AMS PSR

On behalf of Crown Commercial Services, we are looking for a Senior Interaction Designer (Inside IR35) for a 3 Month Remote contract.

Crown Commercial Services (CCS) is the largest public procurement organisation in the UK.

Job profile summary

We are looking for a passionate Interaction Designer with strong people skills who enjoy working collaboratively with others to solve problems and can champion user-centred design. As a Senior Interaction Designer, you will be an experienced practitioner who will play a vital role in shaping the interactions and ensuring simple and inclusive user experiences.

You will be an expert designer who can determine the best way for users to interact with CCS services in-line with Government Design Standards.

Team

User-centred design (UCD) is about putting users’ needs first in how we design services: we research, design and test for a customer-first approach. It is integral to making government work better for users, and reducing waste in government. Our team leads the professions covering User Researcher, Service and Interaction Design. As a Senior Interaction Designer, you will work with Service Designers, User Researchers, Product Managers and a wide range of colleagues across the CCS Digital Directorate and the wider business.

Key accountabilities:

• Designing accessible interactive products or services that meet user needs; including proven experience in concept creation and designing prototypes.
• Prototyping at varying fidelities using a range of methods, including HTML and CSS, and working with pattern libraries and/or style guidelines.
• Able to use your experience to design user-friendly and accessible services that align with government standards and best practices.
• Work alongside subject matter experts, user researchers, analysts, designers, product managers, and tech specialists to create cohesive, end-to-end user experiences.
• 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 content designers, facilitating workshops and communicating design decisions.
• Managing stakeholder needs and expectations and facilitating difficult discussions within the team or with diverse senior stakeholders.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, effective management of stakeholders and facilitate discussions at a senior level.
• You will be an excellent communicator who can advocate for your users and explain user-centred design principles to non-specialists.
• You can help to champion a user-centred, evidence-based approach.
• You will participate in the design communities across government, and use your expertise to share with other interaction designers and colleagues.
• You will also have management and coaching experience, supporting the development of junior designers, enabling quality design.

Essential skills:

• Design communication - You can clearly explain complex problems and ideas to teams or stakeholders outside of design; clearly document and communicate design decisions, related risks and any unresolved issues; build consensus around a design approach, for example, by asking difficult questions and challenging assumptions.
• Designing for everyone - You can advise teams on how to design inclusive, accessible (to WCAG 2.2 level AA) and environmentally sustainable content or services; design and deliver ethical content or services that consider the personal and social context of users; ensure a design meets appropriate standards, for example accessibility regulations.
• Designing strategically - You can help a team understand how user-centred design helps it meet its goals, help teams align their work to the goals and vision of their organisation; use risks, opportunities and constraints in technology, systems and policy to shape design, identify and create new design patterns and components.
• Designing together - You can advise others how to effectively plan and run design sessions with a team, users or stakeholders; adapt a design session to ensure you achieve a useful outcome; effectively involve the right people throughout the design process, work across team or profession boundaries, for example with policy teams.
• Evidence-based design - You can analyse, synthesise and clearly explain complex evidence relevant to users or a service, for example, large data sets, help your team use design hypotheses effectively, use complex research and data to develop and test design ideas.
• Iterative design - You can help other designers apply iterative design principles and agile methodologies to their work, iterate and improve complex designs based on successive rounds of research, independently prototype complex ideas at an appropriate fidelity, adapt designs quickly to changes in requirements, priorities or user needs.
• Leading design - You can lead and coordinate design work in your team, with support, communicate the value of user-centred design to your team, support other designers, work with digital and data leaders in your organisation, when needed.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

At CCS, we actively support, promote, and celebrate our differences for the benefit of our employees, suppliers, and customers. CCS is proud to be an equal opportunities employer. CCS believes that diversity and inclusion is critical to our success, and we seek to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

Disability Confident 

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, CCS guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".