Job Location: Milton Keynes, Remote/Hybrid
Department: Accessibility, Usability and User Research
Weekly Working Hours: 37
Contract Type: Permanent
Fixed Term Contract: End Date: Not Applicable
Welsh Language: Not Applicable
Change your career, change lives
The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education. Find out more about us and our mission by watching this short video (you will be taken to YouTube by clicking this link).
About the Role
This role sits within Digital Services which is aligned with the Digital, Data and Design Profession which provides for communities of practice which support professional development. The initial focus of this role will be to support the Student Services Portfolio whose ambition it is to ensure services and products are highly customer-centric and designed with the user, whether student or colleague, in mind ensuring best possible outcomes.
As a User Researcher - Digital Services (known internally as a User Researcher)you will work in a multi-disciplinary service team and be responsible for helping your team develop a deep understanding of the people who use the end-to-end service. Your findings will allow teams to design, build and develop better, more joined up services more quickly and at lower cost and risk. You’ll be helping to embed user centred research principles and processes to inform the development of new products and the continual improvement of existing products.
This role is especially suited to researchers with experience in practical UX research methods, for example usability testing, prototype testing, tree testing and other evaluative approaches used within digital product and service teams. Experience of applying research findings directly to the design and improvement of services is particularly important.
Key Responsibilities
* Collaborate in a multi-disciplinary service team to reduce complexity and improve service outcomes, leading on planning, designing, and preparing a range of user research activities to support team understanding of users, the service and how it should be designed.
* Lead on the design of user-centred UX research activities, selecting the most appropriate research methods and ensuring all activities are inclusive.
* Run a wide range of user research activities including recruitment of participants, preparation of data collection methods, moderation of research sessions.
* Analyse research data and trends to synthesise clear and actionable findings, including working closely with analytics colleagues to create a rich picture of user behaviour.
* Communicate user research findings to help the team and wider organisation develop a deep understanding of users and their needs.
* Work closely or consult with other user researchers, product managers, designers, developers, and operations teams to turn user research findings into stories and actions that lead to valuable product features, development, and service touchpoints.
* Be an active member and ambassador of the Open University’s User Centred Design Communities of Practice, contributing to our collective knowledge and skills, sharing best practice, and joining up to make the understanding of our users and design of our services more consistent.
* Understand the needs of a range of users, ensure their requirements are considered during user research activities, and design inclusive research sessions open to all users.
* Understand and apply data protection, security, and ethics requirements for handling user information in research.
* Keep up to date in developments in user centred design, user research, trends, technologies and AI, and share with the wider user research team to build a deep understanding and appreciation of best practice in this field.
* Line manage other team members as needed, supporting their professional development, providing pastoral care and supporting them to do their best work within their teams.
About You
* Experience of advocate for user research and effectively engaging non-specialist stakeholders and being able to represent user research at internal and external events.
* Ability to understand the problems a team is trying to solve, and align user research activities to inform decision making and action.
* Experience of applying a range of applied UX research methods, analysis techniques, and insight-sharing approaches.
* Ability to confidently moderate research sessions, ensuring participant comfort and focus.
* Ability to analyse and synthesise qualitative and quantitative data into clear, actionable insights.
* Champion inclusive research and represent a wide range of diverse user needs.
* Maintain strong understanding of research ethics, data protection, and participant safety.
* Experience of working effectively in fast-paced, agile environments whilst managing priorities independently to meet deadlines.
* Ability to collaborate across disciplines and actively engage others in the research process.
* Demonstrate commitment to continuous learning and professional development.
* Ability to work in accordance with the University’s values and relevant policies
* Demonstrates openness to constructive feedback and provides thoughtful, constructive critique to support the development of others’ work.
Whats in it for you?
At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).
We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.
It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be approximately twice a month.
The Open University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion which is reflected in our mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. We aim to foster a diverse and inclusive environment so that all in our OU community can reach their potential. We recognise that different people bring different perspectives, ideas, knowledge, and culture, and that this difference brings great strength.We strive to recruit, retain and develop the careers of a diverse pool of students and staff, and particularly encourage applications from all underrepresented groups. We also aspire to make The Open University a supportive workplace for all through our policies, services and staff networks.
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