UX / Interaction Designer

Highfield Campus, Blended between office and home in the United Kingdom

About the role

We have an exciting opportunity for a UX Designer to join us and develop their skills across our user-centred products, projects and delivery teams. This is a fixed-term position (12-months) covering maternity leave.

User Experience (UX) Designers are skilled at shaping an entire experience for the user who interacts with our products. They create positive and beneficial experiences that meet users' needs, address their pain points and deliver measurable benefits for the university.

You’ll be joining an award-winning team dedicated to developing and maintaining user-centred products and services. This will help meet the needs of many of our user groups - from applying to a course to finding research collaborations and much more.

Your responsibilities

You’ll need to:

• Problem solve complex design challenges, iterate, and test solutions.
• Collaborate with colleagues to build up a rich picture of our users.
• Demonstrate deep knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and best practices, with experience designing inclusive and user-friendly digital experiences.
• Work closely with product managers, user researchers, content designers, service designers, other UX and technical disciplines, and university functions to turn our user research findings into design concepts.
• Communicate and explain design concepts, ideas, and the logic and thinking behind them.
• Run workshops and lead on design activities with tech teams and business stakeholders to define the right problem to solve and embed accessibility into designs and concepts that meet users' needs.
• Work in Figma, and have a strong understanding of design systems, including component libraries, style guides, and responsive design best practices.

Your skills and experience

You’ll need to be able to demonstrate the following skills and experience. It’s okay if you don’t have everything in this list. We’re looking for people who are a good fit and willing to learn.

• Demonstrable experience of advocating for design research and championing for all users.
• Demonstrable experience with interaction design skills such as sketching, prototyping, user journeys, responsive design, and design for accessibility.
• Ability to incorporate UX into agile development sprints, coordinating with content designers, developers, service designers, and product managers to achieve a strategic vision.
• A strong understanding of techniques, tools, patterns, and collaborative skills to share knowledge and expert advice with colleagues and stakeholders.
• Ability to organise and structure complex information to help diverse audiences easily find what they need.

This is an exciting time for the University of Southampton and we would love you to join us!

The University of Southampton promotes a healthy work-life balance with generous holiday allowance, flexi-time, and flexible working. For more information on our benefits, please visit the HR pages.

How to apply

Submit the following documents through our online application form:

• CV
• Statement of suitability/covering letter (2 pages maximum) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities, and experience relevant for this role.
• A portfolio to showcase examples of your work.

Please note this advert may be closed prior to the published closing date should a satisfactory number of applications be received.

As a university, we aim to create an environment where everyone can thrive and are proactive in fostering a culture of inclusion, respect, and equality of opportunity. We believe that we can only truly meet our objectives if we are reflective of society, so we are passionate about creating a working environment in which you are free to bring your whole self to work.

Apply by 11.59 pm GMT on the closing date. For assistance, contact Recruitment on +44(0)2380 592750 or recruitment@soton.ac.uk quoting the job number.