What an Interaction Designer does

Interaction Design is a design practice that works out the best way to let users interact with a product or sub-service. This is done to make sure we create inclusive and accessible products that can be used by everyone.

Interaction designers are responsible for:

• exploring design solutions by mapping user journeys and creating prototypes
• test hypotheses and assumptions which address user needs, behaviours and pain points
• contribute into, and support, other disciplines to help shape product direction
• ensuring the product is inclusive and accessible

Interaction designers do not:

• discover and set organisational objectives
• perform end-to-end service transformation
• build fully functional services
• write production quality code (and are not expected to)

Expectations of an Interaction Designer

Expectations of ALL Interaction Designers

• work to GOV / NHS design standards for digital services
• ensure that design is done in line with accessibility guidelines
• collaborate and share work with other designers across NHS, not just within the NHSBSA
• collaborate and work alongside other professions
• contribute to, and write UCD Logs detailing decisions to change a service
• reuse patterns and components and contribute to the NHS.UK / GOV.UK design systems
• share prototypes, user flows and user journey maps
• take part in design reviews and design critiques
• be an engaged and active member within the NHSBSA design community

Expectations of Junior Designers

• can explain design decisions
• work collaboratively
• has a responsibility as part of a service
• can work independently after being given direction by more senior designers
• should be able to independently identify user issues and important needs

Expectations of Midweight Interaction Designers

• confident and competent in developing designs based on evidence of user needs and organisational outcomes
• can be trusted to make good decisions and explain the rationale to others
• can recognise when to ask for further guidance and support
• contribute to the development of design concepts
• should be able to interpret evidence-based research and incorporate this into their work

Expectations of Senior Interaction Designers

• work with minimal support and can influence and mentor others
• will work with service managers and programme directors to develop design concepts based off user research / business objectives and influence change where necessary
• may have responsibility across complex services
• will help set direction and embed good practice within teams
• will make important decisions based on research and understand how this research impacts others

View Interaction Designer skills matrix

Skills matrix

	Junior Designer	Midweight Interaction Designer	Senior Interaction Designer
Agile working	Awareness	Working	Practitioner
Communicating information	Working	Practitioner	Practitioner
Community collaboration	Working	Practitioner	Practitioner
Digital perspective	Working	Working	Practitioner
Evidence and context-based design	Working	Practitioner	Expert
Experience of working with constraints	Awareness	Working	Working
Leadership and guidance	Awareness	Working	Practitioner
Prototyping in code	Working	Practitioner	Expert
Prototyping	Working	Practitioner	Expert
Strategic thinking	Awareness	Working	Practitioner
User focus	Working	Practitioner	Expert

What does each skill level mean?

Interaction design principles

1. Finding out what you need to ask users

This is a NHS / government design principle to understand context. This translates in interaction design to understanding what is required. This means not just understanding user needs, but also technical constraints, and sometimes workflow processes.

2. Content

Interaction design in government is nothing without content design. Can something be explained with words first? Can we prove the need for an image?

3. Patterns

Starting from tried-and-tested patterns from the NHS.UK / GOV.UK design systems (and the guidance on when to use them) means that you can save time, and begin with components built with accessibility in mind. If the pattern doesn’t work, you can start to change it and share what you’ve done with other designers to help them.

4. Accessibility

The design principles of the latest published WCAG standard say that making things perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust are a great start, but it’s important to go further. How will someone with a screen reader use your screens? Someone with a screen magnifier? Someone with ADHD? Understanding how these people use services when you start will help you make things that work for them. Accessibility is a team sport.

5. Prototyping journeys, not screens

Thinking in screens can mean putting too much information on a page ‘just in case’. Thinking in journeys makes it easier to look for the right place to put information. A user might need guidance before they start adding details. Or a staff member may expect instructions on an intranet.

6. Prototyping one journey

Rather than trying to design all journeys at the same time, start with one. This could be a simple journey, or the most important journey. Then try doing a different journey. This may mean redesigning journeys as you go. This also gives a chance to slow down and really understand constraints and user needs rather than trying to do everything superficially.

7. Prototyping one thing per page

One thing per page usually means one question per page, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, if someone is doing data entry, the ‘thing’ might be everything on a document. Your research may prove that you can group some things together or in different ways, but starting with one thing per page prioritises people who aren’t confident with the Internet or are sensitive to dense pages.

8. Doing the hard work to make it simple

This is a NHS / government principle particularly relevant to interaction design. Whether it’s forcing users to use ‘janky journeys’ in existing systems, or hiding complicated text behind icons or accordions, it’s easy to leave things complicated. Making things simple means championing journey changes rather than just adding text, and working with technical peers to understand where data can help simplify a journey.

9. Doing the hard work to make it testable

Designs that are put in front of users should be as good as the designers think that they can be. The team should be comfortable that the work is at the right level of detail, so that if it doesn’t then the team has learnt a valuable lesson. Maybe the pattern really doesn’t work. Maybe ‘one thing per page’ needs to be split in a different way. Maybe the testing proves that a stakeholder’s idea won’t work. As long as the designs have been crafted to test a hypothesis, then it’s valuable learning.

10. Teamwork

Just as user research is a team sport, doing interaction design in government is to be part of both a service team and a community of practice. Other team members can use their expertise to help refine what you need to ask and give suggestions for improving ideas. The design community can also give feedback and share what they’ve learned.

Sources

• Approaching interaction design in government
• DfE interaction design principles

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