Interaction Design Consultant

Background & Rationale

UNICEF has been innovating for children for more than 60 years. The Innovation Unit in New York supports the organization's 135+ country offices in finding solutions for the world's most vulnerable children. The UNICEF innovation work includes both policy and practice of innovation in UNICEF, and the larger UN. UNICEF is engaged in testing and scaling up new partnerships, technologies, and collaborations in some of the world's most difficult operating environments. UNICEF's system of innovation throughout the organization includes:

An Innovation Unit in New York: to support UNICEF programmes on the ground and the organisation at large through partnerships, technologies, and connections

An Innovation node in San Francisco: to build partnerships with the technology sector, and will help scale social innovation start-ups

A Global Innovation Centre in Nairobi: to identify and field tests scalable innovations

A network of Innovation Labs around the world: to bring together the private sector, academia, and the public sector to develop solutions for key social issues, and ensure we are always watching for new ideas from unexpected places.

Purpose

We seek a strong self-motivated top-level UX/UI designer who can maintain strong design sensibilities even under tight time constraints, who can work with others to create a plan of action to best communicate ideas visually and who can maintain clarity in their work while juggling and prioritizing several projects at once. The overall objective of this role will be to provide design support and expertise in several program areas and UNICEF projects, including but not limited to: user experience and user interaction design, research and consultation for web-based designs, apps and data information systems, information architecture and systems mapping design, maintenance and evolution of previously designed Innovation Fund website.

This position will range from project support to owning projects and seeing them through to completion. We seek someone who can work closely with our Interaction team leads but who also can prove they can task manage and follow-through on projects independently. Due to the diversity of the role, the team is looking for a hybrid designer, who can ideally work across various devices and platforms - especially web and mobile. The candidate should have basic familiarity with coding programmes such as CSS, HTML and have an understanding of content management systems (CMS). The candidate should also understand other more complex coding systems in order to communicate ideas with the engineers and data scientists on the team.

The ideal candidate will be an interaction designer who has experience with complex systems and who is able to toggle between a number of projects at the same time. The ideal candidate must have a strong sense of UNICEF's programmes and goals, who expresses a passion for designing for social impact through their portfolio, who has experience communicating easily with a diverse range of staff - designers and non-designers alike - and who has a knack for extrapolating information from team members that can be translated into simplified and articulate ways.

Expected results: (measurable results)

Work closely with the Innovation Fund Manager, Interaction leads and developers to continue the evolution and upkeep of the Innovation Fund website.

Support on maintaining and evolving other innovation products that have digital interface components.

Supporting the data science team to visually articulate pilot projects in the form of data visualization or information graphics.

Working with our developers to test new applications which support our internal operations, events and communications with various innovation colleagues.

Create mockups and wireframes for websites, software, and dashboards for different projects, as necessary and ensure branding guidelines are upheld across the various mediums.

Produce user requirements, personas, storyboards, scenarios, flowcharts etc. to give shape to any preliminary idea.

Research prototyping tools that can be easily used to enhance the user experience and to communicate ideas.

Duty Station

New York Headquarters - New York, NY

Timeframe

Start date: 8 February 2016 End date: 23 January 2017

Deliverables

Duration

(Estimated # of Days)

Deadline

Become familiarized with the most recent innovation products, their histories and evolution from start-up to scale-up and the design needs that revolve around them.

Familiarize yourself with prototypes being developed with the Research and Development team and start to propose ways to get folded into their workflow.

Work with the Innovation Fund manager to review the most recent status of the Innovation Fund website - review any handover notes from previous designers, sit with the Visual Strategy lead to strategize next steps.

Assess latest Mapping Innovation tool and propose new filters and features - provide sketches and suggest ways to integrate this with the Innovation Fund website.

15

29 Feb 2016

Work with software developer and event lead to prototype digital applications that can be used for networking and partnership events. Applications should be templated in a way to be replicable for reuse for future events throughout 2016. App content should include capability to poll, choose sessions/topics, interact with social media, and connect with other attendees.

Work with the Visual Strategy team to understand the overall innovation branding exercise. Propose new branding designs that complement both UNICEF's brand and the design work in-progress in the innovation unit. Review existing styles, color palettes, layouts and past logos or branding pieces and work with the design team to propose a refreshed solution to complement the global team.

Start considering a workflow for uptake of interaction design requests. Work with the Visual Strategy lead to come up with best practices and propose several workflow options. In particular, suggest how interaction workflows should work on the NY team versus global innovation network.

22

31 Mar 2016

Start to develop design progressions for the Innovation Fund website. Propose sketches or new wireframes for new features or changes.

Present concepts to Innovation Fund manager which include additional or improved features to the Innovation Fund website. Concepts should be prototyped in a prototyping app like Invision or similar. Work with the Innovation Fund manager to schedule user testing with stakeholders.

Create wireframes of Innovation interactive site

21

29 Apr 2016

Review latest use case prototypes from the Research and Development team and work with leads to critique and suggest improved user interface designs. Draw up sketches and provide samples to the developer about improved interfaces, filters and design.

Work with Visual Strategy team and U-Report coordinator to plan out next iterations of the U-Report brand. This includes taking an assessment of the current website and any other digital platforms (i.e. U-Report App) and preparing to suggest next iterations on how to progress the branding to be more global.

Work with Visual Strategy team and software developer to review last prototypes for talent pool resource platform. Wireframe new concepts and present ways to execute platform.

21

31 May 2016

Present working prototypes of the Mapping Innovation interactive site.

Review innovation portfolio website and provide support on improving the UX/UI. Provide design support and design of addition of new portfolio pieces and resources.

Review onboarding website and provide design support on improving the UX/UI. Site should also complement onboarding experience.

22

30 Jun 2016

Review current digital archive methods and list considerations for how to improve the archiving process for our project files. Considerations must be made for how this archiving, retrieval and file-naming methods can be used for both NY, SF and global teams. Present finding to Visual Strategy team.

Work with developer to move forward on next design iteration of talent pool resource CMS platform. This includes creating interactive wireframes for platform pages to present to the team.

19

30 Jul 2016

Work with team to recruit users to test talent pool resource platform.

Design support for Internet of Good Things interface design for feature phones. Work with IoGT lead and Visual Strategy lead to provide new design additions.

Provide design assets for review by U-Report team. This includes new background designs, new font suggestions, additional colors if necessary and layout design concepts which can accommodate new features like jobs.

23

30 Aug 2016

Work with Interaction Leads to think of new and interactive ways to present the 2016 Annual Report. Consider how this can evolve for future years as a tool to show progress of our work.

Complete talent pool resource platform and launch beta testing site.

20

30 Sep 2016

Work with design fellow to produce the 2016 Annual Report.

Prepare Mapping Innovation interactive site for beta user testing.

21

31 Oct 2016

Follow-up on U-Report branding with the U-Report team.

Present latest versions of a digital archive system to the global team. User test, tweak and strategize how to communication the implementation of the system with our team.

(Ongoing) Work with design fellow to produce design 2016 Annual Report

21

30 Nov 2016

Prepare handover notes for all work. This includes all raw files, notes for consideration for any upcoming designers or developers.

21

30 Dec 2016

Complete Mapping Innovation interactive site for launch.

15

23 Jan 2017

Assist the design lead on user interface design, process design, system design and data visualization support for various programme areas

Ongoing design support for Innovation Fund website.

Ongoing support around data research and developer pilot projects.

Ongoing

Ongoing

241

Key competences, technical background, and experience required Deadline

The applicant must hold a Bachelor's degree and/or Master's degree and 3-5 years of professional Junior Level experience in a relevant field – i.e. interaction design, human-computer interaction, information design and information architecture, visual communication, media design, system design or related – and have proven experience in translating complex ideas into unified storytelling visuals.

Qualifications include:

Strong design skills particularly in user experience, user interface design and visualization of systems and complex information and structures. Strong knowledge of design platforms like Adobe Creative Suite, design techniques, software, data visualization.

A portfolio which shows strong design work for web and mobile.

Experience with prototyping tools like Invision, Marble, Axure, etc. This includes the ability to create quick prototypes based on ideas and be able to test it out with various stakeholders in order to create a better user experience.

Familiarity with coding programs (ex. D3) and at least basic understanding of CMS, CSS, HTML. This also includes strong communication skills especially when working with developers.

Knowledge of capabilities and limitations of web and mobile technologies and ideally some experience that extends beyond-screen based designs.

Ability to design effectively using constrained mediums such as Powerpoint.

Proven capability of working on a project from the concept to the final design package.

An ability to communicate complex, abstract concepts using both visual, verbal and written language.

Ability to work with a diverse team in a rapidly-changing work environment: Proven experience working with a diverse team and being able to parse through large amounts of information in order to create synthesized and clear designs.

At least 3-5 years of professional Junior Level experience in developing branding and layout. Additionally, the candidate should be able to integrate new guidelines into the team workflow.

Knowledge of SMS technology and mobile usage in developing countries and a familiarity with UNICEF Innovation Labs and products is a plus.

Additional Experience and Knowledge:

Familiarity with open-source technology

Familiarity with development/programming language

Self-starter and able to time-manage oneself.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Design preparation and production skills

Ability to work in a team and in a diverse and rapidly-changing work environment

Experience working within the social impact space

Languages:

Fluency in English. Knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.

How to apply:

How to Apply

Applicants are requested to send their submissions to pdconsultants@unicef.org with subject line:

"Interaction Design Consultant" by 25th January 2016, 5:00pm EST.

Applications must include:

· Cover letter,

· CV, and

· P-11 form[1] - http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc

· Indicate where you heard about this advertisement

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.

NOTE: Files should not exceed 5.0MB limit

UNICEF is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

[1] P 11 form can be downloaded from our website at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc

Source: Interaction Design Consultant