Bright Pixel
We're a group of experienced builders, creative thinkers and investors, whose goal is to transform two key things: the way companies address innovation and how new ventures are put together.
Labs
When uncertainty proves right
Bright Pixel is uniquely positioned to work with industry leaders in the retail, telco, cyber-security and media industries and help them make use of technology and experimentation to solve critical challenges in their businesses.
Our team has years of experience with emerging technologies and working in highly demanding environments where critical thinking, creativity, and fast iterative execution were crucial.
If you're a looking for a new perspective on the future of your industry, and you think digital transformation processes take forever, then talk to us, we'd love to hear and help.
Our Lifecycle
Understanding
- Understanding the business of the customer.
- Defining the problem.
- Defining the proof of concept.
- What's the time window we have available?
- What are the results we're expected to deliver?
Execution
- Implement the agile methodology of choice.
- Execute the experiment.
- Measure, adjust, repeat.
- Report the progress.
- Deliver the project.
Analysis
- Analyze the results.
- Act on the results and findings.
- Spawn a new project or product, or
- Create a new, adjusted, experiment, or
- Close the project.
What we do
The core team of developers and design creatives in the Labs has more than ten years of experience in web and mobile technologies, cyber-security, big-data, machine learning, and large-scale critical applications.
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Systems architecture
Designing of simple, highly scalable, cost-efficient, maintainable, secure and modular architectures for technical platforms.
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Hardware prototyping
We're capable of building small runs of hardware base prototypes using electronics combined with digital fabrication techniques like 3D printing, CNC milling, and silicone molding.
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Web development
Full stack web development using microservices and APIs, frameworks like NodeJS, Python, Elixir, (Native)ReactJS, NoSQL databases, Redis, Spark and other cloud-based services.
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Design
Design and web design. Building brands, identity guidelines, graphical materials, DOM and CSS assets, fluid mobile responsive interfaces, interactive visualizations.
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Usability and UX
Conceptualizing website and application's user experiences: storytelling, mockups, information architecture, navigation, and usability.
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Cyber-security
Web application security assessments with diagnosis and how to fix, best practices, policy guides, training, vulnerability management.
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Emerging technologies
Exploring emerging technologies and using different approaches to business challenges. Experience with machine learning, Blockchain, VR, natural language and computer vision.
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Technical Due Diligences
Our diverse know-how and the experienced team at Bright Pixel puts us in a privileged position to examine, diagnose and advise technology-based businesses and report on their platforms with a unique in-depth perspective.
Portfolio
Some of our projects in the Labs
Shopping cart assistant
We built a personal voice assistant for retail customers involving hardware, speech recognition, computer vision and web APIs.
client:Continente
Telco Dataviz
Interactive visualization tools around anonymized data from NOS using big-data, HTML5 and JavaScript technologies. Strong emphasis on simplicity and usability.
client:NOS
P24
The goal of this project is to provide tailored news to users when they return online, keeping a strong emphasis on Audio and Video content.
client:Público
TV Slack
Social experiment on the TV using the NOS EPG, events data, and Slack, a popular group chat platform.
client:NOS
Trend Analysis
Business intelligence tool for competitive analysis. Uses social media and news feeds, natural language and sentiment analysis to estimate consumer product trends.
client:Worten
Branding and UX
Bright Pixel imagined and designed S21Sec's new brand and identity guidelines together with their new website for a better UX and information structure.
client:S21Sec
Clients
Some of the companies we're working with
Partners
We stand on the shoulders of our partners and their best-in-class products and services in the Labs. They help us accelerate our experimentation process and move faster.
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SonaeIM is an IT corporate venturing-company, aiming to manage and build a portfolio of worldclass tech-based companies linked to retail and telecommunications. They're also Bright Pixel's investor, which means we create a lot of synergies on evaluating opportunities, finding clients for the Labs and accessing co-investors.
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Microsoft has partnered with us since day one. Bright Pixel is one of the top 200 global incubators qualified for the BizPark Plus program. Our startups have access to hundreds of Microsoft software packages, Azure cloud infrastructure, and free support.
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NOS put together a discounted communications plan for our startups, provided our headquarters' building with 1Gbit/s symmetric fiber Internet access and access to their IPTV platform, not to mention direct access to C-level executives and sales teams inside the organization.
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Cisco powers Bright Pixel's startups with access and support to their Devnet API portal, training, amazing Wifi infrastructure in our building -- using their Meraki platform -- and Cisco Spark video conferencing equipment for our remote meetings.
Incubation
When ideas turn into businesses
Bright Pixel has an unusual approach to projects and startups incubation. Our experienced team of engineers and product designers, and our close relationship through the labs with companies in the retail, telco, cyber-security and media spaces, create substantial synergies, which allows us to mitigate two of the most dangerous risks with any early stage venture: building the right product and finding the first customers.
Our incubation program supports projects and startups from two different sources of opportunities: the internal path, through the labs, and the external path, through our application process.
Our verticals: Retail, Media, Telco and Cyber-security.
Internal
While working in the Labs helping companies solve their business challenges, we get to know their industries extremely well.
This process provides us with valuable insights on where the gaps are, what specific opportunities haven't been explored yet and if there are efficiencies that need to be solved and we can tackle.
Whenever we think there's an opportunity on the table, we hand-pick a good team of promoters with the know-how and the drive to turn the idea into a startup, and we fund the MVP for a maximum of 6 months, helping them during the process with: offices, training, technology, design, legal, tools, infrastructure, access to industry partners.
If the MVP proves to work, BRPX will transform the project into an actual Startup and boost the team to the outside world, together with the help of other co-investors, launching a robust, less risky, validated product into the market.
External
We have a non-stop incubation program running for external startups to, where we're looking for companies in different stages of development:
Alpha, if the startup is just starting off bootstrapping mode. The promoters are in the early stages of developing their idea into a market product.
Beta, when there's a product ready, typically an MVP, and the company needs to ramp up with the help of a small investment and access to customers.
And Omega, where the business is looking for growth, market penetration, access to customers and co-investors, and a small investment round.
The selected startups are invited to join our program. We offer office space, facilities, infrastructure, training, help with technology, design and UX, product development, legal and access to our network of partners, companies, and co-investors.
Think you have a good fit with us? Let's talk!
Click here to apply for our incubation program.Tools
Bright Pixel is a certified incubator in Portugal. As a founder and entrepreneur, you can apply to a few national programs and take advantage of the benefits they have for your startup.
Incubation Voucher
If you have a micro or small company that is less than a year old and works with tech, and you need help with management, marketing, legal, product development or funding, then you might be entitled to a financial aid of 5.000€.
You can use this voucher to buy professional services through one of the IAPMEI’s certified incubators in Portugal. Guess what, Bright Pixel is one of them!
To reclaim your 5.000€ voucher, you need to get in touch with at least two certified incubators, apply for the services you require and get a declaration of interest from one of them. Hurry up, though, you have until December 30.
Use this email to get in touch with us about the Incubation Voucher. More information here too.
Portfolio
Some of our companies
Probe.ly
Web application vulnerability scanning suite for agile teams
Probe.ly automates web vulnerability scanning and is targeted at companies that build online services. Companies can cost effectively request scans of web applications and manage the lifecycle of the vulnerabilities found in a sleek and intuitive web interface.
Get to know Probe.ly Internal
Graf.ly
Power to the newsroom
Graf.ly is a new kind of approach to the digital newsroom that aims to put journalists and editors in full control, with content at the center of the universe, state of the art UX, KPIs that matter, mobile ready and offline support.
Get to know Graf.ly Internal
Eat Tasty
Delicious food, from your neighborhood
Food network orchestrator focuses on empowering home cooks. EatTasty will bring to our daily lives the taste and recollection of authentic home cooked food, wherever we are and regardless of our ability to cook.
Get to know Eat Tasty External
Meshapp
Next generation content app builder
Meshapp unifies content into engaging experiences that fuel your marketing success. Create and manage engaging content channels and activate your audience according to your marketing goals.
Get to know Meshapp External
Omknee
Insight drives awesome experience
Omknee mobile and web Apps display a consolidated Customer 360º profile, using relevant information compiled real-time from multiple internal and external sources.
Get to know Omknee External
Viable Report
Smart matchmaking
There is a perfect investor for your startup, and Viable's goal is to help you find it. A correct match is often the crucial point that allows for a startup to survive and move successfully from one investment round to the next.
Get to know Viable Report ExternalPartners
We stand on the shoulders of our partners and their professional products and services. They help us take our startups and MVPs to the next level.
SonaeIM is an IT corporate venturing-company, aiming to manage and build a portfolio of world-class tech-based companies linked to retail and telecommunications. They're also Bright Pixel's investor, which means we create a lot of synergies on evaluating opportunities, finding clients for the Labs and accessing co-investors.
Microsoft has partnered with us since day one. Bright Pixel is one of the top 200 global incubators qualified for the BizPark Plus program. Our startups have access to hundreds of Microsoft software packages, Azure cloud infrastructure, and free support.
Bright Pixel offers AWS Activate credits to our startups, as part of the perks. AWS Activate is a program designed to provide your startup with the resources you need to get started on AWS.
Cisco powers Bright Pixel's startups with access and support to their Devnet API portal, training, amazing Wifi infrastructure in our building -- using their Meraki platform -- and Cisco Spark video conferencing equipment for our remote meetings.
Invoice Express is everyone's favorite invoicing software for startups and SMBs in Portugal. Rupeal offers 6 months of their "Grande" plan for free, to any of our incubated companies.
NOS put together a discounted communications plan for our startups, provided our headquarter's building with 1Gbit/s symmetric fiber Internet access and access to their IPTV platform, not to mention direct access to C-level executives and sales teams inside the organization.
You can't talk about entrepreneurship and startups in Portugal without mentioning Beta-i. Bright Pixel is proudly and deeply collaborating with their Lisbon Challenge program and Lisbon Investment Summit event.
Priberam is the leading partner for language technology in Portugal. Their lab team conducts applied and exploratory R&D in the areas of Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing.
Investment
Boosting startups to the next level
Bright Ventures is the investment arm of Bright Pixel. We invest in tech companies with a particular focus on B2B for the retail, telco, cyber-security and media verticals, in different stages of development, from early (MVP) to growth stages. Our ticket size goes from 50K€ (Pre-seed) to 500K€ (Seed), plus possible Post-seed and Series A follow-ons.
Our investment management team and investment committee have years of proven experience in the market, building and selling their companies and managing global technology-based investment funds.
Themes
Bright Ventures is the investment arm of Bright Pixel. We invest in tech companies with a particular focus on B2B for the retail, telco, cyber-security and media verticals, in different stages of development, from early (MVP) to growth stages. Our ticket size goes from 50K€ (Pre-seed) to 500K€ (Seed), plus possible Post-seed and Series A follow-ons.
Our investment management team and investment committee have years of proven experience in the market, building and selling their companies and managing global technology-based investment funds.
Our investment themes are Retail, Telco and Media, and we look for the following B2B use cases:
- Data Analytics
- Cyber-security
- Customer Experience
- Digital Business
We're also looking for promising enabling technologies that have the potential to be used transversally in any industry. For example:
- Big data and advanced analytics
- ML/AI
- Natural language interfaces
- IoT and home automation
- VR/AR
- Blockchain and crypto
- Collaborative platforms
- Communication and workflows
Think you have a good fit with our investment strategy? Let's talk!
Click here to start.Ventures Team
Bright Ventures' team combines a unique background in top-level management, software, product development, entrepreneurship, investments, venture capital and consulting, with several decades of experience in the telecom, media, retail and technology industries.
Celso Martinho
Partner
Alexandre Santos
Partner
Benjamin Junior
Partner
Marcos Azeredo
Associate
João Inês
Intern
Pedro Vieira
Investment Committee
Nuno Gonçalves Pedro
Investment Committee
Epifânio da Franca
Investment Committee
Talent
An accident of genes
Staying close to the talent ecosystem and supporting or organizing selected events is key to experiment, showcase and learn from emerging technologies including those that aren’t directly related to our core areas. Events are primordial to spark Bright Pixel’s questioning culture, foster new ways of thinking and innovate, and ultimately attract the best to join our project.
Events
Pixels Camp is a three days non-stop event targeted at creative minds. It packs a coding contest where teams will pitch their projects on stage, hundreds of talks addressing emerging technologies and fun activities like the Tech Quiz, Nuclear Tacos or Presentation Karaoke.
Pixels Camp is community driven, custom tailored specifically for those who attend the event. Based on their bios and previous work evidence, the curators aim at selecting the best, most participative and motivated programmers and creatives to attend the event.
We thrive to give our participants an unforgettable experience. Content and projects are exciting, but fun activities at Pixels Camp are an important part of the show. Nerdy ones, of course.
Pixels Camp, is a yearly technology cult event spanning over three days of non-stop technical talks, workshops and coding.
For sixty hours straight, 1.000 participants enjoy world-class presentations, demos, community events and its classic 48-hour coding competition.
Pixels Camp'16 Edition
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Attendees
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Projects
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Partnerships
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Talks
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Messages on Slack
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Wi-Fi APs
Pixels Camp is already one of the largest European free video content repositories online. We video recorded and edited every single talk at Pixels Camp and then made them available in the Pixels Camp YouTube Channel.
Check the video archive
Campfire Events
Campfire Events are all year calendar of tech talks around Portugal and Europe in small venues or office facilities, organized by the Pixels Camp team and their partners.
If you feel you should put your mad skills at work and share your knowledge with the community, be it technology, product design, entrepreneurship or your vision about the future, then talk to us. We will provide you with access to thousands of other developers, a stage, video capturing, streaming and a great, engaged audience.
Calendar of upcoming Campfire events:
All of the events are free to attend. Click on the Website button to confirm your presence.
Interested in speaking at or hosting a Pixels Campfire?
Talk with us!Other events
Here's a list of events Bright Pixels co-organizes or will be sponsoring this year.
Open Source Camp
The first Open Source Development Conference organized by Microsoft Portugal and powered by Bright Pixel is now a reality!
We know it’s very, very hard for some of you to believe it, but… this isn’t the Oscars and “This is not a joke!”.
Yes, Microsoft has big love for Open Source. So much that they are the largest corporate contributor to open source software on GitHub.
This camp is about deep content and incredible technology so the agenda was built with more than 25 sessions on topics such as Docker, Blockchain, .NET Core, ElasticSearch, Linux, Bots, React, Kubernetes, Serverless and others.
Open Source Camp
Lisbon Maker Faire
Maker Faire is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth—a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning. The original Maker Faire event took place in San Mateo, CA and in 2014 celebrated its ninth annual show with some 1.000+ maker exhibits and 120.000+ people in attendance.
In 2016, Pavilhão do Conhecimento, Bright Pixel and the Lisbon City Hall organized the 3rd edition of the Lisbon Maker Faire, the biggest event and showcase for the Maker’s community in Portugal.
Lisbon Maker Faire
Lisbon Investment Summit
Lisbon Investment Summit is Europe’s surprisingly informal and slightly unexpected startup conference. We bring together top investors, entrepreneurs and executives from all over the world.
The event is known for casually creating unique networking opportunities, unlike bigger conferences, and real investment opportunities. Be part of #LIS17 and get to know Lisbon’s growing tech scene.
Bright Pixel will be proudly sponsoring this year's edition.
Lisbon Investment Summit
Lisbon Challenge
Lisbon Challenge is a pre-seed accelerator based in Lisbon that helps startups build and launch their product in 10 weeks.
The program brings on experienced entrepreneurs and market experts to mentor startups, giving the structure they need to grow a solid founding team, and helping them define the roadmap for product market fit.
It all starts with a boot camp. A one week intensive and immersive program to prepare teams to pitch their startups to the investment committee for the final selection.
Lisbon ChallengeAbout
We have a pitch too
We're a group of experienced builders, creative thinkers, and investors with many years of experience on our backs, who got together due to multiple crazy coincidences and whose shared goal is to transform two key things: the way companies address innovation and how new ventures are put together.
How we came to be
Bright Pixel was born on the 20th of April, 2016.
We're a group of experienced builders, creative thinkers, and investors with many years of experience on our backs, who got together due to multiple crazy coincidences and whose shared goal is to transform two key things: the way companies address innovation and how new ventures are put together.
The team roots and its connections come from more than twenty years working with emerging technologies in the Web and Telecommunication industries.
Two decades shaping the Portuguese Internet left us with a deeply ingrained notion that rules change daily, business and otherwise.
Today, at Bright Pixel, we are uniquely positioned to work with industry leaders in the retail, telco and media businesses, the growing startup's ecosystem, universities, and other investors from around the world.
Our three-step distinctive venture builder model, where we use the Labs and the projects we're doing in the enterprise space as a powerful ideation tool, allied with our technical capabilities and strong ties with the market, allow us to mitigate many of the early stage startup risks and create compelling synergies for the incubation and investment stages.
Team
And we've got a hell of a team!
Our founders are a hell of a team with many years of proven experience in fields as diverse as product development, investments and funding, web programming, highly scalable systems, big data and AI, information security, usability and design.
At Bright Pixel we're striving to build a culture of transparency, communication and merit to promote the highest possible levels of creativity and innovation.
Celso Martinho
CEO e Founder
Alexandre Santos
Chief Investment Officer
Nuno Loureiro
Designer
Ivo Gomes
User Experience
Benjamin Junior
BizDev & Funding
Nuno Loureiro
Head of Security
Tiago Mendo
Security Engineer
André Cruz
Software Engineer
Claudio Gamboa
Software Engineer
João Poupino
Software Engineer
Hugo Castilho
Software Engineer
Bruno Barão
Software Engineer
Carlos Rodrigues
Software Engineer
Nuno Pereira
Software Engineer
Isa Costa
Designer
Nuno Jesus
Software Engineer
Bruno Martins
Software Engineer
Ana Pascoal
Project Manager
Ricardo Malta
Software Engineer
Marcos Azeredo
Investment
Ana Pinto
Data Scientist
Paulo Ribeiro
Software Engineer
Job openings
Responsibilities
- Selecting features, building and optimizing classifiers using machine learning techniques
- Data mining using state-of-the-art methods
- Extending company’s data with third party sources of information when needed
- Enhancing data collection procedures to include information that is relevant for building analytic systems
- Processing, cleansing, and verifying the integrity of data used for analysis
- Doing ad-hoc analysis and presenting results in a clear manner
- Creating automated anomaly detection systems and constant tracking of its performance
Main requirements
- Proven work experience as a Data Scientist
- Experience with common data science toolkits and data visualization tools
- Great communication skills
Minimum Qualifications
- Excellent understanding of machine learning techniques and algorithms
- Proficiency in using query languages, such as SQL, etc.
- Experience with common data science toolkits, such as R, scikit-learn, Tensorflow, Pandas, Jupyter Notebooks, Spark, etc.
- Experience with data visualization tools, such as Seaborn, matplotlib
- Experience with NoSQL databases, such as Cassandra, HBase, etc.
- Good applied statistics skills, such as distributions, statistical testing, regression, etc.
- Good scripting and programming skills (Python)
- Data-oriented personality
Responsibilities
- Take ownership of all tech aspects of the product from development to deployment
- Develop new applications and features
- Drive to continuously maintain high product quality
- Find and address performance issues
- Participate in code reviews
- Identify and communicate backend and frontend best practices (CI, CD)
- Develop new user-facing features
- Build reusable code and libraries for future use
- Ensure the technical feasibility of UI/UX designs
- Optimize application for maximum speed and reliability
Main requirements
- Strong problem-solving skills and decision-making ability
- Experience designing and deploying applications
- Preference for working in rapid development cycles
Minimum Qualifications
- Strong experience in software development and operating systems (5+ years will be valued)
- General expertise with Linux and other open-source technologies
- Full-stack development using multiple languages (eg. Python, JavaScript, Go, Elixir, others)
- Experience in building distributed applications for the web
- Excellent communication skills
- Strong ability to cross multi-disciplinary boundaries
- Prior experience building and/or leading a team is a plus
Responsibilities
- Help develop new applications and features
- Drive to continuously maintain high product quality
- Find and address performance issues
- Build reusable code and libraries for future use
- Optimize application for maximum speed and reliability
Main requirements
- Strong problem-solving skills and learning ability
- Preference for working in rapid development cycles
Minimum Qualifications
- Experience developing around Linux and other open-source technologies
- Experience with multiple languages (eg. Python, Go, others)
- Knowledge of multiple programming paradigms is a plus
- Good communication skills
- Strong ability to cross multi-disciplinary boundaries
Responsibilities
- Develop new user-facing features and user-friendly web pages
- Ensure the technical feasibility of UI/UX designs
- Assure that all user input is validated before submitting to backend
- Identify and communicate frontend best practices
- Participate in code reviews
- Collaborate with backend developers and designers/UX experts
- Shape and implement responsive, mobile-first designs and web flows
- Build frontend web apps architecture
- Build and maintain highly scalable web applications
Main requirements
- Proven work experience as a Frontend Developer
- Deep understanding of web technologies, including HTML, JS, CSS
- Experience with working with high performance sites
- Experience working with a project from start to finish (ideation, development, deployment and testing)
- Strong problem-solving and decision-making ability
- Hands on experience with markup languages
- Experience with node.js, React.js/angular/vue.js is valued
- Ability to perform well in a fast-paced environment
- Excellent analytical and multitasking skills
Minimum Qualifications
- BSc degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience
- Experience with test automation
- Good understanding of web technologies, including JavaScript, HTML, CSS
- Experience with high performance websites that you can tell us about
Responsibilities
- Work with software developers and project support teams
- Identify business requirements
- Monitor applications and software systems
- Write and execute test scripts
- Run manual and automated tests
- Test in different environments including web and mobile
- Perform Stress, Performance, Functional and Scalability tests
- Quality assurance
- Provide findings to technical and non-technical colleagues, both on oral and written formats (bug reports)
- Work on multiple projects at one time
Main requirements
- Familiarity with browser and applications testing and debugging
- Experience with test automation is valued
- Understanding of layout aesthetics
- Problem solving skills
- Passion for technology
Minimum Qualifications
- Strong verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to liaise with a variety of stakeholders
- Ability to work under pressure towards tight deadlines
- Attention to detail
Responsibilities
- R&D and projects using blockchain technologies
- Focus on emerging blockchain technologies: Smart contracts, tangles, high speed off-chain networks, IPFS, ERC20 tokens
- Work on multiple projects over time, in different industries and partners
- Build a blockchain community around the Bright Pixel Labs. Train the team, organize meetups, speak at conferences
Main requirements
- Strong problem-solving skills and learning ability
- Preference for working in rapid development cycles
- Creativity on applying technology to solve industry problems
Minimum Qualifications
- Experience developing around Linux and other open-source technologies
- Experience with multiple languages (eg. Python, Go, others)
- Knowledge of Solidity and/or Ethereum related technologies is a plus
- Focus on good coding practices and security
- Good communication skills
- Strong ability to cross multi-disciplinary boundaries
Responsibilities
- Conduct end-user research and interviews
- Apply experienced personal knowledge, skill sets, and gathered user research data to create user-centered interfaces
- Develop user workflows, wireframes, and prototypes that facilitate the usability and business project development
- Contribute to the research for new opportunities and techniques for both usability best practices and engagement within the organization
- Validate applications/websites to make sure they match the expected design by adhering to usability guidelines
- Report findings to both Project Teams and Management
Main requirements
- Knowledge of usability methodologies
- Experience in conducting end-user research and interviews
- Experience with wireframing/prototyping software tools
- Excellent collaboration and communication skills
- Outgoing, highly-organized, persistent, and flexible
- High understanding of web-based technologies
Minimum Qualifications
- Ability to work under pressure towards tight deadlines
- Attention to detail
- Ability to work creatively and analytically in a problem-solving environment
- Familiarity with common design tools