Interaction Designer

Job summary

The role sits within the UKHSA’s core User-Centred Design (UCD) team, which is part of the Readiness and Surge division. Readiness and Surge works across UKHSA and sets the strategic direction for UKHSA’s readiness to respond to all threats and hazards. We focus on Agency capability, putting external stakeholder and customer needs at the centre of designs for the future. We identify opportunities to improve public health outcomes through better user experiences.

The team are responsible for:

• Embedding UCD approaches into UKHSA ways of working
• UCD expertise in project delivery
• Ensuring user needs are understood and designed for, advocating for all users, to achieve equitable outcomes
• Ensuring our products are accessible and developed to the Government Service Standard and use appropriate style guides and patterns
• Leading the UKHSA-wide UCD community of practice to support organisational and in-profession development
• Standards for UCD professionals

Working for your organisation

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.

Please visit our careers site for more information https://gov.uk/ukhsa/careers

Job description

As an interaction designer, you’ll work as part of a multidisciplinary squad collaborating with teams across UKHSA. This role involves providing strategy, guidance and support to internal teams across UKHSA to ensure that their policies, services and products are user-centred.

You’ll be comfortable working with complexity, knowing which design methods to use to explore problems across digital and non-digital channels.

You’ll be working with stakeholders to design services that reduce friction and complexity across the whole service, finding accessible solutions to problems and helping UKHSA to achieve its public health objectives.

You’ll deliver interactive prototypes across projects, serving a wide range of user types and will be able to solve usability issues without compromising accessibility.

Together with other UCD professions you’ll ensure quality, innovation, and creativity in how we approach all aspects of design and how we bring concepts to life for stakeholders to effect change.

You’ll be an active part of the UCD community. You’ll actively demonstrate and encourage sharing of insights and practices within the community and across the organisation.

As an interaction designer you’ll:

• Deliver effective designs - supporting service transformation by using user-centred design methods, best practice and appropriate tooling to explore problems and opportunities within large, complex organisations
• Working with stakeholders and customers to understand existing services and identify key opportunities to improve the service end-to-end
• Experience of work with other professions and stakeholders to discover and analyse insights to identify common themes, pain points and user needs
• Identify solutions to complex problems within services, and support these by developing design concepts, balancing user needs with business, operational and technical requirements
• Prototype complex ideas at an appropriate fidelity and iterate them
• Advocate for the value of a user-centred, inclusive, and evidence-based approach to interaction design and delivery to embed effective and user-centred design practice
• Experience of planning design activities, working directly with other professions to ensure effective and timely delivery
• Improve design practice by using a range of design techniques and encouraging others to also think of alternative ways to conduct design work, developing the practical experience of non-specialists
• Actively participate in the UCD community of practice, fostering a culture of continuous professional development, working openly and collaboratively to contribute to building the service design capability

Please note this list is not exhaustive.

Person specification

Essential role criteria:

• Experience in interaction design and applying user-centred design methods and practices in complex organisations
• To be able to manage relationships with a variety of internal and external stakeholders to improve services and gain support for standards, design solutions, roadmaps, and ways of working
• Experience in the use of various prototyping tools and methods to deliver interactive prototypes, demonstrating ability to create designs that are accessible without compromising delivery timelines
• To be able to communicate with developer colleagues, leveraging knowledge of front-end languages to ensure designs are developed to standard and remain accessible
• To be able to apply iterative design principles and agile methodologies to your work
• To be able to demonstrate the importance of designing inclusive, equitable, accessible and sustainable services
• To be able to plan design activities, working directly with other professions to ensure effective and timely delivery
• To be able to identify new design patterns and components based on evidence

Desirable role criteria:

You may also have experience of:

• Coding using HTML/CSS
• The GOV.UK Prototype Kit and associated hosting technologies
• Government service assessment

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,983, UK Health Security Agency contributes £12,162 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.

The User Centred Design Team will be running two webinars:

• 13th of August at 15:00 Hrs.
• 20th of August at 15.00 Hrs.

The purpose