Interaction Designer - HMRC - SEO

Location

Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Telford, Worthing

About the job

Job summary

Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you're seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC.

Visit our YouTube channel to watch the full series and come and discover your potential.

Interaction Designer Overview

HMRC is looking for a passionate Interaction Designer, who can champion user-centred design across our department. You will work as part of our User-centred Design practice in the Chief Technology and Design Office, shaping key initiatives that impact millions of people, ensuring our services meet real user needs.

Our UCD practice provides consultancy services, tools and capabilities to major programmes and business areas across the department. Through this highly successful approach we have helped shape and design some of HMRC’s most impactful products and services, and we now need an Interaction Designer to join us so that we can continue to ensure we are designing the right things for our users.

The successful candidate will play a vital role in shaping the interactions between users and HMRC’s GOV.UK content and guidance, ensuring simple and inclusive user experiences. You will work in a supportive environment with plenty of opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive.

This is an opportunity to make a real difference - to improve services, influence decisions with evidence and data, and help to simplify the tax system for everyone. Plus, you’ll be part of a user-centred design practice/community that's breaking the mould of traditional government work. If you’re an interaction designer who is looking for their next opportunity, we’d love to hear from you.

Job description

An interaction designer is a confident and competent designer who can determine the best way for users to interact with HMRC’s services. You will:

• Use your experience to design user-friendly and accessible services that aligns with government standards and best practices.
• Work alongside policy experts, user researchers, designers, product managers, and tech specialists to create cohesive, end-to-end user experiences.

Person specification

Your responsibilities will include:

• Creating prototypes, using the government prototyping toolkit, to communicate and test ideas with users and improve with evidence
• Mapping user journeys, processes and visualising design problems
• Building positive relationships with stakeholders and team members, influencing and collaborating with them to improve design quality
• Helping to facilitate the design process by participating in research activities, pairing with developers, facilitating workshops and communicating design decisions
• Working collaboratively with your team to turn concepts into user-centred services 

You will also be expected to:

• Participate in the design communities within HMRC and across government, both online and offline
• Use your expertise to review and provide feedback to other interaction designers on their work
• Seek out opportunities for learning and improvement by getting feedback from your colleagues and the business

Essential Criteria

To be successful in this role you will already have experience and understanding of:

• Designing accessible interactive products or services that meet user needs; including proven experience in
  • Sketching, concept creation and designing prototypes
  • Journey mapping and needs analysis with good understanding of information design/architecture
  • Working with pattern libraries and/or style guidelines, for example the GOV.UK design system
• An understanding of user research methods and practice
• Managing stakeholder needs and expectations and facilitating difficult discussions within the team or with diverse senior stakeholders.
• Prototyping at varying fidelities using a range of methods, including HTML and CSS, and collaborating with teams and stakeholders in prototyping activities
• Collaborating with user researchers, championing user research activities and designing to meet user needs
• Web technologies and how they affect design, including accessibility

Qualification

A degree in a relevant subject or equivalent background from industry experience is expected. 

Technical skills

Interaction designers in HMRC are part of the Government Digital and Data profession. As part of the selection process you’ll be assessed against four skills from the Interaction Design role: 

• Designing together
• Evidence-based design
• Iterative design
• Designing for everyone 

https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/role/interaction-designer 

Why join us in HMRC?

You will be joining a thriving and supportive design community, with regular opportunities for insight sharing, training and discussion. Our team draws together expertise from a wide variety of backgrounds and sectors and welcomes new ideas on how we can continue to improve the way we work to create real-world impact. 

All members of our UCD communities can access: 

• A clear career path to help you progress and develop at HMRC
• Community of practice sessions where you can learn from others, grow and develop
• Profession peer support channels where you can ask questions, share experiences and learn from others
• Opportunities to grow your skills and experience outside of your main role, for example becoming a service assessor or design reviewer

Transitional Sites

For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations.

If your location preference is for one of the following sites, it’s important to note that these are not long-term sites for HMRC and we will require you to move to a new building in the future, subject to our location strategy and the applicable employee policies at that time.

These sites are:

• Benton Park View, Newcastle - moving to Pilgrims Quarter, Newcastle
• Telford Plaza, Telford - moving to Parkside Court, Telford

You will be given more information about what this means at the job offer stage.

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Presentation at Interview, as outlined within the Selection process details