User Interaction Designer - UK Hydrographic Office - HEO

Location

Taunton

About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an Interaction Designer to join the small but impactful UX team at the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO).

In this role, you’ll focus on understanding user needs and translating them into clear, effective design solutions across products and services. You’ll work closely with researchers, product teams and stakeholders to shape digital services that support a wide range of expert user groups across the maritime sector.

We’re looking for an interaction designer with :

• Strong core UX skills, someone who’s driven by understanding people and designing clear, intuitive experiences.
• Enjoys solving problems, sketching ideas, wireframing and building prototypes.
• Can apply user-centred design, Lean UX, and GDS principles in practice.
• Is confident facilitating design workshops and collaborating in multi-disciplinary teams.
• Communicates well with a range of technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Is curious, proactive and motivated about designing services that make a real-world impact.

This is an opportunity to do meaningful work in a supportive and collaborative environment where UX is valued and impactful. You’ll help shape the future of digital services at a global hydrographic office, contributing to safety at sea, sustainability, and innovation.

Hybrid working 

This role is hybrid with regular working at our Taunton site. While there’s flexibility to work from home, we’re looking for someone who’s willing and able to regularly spend time in the office in Taunton with the rest of the team.

We believe good design comes from strong collaboration and shared understanding, so we value time spent together, whether that’s learning about the business, getting to know our users, or connecting with your teammates.

Job description

Understanding problems and designing solutions
• Translate user and business needs into impactful designs and experiences.
• Think big picture, focus on solving whole problems, not just screen-level details.
• Create and validate storyboards, user journeys, service maps and process flows to tell compelling user stories and clearly communicate design ideas.
•    Use insights and evidence from research to explain your design decisions.

Working collaboratively
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, including user researchers, product managers, delivery leads, developers and GIS specialists.
• Facilitate regular design workshops and collaborative sessions to solve problems together.
•    Champion user needs and inclusive design across the organisation.

Prototyping and testing
• Design and build interactive prototypes.
• Plan and conduct usability testing with users.
•    Iterate designs based on feedback and evidence from research.

Design system and implementation
• Contribute to and help maintain the UKHO Design System.
• Ensure consistent, user-centred design patterns are used across Admiralty products and services.
•    Work closely with developers to ensure your designs are clearly communicated and implemented as intended.

Staying current
•    Keep up to date with trends and best practice in interaction design and the wider digital landscape.

Person specification

• Experience of designing user-centred solutions that meet real user needs and align with business goals.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to tell compelling user stories and clearly share user needs with a range of stakeholders.
• Confidence in contributing to, and facilitating design workshops, and working collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams.
• A practical understanding of design thinking methods such as the Double Diamond, and experience applying them in real projects.
• Proficiency in prototyping and wireframing tools (e.g. Figma) to explore, test and communicate design ideas.
• Experience creating and using UX artefacts (e.g. user journeys, process flows) and evaluation techniques (e.g. heuristic reviews) to support evidence-based design.
• Awareness of design systems and pattern libraries, and how to apply them to create consistent, inclusive designs.
• Basic knowledge of HTML and CSS, to support collaboration with developers.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together