Interaction Designer

Interaction designers work out the best way to let users interact with products or services. They consider the design of individual elements, individual pages or screens and the flow of specific journeys.

Core skills

Agile working

You understand agile methodologies and apply an agile, iterative mindset to all aspects of your work. You are comfortable working with uncertainty in a fast-paced and changing environment. You are not afraid to take risks and embrace failure as an opportunity to learn. You can ensure that the team knows what each other are working on and how it relates to the user's needs and the projects goals.

Communication

You can communicate effectively across orginaisations and technical boundaries, while understanding the context. You can make complex technical information and language simple and accessible for all people. You advocate and communicate what a team does to create trust and can respond to challenges.

Collaboration

You contribute to the work of the delivery team and help make them successful by understanding different team styles, influencing work and motivating others. You know how to give and receive constructive feedback using a methodology such as SMART or STAR. You work to shorten feedback loops so that you can respond rapidly.

You can facilitate conflict resolution within teams. You promote open and transparent ways of working so that the work can be more easily understood externally. You help maintain a focus on iterative delivery while supporting professional development.

Digital landscape

You are are of how technology is changing and affecting user behaviour. You can make informed decisions based on user needs, available technology effort and value for money.

Evidence based design

You can understand, articulate and solve complex problems and concepts. You can use logical thinking, gather information and use evidence from research to make decisions. You can move from analysis to synthesis to design intent.

Working within constraints

You are comfortable working within constraints such as:

• technology
• regulatory
• financial
• legal

You know how to challenge constraints which may need to change. You can adapt products or services to work within existing constraints.

Leadership and guidance

You can interpret vision and lead on decisions. You create a collaborative environment. You understand and resolve technical disputes, solve issues and unblock problems.

You know how to drive teams at a sustainable pace so that they can deliver consistently. You understand what is risky, why it is carries risk and seek to mitigate risk where possible. You can manage various dependencies across teams.

Prototyping

You understand what is important to learn from a prototype and focus your efforts on what will allow you to learn the most. You can prototype in a variety or ways (code, digital or physical prototypes, scripts and more). You can communicate well with developers and understand when to switch to code. You understand security, accessibility and version control.

Strategic thinking

You can maintain an overall focus on business issues, events and activities. You understand their wider and long term implications. You can focus on outcomes rather than solutions and activities.

User focus

You understand that you are not the user and seek to understand those who are, and what their needs are. You are comfortable writing user stories and can propose design approaches or services to meet these need. You put users first and manage competing priorities.