Product Designer

As a product designer, you will help build the visual identity of our digital products, as well as the users’ experiences interacting with them. Some of the digital products that we design for are the mobile app, web apps, and new features for The Michigan Daily website.

You will have responsibilities ranging from researching users’ needs to designing and prototyping. You will be involved at every step of the product development life cycle, from coming up with new ideas to making sure designs are properly implemented.

Our team comes from a diverse set of backgrounds and is highly collaborative. We work with all sections of The Daily to deliver the best experiences and impact for the Michigan community. As a Product Designer here, you will have the opportunity to work with peer designers, engineers, and other sections of The Michigan Daily.

We're recruiting open-minded, curious, and passionate students to join our team. Previous experience is not required. As long as you have a passion for design, you are welcomed!

Please note that each of the four web team roles have a separate application, so if you are applying for multiple, you must fill out each form individually.

Welcome to The Michigan Daily web team! We’re working hard to build the digital-first future of The Michigan Daily. To learn more about us and our projects, check out our website!

Open house on Thursday, January 25th at the Student Publications Building (420 Maynard) on the first floor!

Applications are due January 31st at 11:59 pm.

What we do
The web team’s projects can largely be split into two buckets: product and editorial. Products include designs for the new website and special projects like The Rivalry Edition or The Love Notes. Our editorial responsibilities include providing data analysis for reporters, creating graphics for stories, and writing data-driven articles. We also have a mobile app (released on the App Store and Google Play) that we are constantly working on improving!

Technologies
The newsroom is a unique environment to experiment with technology, and we have a lot of exciting opportunities to do so. We use (and plan to use) modern technologies including (but not limited to):

• Web frameworks like React.js and Svelte and modern web tooling (SCSS, Parcel, etc)
• Data analysis with Python (pandas, numpy) and R
• Visualization tools like D3
• Modern mobile development technologies like React Native
• Cloud technologies like AWS

If you are experienced with or would like to learn more about any of these, you should join the web team!

Subteams
The following subteams work in tandem to comprise The Daily web team: product design, web projects,and data.

• The product design team creates designs for both the main michigandaily.com website as well as all of our special products.
• The web development team works on internal newsroom tools and special projects, such as Games and the mobile app.
• The data team works on data-driven stories and visualizations to be published in The Daily.