Overview

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.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• 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.
• Design and build interactive prototypes.
• Plan and conduct usability testing with users.
• Iterate designs based on feedback and evidence from research.
• 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.
• Keep up to date with trends and best practice in interaction design and the wider digital landscape.

Qualifications

• 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.

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.

Behaviours

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