Job Description

Job Title: UX Researcher and Designer

Grade: Technology Advisor

Details
SLC’s mission to enable our customers to invest in their futures by delivering secure, accurate and efficient assessment, payment and repayment services. The vision is to be valued as a digital, customer-focused centre of excellence. The UX Team plays a central role in delivering on these.
We're looking for a dynamic, motivated UX Researcher and Designer to join our seasoned and professional UX team of six on a permanent basis.You'll be designing and testing a range of services within an ambitious and exciting programme of work and helping students, staff and business customer navigate our products, services, information and guidance with ease and confidence.
This position will suit a flexible and pro-active person that enjoys a dynamic working environment where they can use a full range of UX and communications skills to produce a high level of results.
Job purpose
The purpose of this role is to be the UX expert within delivery teams. UXers are expected to lead or contribute to UCD activities on projects, and represent target audiences including students, SLC staff, and staff at Higher Education Institutions.
The role will focus on understanding and championing user’s needs, developing evidence based on design recommendations, creating design patterns and systems, collaborating and iterating on designs throughout agile sprint cycles, andwhere relevant, ensuring GDS standards are applied or challenged appropriately.
Speaking to both customers and stakeholders, and conducting work in a way that aids the efficiency and effectiveness of project teams overall will come naturally to the correct candidate.
Key accountabilities
While UX Researchers and Designers are expected to collaborate, learn from and guide each other, they will be expected to work independently on project teams. (6)
Understand and represent user needs
  • Plan, design and conduct research and usability testing to support the design of our digital ecosystem, and to build an overall picture of target audience needs and behaviours
  • Contribute to a repository of user research across SLC and Govt
  • Represent customer needs and requirements while also aligning to SLC business objectives
Inform project and product direction
  • Work with product owners & delivery teams to incorporate UCD activities into project plans
  • Ensure projects align to the relevant UCD standards, such as GDS Service Design Principles
  • Influence product direction by converting user data into actionable requirements and prototype design
Design
  • Contribute to or lead collaborative design sessions with stakeholders and end-users
  • Convert concepts into test material, and test findings into prototypes
  • Contribute to a repository of Design Patterns across SLC and Government(1,2,3,5,8)
  • Be viewed by delivery teams as an expert on mobile, accessibility & assistive technology usage
Develop expertise
  • Keep up to date on UCD, digital, policy and market developments, issues and best practices, including GDS standards (1)
  • Contribute to or lead initiatives within UX team (2,3,5)
  • Assist with building a culture of continuous delivery and improvement
Embed UCD mindset and agile processes into teams and across the business
  • Champion UCDprinciples & practices both within the Design Authority and across the company (2,3,5,8)
  • Maintain effective performance in difficult and challenging circumstances, encouraging others to do the same
  • Actively build and maintain a network of colleagues and contacts to achieve progress on objectives and shared interests
Essential skills / Experience
Experience
  • Demonstrable knowledge & passion for UCD practices and Agile development (1)
  • Experience in usability testing and research including, planning and managing, conducting, analysing, and communicating findings and recommendations (1,2,3,5,8)
  • Experience in working on online transactional services (1)
  • Experience in creating prototypes and a range of test materials
  • Experience of agile delivery methodologies
Skills / aptitude
  • Can lead or contribute to collaborative design sessions with both team and stakeholders
  • Can contribute to end to end customer journey maps
  • Demonstrable understanding of interaction design for different devices
  • Demonstrable understanding of content design and its relationship to UX (1)
  • Can inform and help maintain a centralised Pattern design library
  • Can estimate own work and deliver to deadlines
Awareness
  • Demonstrable knowledge of the W3C Accessibility standards
  • Awareness of current front-end technology capabilities and trends (1)
Communications
  • Excellent presentation and communication skills at all levels, ensuring stakeholders are regularly updated of progress and activities
  • Ability to get team and stakeholder buy-in to the benefits of UCD
Desirable skills / Experience/ Qualifications
  • Higher education qualification in UX / HCI / Psychology / Visual Communication or related discipline
  • Knowledge of human factors and or ethnography
  • Experience in writing indicative online content for tools and transactional services (1)
  • Knowledge of how to use website analytical tools for understanding trends and behaviours
About SLC
Student Loans Company is a non-profit making Government-owned organisation set up in 1989 to provide loans and grants to students in universities and colleges in the UK. We are responsible, in partnership with Local Authorities in England and Wales, the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, the Education and Library boards in Northern Ireland, the Higher Education Institutions and HM Revenue & Customs, for student support delivery in the UK.