accordance with AODA and the WCAG version and conformance level specified by the City.
  
• Experience contributing to, extending, and applying design systems, including reusable components, patterns, tokens, interaction guidance, content guidance, and governance practices.
  
• Experience designing complex public-facing or enterprise digital services, including navigation, search, forms, validation, error handling, empty states, loading states, and other relevant interaction states.
  
• Experience collaborating with multidisciplinary teams, including researchers, content specialists, accessibility specialists, developers, product and project leads, business stakeholders, and senior decision-makers.
  
• Experience facilitating in-person and remote workshops, design critiques, playback sessions, and decision-making activities; building consensus; and presenting recommendations to technical and non-technical audiences.
  
• Experience preparing implementation-ready specifications, supporting developer handoff, participating in design-quality reviews, and resolving design and accessibility issues during implementation.
  
• Strong written, verbal, facilitation, analytical, organizational, and stakeholder-management skills.
  

The Senior UX Designer will perform the following duties, based on priorities established by the designated City authority:

Portfolio requirements

• The proposal must include a portfolio or case studies demonstrating at least three relevant projects. The examples should identify:
  
• The candidate’s role and responsibilities
  
• The project context, users, constraints, and objectives
  
• Research and design methods used
  
• Key design decisions and supporting evidence
  
• Accessibility and inclusive-design considerations
  
• Collaboration and implementation approach
  
• Measurable outcomes, lessons learned, or resulting improvements
  
• The City may request that the candidate present selected case studies during the interview.
  

Experience considered assets

The following will be considered assets:

• Post-secondary education or certification in user experience design, interaction design, service design, human-computer interaction, information architecture, accessibility, or a related discipline.
  
• Experience delivering digital services in a municipal, broader public-sector, or regulated environment.
  
• Experience with content design, search optimization, analytics, or service performance measurement.
  
• Experience providing coaching, mentorship, or knowledge transfer to design teams and multidisciplinary partners.
  
• Familiarity with agile product delivery and public-sector procurement or governance processes.
  
• Discovery and research
  
• Plan and conduct discovery, user research, stakeholder interviews, usability testing, and related evidence-gathering activities.
  
• Review existing research, analytics, service processes, accessibility findings, business requirements, and technical constraints.
  
• Synthesize findings into prioritized user needs, experience principles, design recommendations, risks, and opportunities.
  
• Ensure research and design activities include diverse users and consider accessibility, privacy, ethics, and informed consent requirements.
  

Experience and interaction design

• Translate validated user and business needs into user journeys, task flows, service blueprints, information architecture, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity interface designs.
  
• Design responsive and accessible experiences for web and mobile, including navigation, forms, validation, errors, empty states, loading states, and other relevant interaction states.
  
• Apply user-centred design methods and UX/UI best practices to improve usability, findability, task completion, consistency, and service outcomes.
  
• Identify and prioritize design debt and recommend practical improvements based on user impact, accessibility, feasibility, and project priorities.
  
• Iterate designs using research findings, usability-test results, stakeholder feedback, technical input, and implementation constraints.
  

Accessibility and design-system alignment

• Design in accordance with applicable City standards, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines specified by the City.
  
• Document accessibility requirements, interaction behaviours, content guidance, and identified issues throughout the design process.
  
• Contribute to and support the maintenance of the City’s design system by creating or refining reusable components, patterns, variants, tokens, and usage guidance.
  
• Reuse approved City components and patterns where appropriate and document the rationale for any proposed deviation or new pattern.
  
• Participate in accessibility and design reviews and support the resolution or formal acceptance of identified issues.
  

Collaboration and implementation support

• Collaborate with City staff, divisional partners, researchers, content specialists, developers, product and project leads, and other stakeholders.
  
• Plan and facilitate workshops, design critiques, playback sessions, and decision-making activities to build shared understanding and obtain timely feedback.
  
• Present design concepts, research findings, prototypes, and recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
  
• Prepare developer-ready design specifications, annotated prototypes, assets, behaviours, responsive guidance, component references, and acceptance criteria.
  
• Maintain continuous involvement during implementation, participate in design-quality reviews, and document issues and recommended resolutions.
  
• Advise clients and project teams on UX, UI, service design, accessibility, and design-system standards.
  

Leadership, documentation, and knowledge transfer

• Provide senior design leadership and advocate for evidence-based, accessible, consistent, and user-centred decision-making.
  
• Maintain design files, research records, decision logs, accessibility issue logs, design backlogs, and other documentation required for continuity and governance.
  
• Identify and communicate design risks, dependencies, assumptions, scope impacts, and trade-offs to the designated City authority.
  
• Monitor relevant UX, accessibility, service design, and technology practices, and recommend appropriate improvements for City consideration.
  
• Provide knowledge transfer, coaching, and documentation to enable City staff to maintain and extend the work after the assignment.
  
• Perform related duties within the scope of the assignment, as directed by the designated City authority.
  

Requirements

Deliverables

• Discovery and UX assessment: Review existing research, analytics, service processes, accessibility findings, and design-system assets, and deliver a prioritized findings report identifying user needs, pain points, design debt, risks, and opportunities.
  
• Research plan and findings: Prepare research plans, participant criteria, consent materials, interview or usability-test scripts, and synthesis, and deliver findings with evidence, accessibility considerations, prioritized recommendations, and traceability to design decisions.
  
• User journeys and information architecture: Produce current- and future-state journey maps, task flows, service blueprints where appropriate, sitemap or navigation recommendations, and content and findability improvements.
  
• Interaction design and prototypes: Deliver annotated wireframes and responsive, high-fidelity Figma designs for prioritized journeys, including error, validation, empty, loading, mobile, keyboard, and assistive-technology states.
  
• Design-system contributions: Deliver reusable components, patterns, variants, tokens, interaction guidance, content guidance, accessibility requirements, and usage documentation. Document any deviations from the City's design system and obtain approval before introducing new patterns.
  
• Usability validation: Conduct iterative usability testing of priority journeys and prototypes, and deliver test reports showing findings, severity, design changes made, unresolved issues, and recommended next steps.
  
• Accessibility assurance: Complete accessibility reviews against applicable City standards, AODA requirements, and current WCAG requirements specified by the City, and deliver an accessibility checklist, issue log, remediation recommendations, and evidence that identified design issues were addressed or formally accepted.
  
• Developer-ready design handoff: Provide organized Figma files, specifications, assets, behaviours, responsive guidance, component references, and acceptance criteria. Participate in implementation reviews and document design-quality issues through resolution.
  
• Stakeholder engagement and decision records: Plan and facilitate workshops, critiques, playback sessions, and approvals, and maintain a decision log recording feedback, decisions, owners, dependencies, and outstanding risks.
  
• Design backlog and progress reporting: Maintain a prioritized UX backlog covering research, design debt, accessibility, component work, and unresolved product decisions, and provide regular status updates showing completed work, planned work, risks, dependencies, and decisions required.
  
• Knowledge transfer and close-out: Deliver a final package containing editable source files, research records, approved designs, design-system documentation, backlog, decision log, known issues, and recommendations, and conduct knowledge-transfer sessions with City staff so the work can be maintained after the contract ends.
  

Must Haves:

• A minimum of seven years of professional experience in user experience, user interface, interaction, product, or service design, including senior-level responsibility for complex digital products or services.
  
• Extensive experience planning and conducting discovery, user research, stakeholder interviews, usability testing, and evidence synthesis, and translating findings into prioritized design recommendations.
  
• Extensive experience creating user journeys, task flows, service blueprints, information architecture, wireframes, interactive prototypes, and high-fidelity responsive designs for web and mobile services.
  
• Advanced proficiency with Figma, including components, variants, libraries, prototyping, file organization, documentation, and developer handoff.
  
• Experience designing and documenting accessible digital experiences in accordance with AODA and the WCAG version and conformance level specified by the City.
  
• Experience contributing to, extending, and applying design systems, including reusable components, patterns, tokens, interaction guidance, content guidance, and governance practices.