Interaction Designer Review

Designing journey maps for users of our service, preparing for user research and taking notes during user testing of the service, iterating the service's prototype and creating designs based on this user research, creating presentations for both the team as well as the wider community such as stakeholders and managers, working with a content designer to create new web pages, using HTLM code to create the prototype using the GOV.UK prototype kit

I have learnt lots of new skills, such as coding with HTML, analysing user research to generate insights from it, prototyping with the GOV.UK prototype kit, creating wire frames for web pages, being the voice of the user, stakeholder management and presentations, working with a diverse team of different professions, and learning about accessible design.

Yes, at first I was shadowing designers and helping with their work where I could and learning from this and the design community, and towards the end of my placement I had my own work given to me in agile 'tickets', and my own projects to help the team.

I shadowed two very skillfull and professional designers during my placement who allowed me to ask plenty of questions to help my understanding of the job, as well as a great line manager who was able to support me in whatever I needed, both in a pastoral aspect as well as helping me boost my skills.

The HMRC community is exceptionally kind and welcoming, and I was treated with kindness and respect by all colleagues at all times, regardless of rank within the company. People were quick to respond to any queries I had, and were as helpful as possible. More than this, people took an interest in seeing that I could get stuck into as much as possible to make the most of my placement

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement and was sad to leave it, and it has definitely helped me to decide where I would like my career to go in the future. I loved the type of projects and work aI was doing, as I was able to have a positive impact on our user's lives by helping to design services to be easier for them to use, and so I was doing something worthwhile with my skills.

Yes

Make sure that you write the cover letter/ 500 word essay well, as this is what you are judged on to secure and interview, and make sure that in this and in the interview that you are addressing all of the criteria in the job desription.