Being a huge admirer of the Gov.uk design system I was honoured to be offered a role at the Ministry of Justice as an Interaction Designer.

 

I began at the start of 2020, working within the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). The first service I was involved in was ‘Complete the deputy report online’ and also the internal software used by case workers at the OPG to carry out audits on these annual reports that served to supervise Deputies and safeguard the welfare and finances of their clients. 

 

I have since then, moved to the delivery team working on a flagship product for Justice Services- to modernise the Lasting Power of Attorney application process and enable a fully digital experience of this.

 

To underpin my delivery work I am involved in MOJ design community work and research & development working groups. This involves driving collaborative sessions and guiding research to support development at strategy level, for the design profession at MOJ.

 

I successfully interviewed for the maternity cover of a senior level interaction designer at the start of 2022 and worked at senior designer level for 18 months.

 

I continue to enjoy my work at MOJ, it is a thriving, diverse and friendly place and there is something new to learn every day.

 

 

My responsibilities at MOJ include:

 

User centred design- Being an advocate of the user in all spaces, understanding when a technical blocker is a won’t or a can’t . Understanding user needs verses user wants and reconciling those with the demands of the business. Reducing friction in journeys. Ultimately being an empath to understand the users context and how they may feel engaging with a machine to carry out a task that may hold a huge emotional load.

 

User research- A high level engagement with user research profession and involvement in user research sessions. Helping to establish and refine what data should be collected in sessions, supporting researcher by mopping up data collection in sessions and taking research reports to interpret back into next iteration.

 

High and low fidelity prototyping- Knowing which tool is best for the situation and using them to deliver design prototypes to aid user research, stakeholder engagement and system build.  

 

Agile delivery- Working as part of multiple cross-functional delivery teams to get software and services from research to production.

 

Community collaboration and research- Involvement with working groups and support systems to look at the bigger picture. Collaborating across profession and level to improve ways of working. Sharing knowledge and learning from others.