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Job summary
National: £38,724 – £44,393
Inner: £42,716 – £48,068
The Content Designer will be part of a high performing, multidisciplinary squad using agile methods to deliver customer-centric services. The role will involve designing content for accessible products and services that improve customer journeys and help UKHSA to achieve its public health objectives. They will translate insights from user research into accessible, inclusive content design that meets the needs of users, especially those from underserved and underrepresented communities. The Content Designer will work with internal and external stakeholders to understand user needs and organisational requirements, and help develop meaningful solutions.
The Content Designer will develop and maintain stakeholder relationships and influence others. They will need to think at a systems level, absorb large amounts of information and produce clear content strategies and designs. They will deploy design tools and techniques to create innovative content for a product, service, or single piece of content. They will consider digital and offline channels, including digital, print and signage. The Content Designer will be aware of and be able to apply existing design systems and style guidelines. They will understand accessibility requirements for all content types.
The Content Designer will understand the importance of accessible and inclusive content design. They will contribute to the design of holistic services that work for a wide range of people and communities. They will design in the open and take part in communicating design decisions within the project team and to stakeholders across government.
The Content Designer will be an active part of the user-centred design community, sharing insights and practices across the community and organisation. They will work under the guidance of a more experienced Senior Content Designer, but work autonomously most of the time.
Job description
Introduction
At UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) our mission is to prepare for, prevent and respond to infectious diseases and environmental hazards to keep all our communities safe, to save lives and protect livelihoods. We are a trusted source of advice to government and to the public, focusing on reducing inequalities in the way different communities experience and are impacted by threats to health.
This is an exciting opportunity to join UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) as a Content Designer within the UCD Team.
You will be asked to express a location preference during the application process.
Please be aware that this role can only be worked from within the UK and not overseas. Relocation expenses are not available.
About the team
The UCD team draws together experts in design and delivery with a shared mission to create an organisation that puts an understanding of users, their needs, and experiences at the heart of policy making, and service and product design and delivery, to improve organisational performance.
To achieve our mission, the UCD team will:
- Influence Advocate for user-centredness. Building awareness and understanding of UCD principles and practices across UKHSA, actively influencing decision makers to apply UCD standards and practices to policy making and service and product design and delivery.
- Enable Grow the UCD profession and give all staff the tools they need to embody user-centricity; providing a place for expert UCD capability to flourish, and the tools, guidance and frameworks needed to enable all staff to build UCD knowledge and skills.
- Deliver Deploy our expert capability to help the organisation to solve problems and improve products and services by bring a problem-focused user-centric approach to transformation initiatives.
The UCD delivery function will comprise multidisciplinary squads who will work collaboratively with teams across the agency to help shape product and service design, improve public health outcomes and address health equalities. Our delivery squads take on a varied portfolio of work, with much of our input being focused on the discovery and alpha stage. The squads have a broad understanding of the existing and developing digital and service landscape across UKHSA and play an important role in ensuring user needs are central to development of services.
As Content Designer you will be joining a team of 26 UCD professionals to support the delivery of these ambitious goals. Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, you will support UKHSA to solve problems, embedding expert UCD practice within change and improvement activities, to drive lasting and transformative change for our users and supporting UKHSA in its objective to become a high performing organisation.
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Provide hands-on content design by working with other disciplines, stakeholders and customers to gain a deep understanding of user needs. Create content that works for our users, is easy to navigate, clear to understand, visually engaging and accessible, Consider operational, technical, legal and design constraints and requirements.
- Drive awareness of content design practices, influencing project roadmaps to embed effective and user-centred design practice.
- Create content assets to test ideas, communicating solutions with clarity and confidence to stakeholders. Share strategic insights that inform service improvements.
- Contribute to a central library of design assets and patterns to share best practice and bring the UKHSA content design strategy to life.
- Influence and shape digital and non-digital products and services. Adopt inclusive UCD practices and ensure findings from research and testing are applied to design. Deliver effective and inclusive content, that meets government and NHS design, style and accessibility standards and industry best practice. Use peer reviews and critis to gather feedback and share best practice.
- Advocate for the voice of users in the design of our services. Identify and communicate user insight to stakeholders to ensure that we deliver effective, inclusive, and accessible services.
- Champion the user-centred design approach across the organisation. Raise awareness of staff and stakeholders, foster interest, and work openly and collaboratively whenever possible. Invest time to share learning and best practice with all members of the UCD Team and actively contribute to your community of practice.
- Represent UKHSAs content design capability across government, NHS and the wider public health system. Contribute to the cross-government and GDS communities of practice.
For full job responsibilities and duties please refer to the attached Job Description.
The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The Job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary.
Person specification
It is important through your application and Statement of Suitability of 750 words that you give evidence and examples of proven experience of each of the following criteria:
Essential criteria
- Experience of content design and using user-centred design methods and practices with a good understanding of the key standards in assuring quality content design and able to demonstrate adherence to these
- Understanding of best practices in content design and how to embed them into an agile workflow and influence project roadmaps to deliver timely outputs
- Able to build and manage relationships with a variety of internal and external stakeholders with different reporting relationships and work with them in a collaborative and co-creative manner to improve services and gain support for assets, content strategies, design concepts, solutions, roadmaps, and ways of working
- Experience making complex language and processes easy to understand
- Experience of explaining design ideas and concepts in a way that other people understand; with the ability to identify the right medium to communicate
- Experience working with user researchers to interpret findings and insights and use them to design and iterate content across multiple digital and non-digital channels
- Able to select and use appropriate design tools and methods to collaboratively explore problems and identify opportunities
- Able to rapidly design and test content assets for both digital and non-digital channels using a range of techniques to understand whether solutions will meet user needs
- Knowledge of agile ways of working, and experience working with user researchers, service and interaction designers and other professions
- Knowledge of the barriers to access which affect engagement with content, able to demonstrate the importance of designing inclusive, equitable, accessible, and sustainable public services, with understanding of best in class in inclusive content design
Desirable
- Experience of a service you have designed receiving a service assessment against the government service standard, or experience as a lead or design service assessor
- Some experience in conducting basic user research, for example user interviews and usability testing
Benefits
For more information on the UKHSA please visit: UK Health Security Agency – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
There are many benefits of working at UKHSA, including:
- flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to consider work part-time or condensed hours
- a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
- 26 days annual leave allowance increasing to 32 days after a 10-year service.
- an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
- career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
- paid volunteering leave (5 special leave days per year)
- a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
- job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
- advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
- death in service benefits
- cycle to work scheme and facilities
- access to an employee discounts schemes
- 5 learning days per year
- access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning
UKHSA offers hybrid working for all employees. This means that everyone does some working from home and also spends some time in an office. Youll agree to your hybrid working arrangement with your line manager in line with your preferences and business needs.
Any move to UKHSA from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
Things you need to know
Selection process details
STAGE 1 – APPLICATION & SIFT:
You will be required to complete an application form and a statement of suitability. Your Statement of Suitability should outline your skills, experience, and achievements, providing evidence of your suitability for the role, against the essential criteria (outlined in the person specification section). Your Statement of Suitability must not exceed 750 words.
Important tip – please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the person specification section above.
You will also be asked to provide information within the Employer/ Activity history section of the application form. This is equivalent to the information you would provide on a CV, setting out your career history. The sift selection panel will only consider relevant career history information from the last 5 years.
If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to an interview.
STAGE 2 INTERVIEW:
This stage include a 60 minute video interview. This will include giving your response to a typical Product Management scenario, to help us understand and ask about your product thinking. We will assess your experience of the priority DDaT skills and the three Behaviours set out below.
Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.
In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. Well be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.
For this role well be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:
Well also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework for the Content Designer role:
- agile working
- content concepts and prototyping
- stakeholder relationship management
- user focus
- strategic thinking
- user centred content design
Candidates should expect questions on the initial 3-4 skills during the interview.
Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.
A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Expected Timeline: TBC
Advert close: 23:55hrs on 07/01/2023 unfortunately, late applications will not be considered. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Interviews: TBC
Please note these dates could be subject to change.
Security clearance level requirement
Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Enhanced Personnel Security Standard.
For posts on UKHSA Civil Service terms and conditions, new entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. For existing Civil Servants and roles advertised across government, the rules of transfer apply, i.e., level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive a 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.
Please Note
This role is to be appointed under Civil Service Terms & Conditions. Full details on the T&Cs are found https://www.ukhsa.reed.com/
Are you already a civil servant, or employed by a Civil Service Commission accredited public body? Please state home department on your application form.
Do you meet the nationality requirements for this post? https://www.ukhsa.reed.com/
The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
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Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
Apply and further information
You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Daisy Zhang
- Email : ukhsa.recruitment@reed.com
Recruitment team
- Email : ukhsa.recruitment@reed.com
