Content Designer

Overview

Specialist role Content designer

Summary of the work The content designer will join a multi-disciplinary agile team that delivers various services. Some of those will be mainly transactional and others will have a greater content focus. They will create clear, user-led content to make government services simpler, clearer and faster for individuals and businesses.

Latest start date 5 October 2016

Expected contract length 6 months

Region London

Organisation the work is for Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

About the work

Who the specialist will work with The content designer will work with a multi disciplinary team of specialists. They will work particularly closely with user researchers, designers and policy specialists to challenge assumptions, test ideas and write content which meets user needs as clearly and quickly as possible.

What the specialist will work on The content designer will initially focus on services to support the newly established Small Business Commissioner and the related prompt payments policy. They will work in a small, multidisciplinary agile delivery team. Over time the team will move on to work on other services to be delivered by the BEIS digital group, including Discovery, Alpha and Beta phases.

Work setup

Address where the work will take place Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET There may be some need to travel to locations within and outside London to work with stakeholders and participate in user research during the development of the service.

Working arrangements Monday to Friday. A professional working day, hours and working pattern are needed to deliver the service efficiently. Mainly based from our office in Westminster, London.
Security clearance Minimum Baseline Personnel Security Standard

Skills and experience

Essential skills and experience 

• Substantial experience of content design for the web.
• Experience of working in a multidisciplinary team in an agile development environment. At ease with rapidly changing deadlines, workloads and goals.
• Able to produce digital content that is accurate, timely, relevant, easy to understand, search engine optimised and written to style.
• An exceptional command of written English.
• Knowledge of, and passion for, user centred design practices in public facing and internal services and applications.
• Able to understand user needs by analysing user research findings and analytics data. Confident in writing actionable content for transactional services to meet those needs.
• Able to use analytical and problem-solving skills to help the team solve design problems and challenge assumptions.
• Understand how a digital service should address the needs of all possible users so that no one is excluded, with particular reference to access needs and assisted digital.
• Exceptional skills in convincing people that user needs should guide how information is presented.
• Confident in explaining decisions to stakeholders who don’t understand web usability or user centred design.

Nice-to-have skills and experience 

• Experience of working on GOV.UK and other government services.
• Strong understanding of the Government Digital Service’s Design Principles and Digital Service Standard.
• Proficient in editing with Markdown, editing in HTML and using Github.
• Experience of using prototyping tools to develop and test content in context.
• Able to contribute to areas beyond the usual boundaries of the discipline, for example helping the team understand the service’s legal and regulatory environment.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.