NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH AND CLINICAL
EXCELLENCE
Job Description
Job Title UI Designer
Number of Posts Available 1
Team/Area of Work Information Technology
Centre/Directorate NHS Evidence
Responsible to Associate Director - Design
Location NICE Offices, Manchester
Hours per week Full Time 37.5
Pay Band and Salary Band 8A Basic Salary (incl. Agency and
Buying Solutions fees) depending on
experience TBC
Availability Candidates must be able to start Nov
Candidates must be available for interview
at the Manchester offices
Interview Requirement Candidate must bring portfolio of work for
assessment
Tender Response Details
ITQ Return Date Wednesday 3rd November 2010 @ 17:00
hrs
Maximum Number of CV’s per 5 (Five)
Agency
Send Final ITQ Responses To: Contract.bids@nice.org.uk
Subject Title for ITQ Email UI Designer_Nov 2010
Response
Chief Information Officer
Design Associate Director
UI Designer
Background
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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is the
independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance for the
NHS and the wider public health community on the promotion of good health and
the prevention and treatment of ill health.
NHS Evidence is a new service (managed within NICE) that will allow users from
across the health service to access a comprehensive source of high-quality
evidence and local clinical service experience, presented in a way that is
customised to specific user-needs. Users will be able to search and browse the
best evidence to address specific questions, as well as setting up automatic
updates so that they can be alerted when new evidence is available. The service
will initially be accessible through a dedicated website, although functionality will
be embedded into clinical systems over time.
NHS Evidence will draw from a comprehensive range of sources, providing easy
access to information that has traditionally been hard to find by bringing together
different types of information in an integrated system. In addition, it will play a key
role in setting standards by involving clinicians in identifying, accrediting and
disseminating best practice information.
Information Technology
NHS Evidence is a digital service and IT is therefore critical to the success of the
Programme. The key IT service components include search, the web/portal
interface and the content management system that supports these interfaces.
The IT organisational structure is designed to provide both expert and integrated
capability to enable continuous innovation, development and efficient service
operation. The three key disciplines within the IT structure are:
Design – incorporates environmental scanning and customer and
business -facing expertise as well as technical scoping, specification and
design activity. An important responsibility of Design is the assessment
and preparation of content collections and sources for ingestion to the
search index – this involves refinement, testing and tuning of linguistic
dimensions that affect search relevancy and ‘findability’.
Transition – essentially moves the design of technical changes to the
system through iterative development and testing processes stages
through to live ‘release’.
Operations – is concerned with the day to day integrity, security,
maintenance and performance of the complete end-end IT system and
includes monitoring and reporting performance and generating usage and
user information for the business.
Job summary
The role sits within the IT Directorate design function and acts as a key liaison
point with the other team members to ensure the best design solutions are
achieved within the constraints of a project throughout the service development
lifecycle. The role holder will organise design details into complete user interface
design specification that will be used as a blueprint for development.
The role holder will be responsible for working with cross-functional teams to
provide creative visual solutions to meet design requirements. The role holder
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will provide a prototypes and documentation for all project requirements assigned
at all stages of development, concept, design, development and release.
The successful candidate should be highly creative and have experience of
working through innovative technologies. You will design user interfaces
incorporating user centred design methodology. The role holder will have the
ability to incorporate an excellent understanding of user journeys, prototyping,
wire framing and information architecture to ensure the best design solutions
are achieved within the constraints of a project.
The role holder will ensure output for the design team meets the brief & the
brand expectations. The role holder is expected to manage project specification
development within the team in accordance with objectives of NHS Evidence
This position is responsible for creating interactive design solutions that integrate
brand guidelines, user experience best practices, and business strategy. It
requires strong visual and conceptual problem-solving skills to generate
exceptional design solutions that improve the aesthetic delivery of projects. This
role demands strong user interface design skills as well as a working knowledge
of implementation technologies, their standards and limitations, and the different
ad server platforms. The role holder needs to remain current on creative trends
from the design industry as well as being highly competent with the latest
techniques/technologies that help drive cutting-edge interactive design.
Duties and responsibilities
Management and leadership
Work closely with the with the Business Architect and Business Analyst to
assess opportunities in response to changing business needs
Challenge assumptions made in the product vision to uncover critical
issues that must be addressed in the architecture and UI design
Work closely with a multi-disciplinary team of analysts and product
specialists to help assess product requirements, create UI models,
generate user task and interaction flows, document screen designs, and
define user-interface interaction details that promote ease of use and
optimise the user experience
Liaise closely with the Associate Director of Design to ensure plans and
specifications are aligned
Translate CRM business requirements into design and work with other
departments to realise those designs
Create high level mock-ups to communicate design requirements
Establish a set of UI standards and guidelines to be adhered to in design.
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Communication
Maintain regular communication the Transition and Operations Associate
Directors and senior staff, identifying and escalating risks and issues to
the Design Associate Director as appropriate
Support the Design Associate Director to ensure that design options,
activity and proposals are communicated effectively across the
organisation– this will include preparing and delivering presentations
Ensure business requirements are captured and communicated across
the Design Team and wider organisation
Produce and maintain all management reporting documentation for the BA
function including weekly status, progress and risk management reporting
for the Design Associate Director as required
Responsible for development and production of business requirements,
functional and technical requirements documentation – including options
appraisals, design proposals and ad hoc papers as required
Organise design details into a complete user interface design specification
that will be used as a blueprint for development
Attend and contribute actively to weekly Design Team meetings.
Information resources
Maintain project management documentation as required by the Design
Associate Director
Prepare highly complex documents and strategies and interactive
products.
Contribute to documentation of the NHS Evidence IT system architecture
and for all technology enabled business processes
Support all areas of the business to maintain information assets and
business process documentation, relevant management information and
databases
Maintain a record of all business requirements and design development
documentation including version control, usability.
Planning and organisation
Contribute to the planning relating to the business requirements capture
and design specifications in close liaison with Business Architect, Design
Associate Director, the Release Project Manager (Transition Team) and in
conjunction with Engagement and Programme Management Team
Training and Development
Undertaking continuing personal and professional development to meet
the changing demands of the job and to satisfy the NHS Knowledge and
Skills Framework requirements relating to the job
Participating in appropriate training and development activities and
encouraging and supporting the development and training of other staff
Research and Development
Participate actively in and facilitate a programme of continuous learning –
liaising with the relevant customer insight functions across the
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organisation, including the Information Manager of IT Operations and the
Engagement and Management Directorate Team to ensure that feedback
and learning is translated into concrete Business Requirements and
Functional Specifications for the development of the service
Liaise with Transition Team and wider organisation for the development of
‘Use Cases’ for system and business acceptance testing.
Challenge assumptions made in the product vision to uncover critical
issues that must be addressed in the architecture and UI design
Other
Performing any other duties within the range of skills and abilities of the
post holder, as required
Adhering to NICE policies and procedures, e.g. Health and Safety at
Work, Equal Opportunities, Race Equality
Respecting the confidentiality of all matters that they may learn relating to
own employment and that of other members of staff. All staff are
expected to respect the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1988 and
of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and to seek guidance on these
matters when in any doubt.
The post holder may be required to travel to meetings outside Manchester which
may include an overnight stay.
Key working relationships
Internal
Business Architect & Business Analyst
IT Management Team – principally Transition Associate Director &
Operations Associate Director
Design Team– principally Design Associate Director
Release Project Manager (IT Transition Team)
Information Manager (IT Operations Team)
Quality & Content Directorate Associate Directors & Staff
Engagement & Management Associate Directors & Staff
External
External IT software and service providers.
This job description does not purport to cover all aspects of the job
holder’s duties but is intended to be indicative of the main areas of
responsibility.
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NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH AND CLINICAL EXCELLENCE
Person Specification
Job Title Design Solutions Architect
Team/Area of Work Information Technology
Centre/Directorate NHS Evidence – Design Team
Knowledge, training and qualifications
Bachelors Degree relevant to the role– i.e. in web technology, Essential
Information Technology, Information Design / Architecture, HCI,
UCD, Graphic Design
Prince 2 and / or ITIL practitioner Desirable
Essential
Familiarity with search and retrieval technology /processes and of Desirable
linguistic components of search
A demonstrable understanding and knowledge of current UI best Essential
practice and web accessibility standards
An understanding of equal opportunities and the meaning of valuing Essential
diversity
Experience
Two to three years experience in a UI (User Interface) Designer role for Essential
a knowledge management / information service
Experience of: Essential
Design interactive prototypes according to business, brand, market,
and user requirements
Low-fidelity models to demonstrate viability of concepts
High-fidelity prototypes to accompany functional specifications
Develop product concepts and suggest product direction based on
design research and functional requirements
Experience working in an online consumer or business -facing Essential
service / organisation developing new functionality and services
Support UI research efforts and recommend visual design Essential
enhancements
Work closely with product management team to understand user
needs, evaluate product success and define the next steps for
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improving usability.
Deliver a complete user interface to the design team, including
visualisation , graphics design and interaction design.
Develop the domain designs within an agile (Scrum) process
Skills
Excellent verbal and written communication skills. A good Essential
communicator including preparation and delivery of workshop design/
facilitation.
Strong inter-personal, analytical and problem-solving abilities Essential
Able to use system design tools (graphic) i.e. UML to communicate Desirable
design options and system solution designs to technical and non-
technical audiences.
Proficiency with In Design, Photoshop, Adobe Creative suite and Essential
other similar tools for generating design deliverables
Ability to use standard Microsoft packages (including Word, Excel, Essential
PowerPoint, Access, Outlook) and websites
Ability to organise design details into a complete user interface Essential
design specification, high level mock-up or prototype as required
using industry standard tools.
Ability to code HTML, CSS to modern standards and an Desirable
understanding of the constraints of working with server technologies
and browsers
An Intermediate level user of Flash Action Script 2/3, and a working
knowledge of HTML/CSS/JavaScript is highly desirable
Other attributes
Creative thinker – thriving on new and complex challenges Essential
Good team player and able to engage with other staff Essential
Self-directed and pro-active attitude Essential
Commitment to health and safety policies and procedures Essential
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