UX and Interaction Designer – Ukraine Response

Contract length: 6 months, contingent on funding

Hours: Full-time

Location: Preferred within UTC +/-3

Travel: Minimal

Reporting to: Product Manager

Salary range: $4,500-$5,000

Application deadline: June 20, 2022*

*Due to the urgency of this vacancy, screening and interviews will commence immediately and the candidate can be selected at any stage before the closing date.

CLEAR Global is committed to having a diverse team where individuals of all backgrounds collaborate and learn from one another. We believe we can be most effective with diverse experience and expertise in our team. We recruit on merit, actively seek diverse applicant pools and encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, age, gender identity and expression, national origin, race and ethnicity, religious beliefs, marital or parental status, or sexual orientation, and welcome all types of diversity.

We offer in addition to salary:

• an innovative work environment with a diverse and passionate team,
• 20 days of annual leave and 10 days of floating holidays,
• the flexibility of home-based/remote work,
• accommodation and per diems when on deployment.

The role

The people affected by conflict in Ukraine find their situation compounded by a crisis of communication and technology. Vulnerable groups in particular face challenges – older people may not be tech-savvy, while marginalized groups may speak different languages, or require different forms and channels of communication. These groups may struggle to access life-saving information and to have the ability to share their needs and challenges. CLEAR Global is developing program technology solutions to inform more effective two-way communication between those affected by the crisis and those aiming to support them.

In this role, the UX/Interaction designer will join the growing CLEAR Global tech team to work on various ICT projects, many requiring language technology (such as voice or text enabled chatbots or advanced AI driven search engines).

The primary focus will be to build user experience that allows speakers of various languages and others to engage with information and provide feedback to humanitarians. The goal is to provide a user experience guided first and foremost by the needs of the target audience, an inclusive bottom up approach throughout the delivery of the solution.

Working with humanitarians, linguists, researchers and developers, the UX designer will bring creativity, analytical skills and organization to the team, helping ensure our products are functional, relevant and engaging.

Responsibilities

• Act as a design liaison between partners, technology and local teams, working directly with stakeholders to determine design requirements.
• Lead local teams through design activities from persona development through in-person user testing to ensure the right experience is built
• Consider the human-computer interaction (HCI) element of a design
• Create rapid prototypes to validate design concepts with stakeholders and customers
• Define interaction models, user task flows, and UI (user interface) specifications
• Communicate scenarios (hypothetical users), end-to-end experiences, interaction models, and screen designs to external and internal stakeholders as well as the tech team
• Engage with end-users (via focus groups, surveys, etc) to understand information gaps and priorities and ensure that content and format are relevant to them
• Take ownership of the information modeling process where applicable – including layout, navigation, and flow
• Visually articulate design choices and concepts to various stakeholders to minimize ambiguity and ensure that all stakeholders sign off on final designs
• Distill design input into clear actionable development requirements for the engineering team
• Partner with development teams to create and communicate new release features
• Review data and user testing results managed by local teams to understand user interaction and map trends, extrapolate needs that might lead to design changes; when needed plan different tests (e.g. A/B, focus groups, usability testing); iterate based on results to ensure user-centric and highly usable products
• Communicate effectively with positive impact; express ideas clearly in documents and written communications

These responsibilities are approximate and may change over time.

Requirements

The UX and Interaction Designer should be enthusiastic about the importance of increasing access to knowledge through language and language technology. The right candidate is an energetic team player and leader who agrees with Clear Global’s basic beliefs and values and who can work virtually with team members based throughout the world.

• Experience in user research and lead early discovery phases
• An understanding of information design / architecture, gestalt principles, and user psychology
• Strong ability to recognize and predict use cases and user interaction, including happy path as well as edge and corner cases, and incorporate them into designs
• An understanding of how different channels (SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.) inform communication behaviors and styles
• Knowledge in using wireframes and other visual aids to define requirements
• Knowledge of general design principles
• Experience of developing IA (information architecture) documentation (site maps, navigation models, content models).
• Experience in conversational design preferred
• Knowledge of conversational AI platforms preferred
• Understanding of NLP concepts preferred
• Empathy and ability to design for disparate groups
• Passionate about evidence- and impact-driven work
• Ability to innovate to find creative solutions; willing to explore new technologies
• aAble to work well in a team-oriented, collaborative, cross-functional environment
• Thrives in a fast-paced, energetic environment
• Willing to take initiative, persistence, ability to problem solve, and enthusiasm for learning
• Able to mediate, negotiate, and resolve conflicts constructively
• Fluent in English; other languages, particularly response languages, a plus

Background

In an emergency, CLEAR Global provides language support to facilitate vital two-way communication between the people affected and humanitarian responders. This happens both remotely and on the ground. Remotely, CLEAR Global works with a global network of linguists to translate text, audio and audiovisual content from and into the languages of crisis-affected people. We also provide information, guidance, and language mapping support to humanitarian organisations. On the ground, country program teams offer a range of support, from research and training to glossary development and pictorial communication tools. We are also leading the development of language technology for marginalized languages. This has the potential to shift the power dynamic in emergencies and international development contexts, placing control of communication and information access in the hands of the people in need of support.

About CLEAR Global

CLEAR Global exists to help people get vital information, and be heard, whatever language they speak. We believe that everyone has the right to give and receive information in a language and format they understand. We work with nonprofit partners and a global community of language professionals to build local language translation capacity, and raise awareness of language barriers. Our network of over 80,000 community members translate millions of words of life-saving and life-changing information a year.

Core values

CLEAR Global employees and volunteers are people who believe passionately about the value of this work and take personal responsibility for achieving the mission. CLEAR Global’s mission and organizational spirit embody the core values established in its strategic framework:

• Excellence: As the leading voice for communicating humanitarian information in the right language, CLEAR Global is a leader in the translation industry and in the non-profit sector.
• Integrity: CLEAR Global believes that every person, whether it’s the people who we serve, our volunteers or our staff, has value, deserves respect and has inherent dignity.
• Empowerment: CLEAR Global believes in using language to empower people around the world to control their own development and destiny.
• Innovation: CLEAR Global recognizes and celebrates the power of innovation to address humanitarian and crisis issues around the world.
• Sustainability: CLEAR Global recognizes that meeting our mission necessitates establishment and maintenance of a solid financial and organizational infrastructure.
• Tolerance: Our staff and volunteers are highly knowledgeable and skilled; value each other, our partner and our recipients; create a supportive work environment; and, conduct themselves professionally at all times.

CLEAR Global may re-advertise the vacancy, cancel the recruitment, offer an appointment with a modified job description or for a different duration at its discretion.