Senior Interaction Designer - Home Office - G7

Location

Croydon CR0 2WF, Manchester M5 3LZ, Sheffield S3 8NU

About the job

Job summary

The Home Office keeps our citizens safe and our country secure. We play a fundamental role in the security and economic prosperity of the UK.

At the heart of this work is Home Office Digital, which designs, builds, and develops innovative services that are the backbone of critical operations, supporting millions of visa applications, border crossings, and police checks every year. 

We are looking for a Senior Interaction Designer to join the team delivering the Multi-Agency Public Protection Service (MAPPS), part of the Policing and Public Protection Technology (PPPT) portfolio within Home Office Digital. MAPPS is replacing the register for violent and sexual offenders, supporting police, probation services, and partner agencies to manage offenders who present a risk to the public after release from custody. This high-profile role offers an exceptional opportunity to navigate complex stakeholder needs and design services with real impact on public safety. Whilst you will initially focus on achieving parity with the legacy system, you will later move into continuous improvement of the service.

You will determine the best way for users to interact with services, the overall flow and individual design elements. You will mentor and train other designers, supporting the growth and development of the interaction design team.

You will have experience of designing software in an agile environment. You must be driven to help government transform the way it delivers services so that they are simpler, faster and easier to use.

You can learn more about design and research in the Home Office on our blog:

• sharing user-centred design lessons learnt at the Home Office
• applying user-centred design in a data-focused product
• and by looking at our design system 

We have a thriving user-centred design (UCD) community. If you want to work with us to ensure that our services are easier and simpler to use, apply now.

Where business needs allow some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office. 

Watch this short video to hear from members of Home Office Digital talking about the projects they work on and their experience of working here: Working for Home Office Digital. 

Job description

Your main day to day responsibilities will be:  

• Creating prototypes and concepts to communicate and test ideas with users and improving with evidence
• Mapping user journeys, processes and visualising design problems
• Advocating for users and understanding user needs to design simple, effective and accessible services
• Contributing to content design with support and guidance from the wider content design profession 
• Identifying, developing and using best practice and standards to design services consistent with the rest of government and the Home Office
• Collaborating within a multidisciplinary team on large, complex services by facilitating the design process, participating in research activities, workshops and communicating design decisions to the team and stakeholders

Person specification

UK residency and security requirements - You need to have lived in the UK for the past 5 years.

Essential skills

• evidence-based design: leads evidence-based design initiatives for significant projects, often involving complex user needs and multiple stakeholders. Mentors junior staff in evidence-based design methodologies
• prototyping and concept creation: manages the prototyping and concept creation process for high-impact projects. Applies advanced techniques, like interactive and complex prototyping in code, to validate and refine concepts. Provides guidance to junior team members
• interaction design: able to manage and guide the interaction design process for complex projects. Balances user needs, technical constraints, and business objectives to achieve optimal design solutions
• accessibility and inclusion: applying accessibility standards, understanding how the internet works and the technology constraints that may need to be considered in design
• managing people and leading: coaching and mentoring other interaction designers, growing skills, and providing constructive feedback on work
• communicate, persuade and advocate: talking about, and advocating for UCD to various audiences and stakeholders, in a way that other people understand