Junior Interaction Designer - GDS - SEO

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Data is one of government’s most valuable – but underutilised – assets. Unlocking the value of public data will drive up innovation and productivity across the economy, worth over £20 billion, could radically transform public services, delivering efficiency gains worth up to £110 billion, and fuel innovation in AI, boosting the UK’s strategic advantage in this sector.

Transforming government’s use of data to drive efficiency, innovation and improve public services sits at the heart of our mission. A core focus for the team, the National Data Library (NDL) will be a core part of the Government’s programme to unlock better data sharing across government and into the economy.

Job description

Your role will be to design accessible services that are simple enough for everyone to use. This role will lead on the design of one of the products in the National Data Library to improve trusted and ethical data use and sharing that supports the delivery of great public services, drives economic growth and supports decision making at all levels. The product you will be focusing on is improving and digitising the process through which public sector workers arrange to share data. That is a complex space, with influential experts involved in security, legal and privacy considerations who you will work with to co-design a user-centred product that makes the process more efficient, effective and trusted.

As a Junior Interaction Designer, you will be responsible for shaping the user experience for the product you work on, ensuring that it not only meets the needs of its users but does so in a way that is compliant with government and accessibility standards. You will work with other designers and product teams across the National Data Library team to ensure products are accessible, usable, and scalable.

You’ll be excited by the challenge of creating digital services that work across multiple channels, devices, browsers and platforms, and will be able to see the bigger picture as well as the fine detail.

You’ll understand the way the internet works and how to design in an agile environment, and you’ll help the government transform the way it delivers services, so that they’re more efficient, simpler, faster and easier to use. You will be passionate about usability and accessibility and in this role will have the chance to work on services that matter, with people who value design and create work you’re proud to talk about.

As a Junior Interaction Designer you will:

• work with researchers and analysts to use evidence to inform, develop and test design ideas at pace
• use evidence to challenge assumptions, negotiate with product owners and rationalise design decisions
• design collaboratively and in the open, effectively planning and running design sessions with your team, users or stakeholders
• set the design direction and good practice within your team to support their goals and visions and the strategic objectives of the organisation
• champion accessibility and inclusion and make sure that designs meet accessibility, legal and security requirements
• encourage knowledge sharing within and between teams, making sure that your designs are reusable and consistent with the GOV.UK Design System
• communicate the value of user-centred design to your team, organisation and stakeholders
• contribute to and support the government design community

Person specification

We’re looking for people with strong interpersonal skills who enjoy working in a delivery focused, agile environment. We’re looking for people who care about technology and who know how to make projects succeed, as well as stopping them failing.

We’re interested in people who:

• have relevant experience in designing services or a design related degree including creating wireframes and prototypes in different fidelities to plan functionality and identify pain points
• have experience of working in an agile environment and with digital service delivery teams
• have basic coding skills and can understand how interfaces work and what features can be added or enhanced
• have experience of explaining design ideas and concepts in a way that other people understand and influencing others to adopt user-centred design practices
• welcome the constructive criticism of their work and are able to constructively review the work of others
• have experience of interpreting user research to design user-friendly, intuitive and accessible services
• welcome and seek learning and development to improve their design skills