Overview
Nesta’s Centre for Collective Intelligence helps create new ways for communities to use technology to harness their insights, ideas and power to act on the problems that matter to them and create the futures they want. We know well-designed systems can help promote healthy collective action at scale, but too often technology is designed to solve the needs of individuals or large organisations.
Our mission is to design digital tools and products that allow communities to respond collectively to challenges, and that help public and voluntary sector institutions strengthen trust and collaboration with citizens.
We help our partners to understand where and how collective intelligence approaches can help address the problems they’re working on. We apply collective intelligence design - which brings together insights from diverse groups of people, with new sources of data (such as sensor or mobile phone data) and digital technologies (including AI) - to develop bespoke solutions to those problems. We use rigorous research methods to test, learn and evaluate each solution.
The Role
Nesta is looking for an ambitious mid level product designer with real world experience to contribute to the design and prototyping of new digital ‘collective intelligence’ solutions. At the heart of CI design is the ability to effectively combine insights and actions of large crowds, data and digital technologies to tackle complex social challenges. This is a unique opportunity to apply, shape and develop expertise in an emerging area of innovation practice, working with our partners and clients all over the world in a social-purpose enterprise. As part of an interdisciplinary team, you’ll work with the Centre’s software developers, researchers and product managers to create high impact digital solutions, tools and and services to help tackle climate change, improve health and increase civic and democratic participation. And you’ll draw on a wide range of collective intelligence methods from crowdsourcing, to citizen science and online deliberation.
You will be responsible for
Product Design:
Able to design, or contribute to the design, of sophisticated digital collective intelligence products that help deliver social impact and might cover complex user needs
UX Design (including core user research techniques, user journeys, wireframes, prototypes, user testing etc.)
UI Design (including interaction design, high-fidelity prototypes etc.)
Strong visual design skills (inc branding & aesthetics), and the ability to convey complex concepts in easily understandable ways
Understanding of service design fundamentals and able to contribute into output core service design artefacts such as blueprints
Able to quality assure own work with an eye for detail
Work with a clear & iterative design process, and able to convey the impact and results of work
Strong skills in Figma and other common digital design tools
Working within interdisciplinary teams, particularly working closely with researchers to translate the cutting edge of academic research into practice in the real world
User Research & Testing:
Undertake user testing & results analysis of prototypes, concepts, and live products
Synthesise and share results from user research with stakeholders, and feed learnings into designs & iterations
Stakeholder management:
Design and facilitate workshops & meetings
Ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional peers and stakeholders, and to explain design decisions clearly
Good stakeholder communication skills, with both external and internal stakeholders
Strategic thinking:
Understand the team's long-term strategy from a design and user perspective
Ensure that all designs line up with the strategic goals for the product
Leadership contribution:
Advise our partners in collective intelligence design. Navigating the varying backgrounds, technical skill levels, and previous knowledge of CI
Contribute to the design and delivery of CI training programmes
Other:
Supporting business development activities by creating pitch materials and supporting the development of project plans
Communicating and promoting your work, and the work of the wider team e.g. representing CCI and CI design at conferences, writing blogs, making presentations etc
Experience, Skills and Mindset
Experience as a digital product designer, ideally working end-to-end
Able to autonomously undertake mid-to-large sized projects that might involve some complexity
Able to handle multiple projects at once, effectively prioritising what needs to be done
Able to work to tight deadlines, plan and manage your time effectively
Experience designing for web, mobile and desktop products
Able to guide non-designers through designs and design decisions
Communication skills: You can listen to the needs of users, stakeholders and partners, and interpret them in a way that is clear for both audiences
Excellent presentation skills, including an ability to communicate concepts, strategies and interdependencies effectively to a wide range of audiences
Collaboration skills: You know how to work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary Agile team
A self-starter with a curious and open mindset, with a willingness to learn and apply new methods, and ability to carry out self-directed research
Ability to generate creative ideas and novel solutions that can leverage collective intelligence in new ways to help achieve social outcomes, combined with an exceptional eye for detail
An enthusiasm for, and commitment to, becoming a recognised expert and practitioner in Collective Intelligence Design
Desirable - If you do not feel that you have these skills, please don’t let this stop you from applying for the role
Practical experience of designing and delivering products that enable collective action or behaviour change
Knowledge of collective intelligence methods
Knowledge of creating video animations and/or editing film content
Front-end development skills - HTML/JS/CSS
Knowledge of Artificial Intelligence
Experience of designing products with a social purpose
Knowledge of how to design for different accessibility needs
What we offer
Salary: circa £48k plus array of benefits, including private medical insurance, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more
Location: This role is based in London, Blackfriars, hybrid working arrangement with a minimum of two days in the office.
Term: Permanent
Hours: This is a full-time role but we offer a range of flexible working arrangements and encourage our people to take advantage of them. Many do.
How to apply
To apply for this role, please submit your application before 08:00am on Thursday 21st of October 2024.
At Nesta, we believe that a diverse workforce leads to an organisation that is more innovative, more creative and gets better results.
We want our workforce to represent the diversity of the people and communities we serve. We also want our workplace to be one where different experiences, expertise and perspectives are valued, and where everyone is encouraged to grow and develop.
This means that when we are recruiting, we actively seek to reach a diverse pool of candidates. It also means that we are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that potential employees may need to in order to be successful.
We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life, so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working, including working from home, compressed or part-time hours, job shares and other arrangements.
Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore.