UI / UX Designer at Code for Africa

Description

• Do you want to help make digital technologies easier to use for activists across Africa?
• Code for Africa (CfA) has an immediate vacancy for a UI/UX designer to join our Knowledge team, to help create digital democracy tools for our partners in watchdog NGOs and investigative media. 
• The position can be based at any of the Knowledge programme’s StoryLab hubs in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal or South Africa. We are also open to exceptional applicants from elsewhere in Africa. 
• Your application will be judged based on your creative talent and technical expertise in UI/UX design, graphic and web design. 
• The ideal candidate is an experienced UI/UX designer, with a demonstrated ability to produce web design that is simultaneously imaginative, appropriate and replicable.
• The designer will gather and evaluate user requirements, in collaboration with CfA’s product managers and their stakeholders, and will produce designs that reflect user needs.
• The candidate will help CfA improve its design standards and implement compelling sites using tools such as WordPress, Elementor and/or Webflow.
• CfA’s Knowledge programme spearheads our training partnerships and data analysis and storytelling initiatives.
• It also includes communities such as the WanaData women data science / storytelling network and the africanDRONE civic drone community, as well as the sensors.AFRICA sensor journalism initiative, plus a CfA Academy network of more than 50+ newsroom and university partners across Africa.
• The Data Academy is also custodian of other major CfA public infrastructure, such as the continent’s largest open data portal, open.AFRICA, and Africa’s largest census data portal, HURUMap.
• The successful candidate will work with an agile transnational team of other data analysts, digital designers and data journalists in the Data Academy, with additional support from CfA’s software engineering and forensic research teams, in 20 countries across the continent.

About the Role

• The successful candidate will join CfA’s Knowledge team, which produces data-driven tools and storytelling through the StoryLab for the organisation’s internal projects, as well as supports data desks at a network of external partners across the continent through our Academy network on in-country trainers/mentors. 
• The team has co-produced projects ranging from award-winning multimedia journalism in the Sucked Dry investigation into land grabs in 11 Nile Basin countries, to data-driven tools such as the GenderGap calculator that gives insight into salary disparities across Africa.
• The team also builds/maintains major infrastructure such as the continent’s largest open data portal, at open.AFRICA.
• The Knowledge programme meanwhile also runs the continent’s largest online training portal for digital/data journalists, at the Academy, and is custodian of the WanaData women data science/storytelling community and wider 35,000+ member Hacks/Hackers Africa network.
• As UI/UX designer, you will bring a strong perspective to your design work while maintaining a design point of view and the impact it can have at scale.
• You will synthesise the team’s requirements and qualitative inputs, observations, and analysis into highly performing interfaces and user experiences.

Responsibilities
Your daily responsibilities will include:

• Implement and optimise the UI/UX design strategy of CfA’s web products, both on mobile and Desktop platforms
• Gather and evaluating user requirements, in collaboration with CfA’s product managers and their stakeholders
• Illustrate design ideas using storyboards, process flows and sitemaps
• Design graphic user interface elements, like menus, footers, sidebars, tabs and widgets
• Leverage collaborative platforms like Miro, Figma to collect feedback and identify blockers
• Establish creative direction for the company as well as brand guidelines
• Ensure projects are completed with high quality and on schedule
• Improve look and feel of CfA’s products, content and brands and enforce the team’s design guidelines
• Occasionally take part in training and community events as a trainer and help review courseware created to teach data journalism
• Work proactively and think critically to improve design components of tools and stories created by the data and design team
• Coordinate with the team on Slack and take part in daily standups and weekly calls.

Requirements
Minimum requirements include:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Arts or Design, Communications or 3 - 5 years of experience in UI/UX and/or web design.
• Knowledge of layouts, graphic fundamentals, typography, print, and the web
• Deep knowledge of the Adobe Suite, including PhotoShop, Illustrator and InDesign 
• Proficiency with Adobe XD or other collaborative UX/UI tools such as Sketch or Figma
• Able to work with technical staff and projects to create powerful user experiences 
• Able to work with writers, developers and product managers to plan out visual content across multiple platforms.
• A portfolio featuring excellent graphic design and UI/UX skills 
• Excellent eye for details, with a creative mindset and problem solving skills.

Preferred:
Candidates who are able to demonstrate the following will have an advantage:

• Experience in setting up and customising WordPress or Webflow sites, with frameworks such as Elementor or equivalent
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Multiple languages, such as Kiswahili and French, or other languages spoken in Africa
• Robust data visualisation skills (including the creation of charts, graphs and maps)
• Familiarity in HTML / CSS and/or Javascript / MapBox / D3JS
• Experience in international development and/or social entrepreneurship.

Language and Location Requirements:

• Location: Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda or anywhere else in Africa
• Language: English 
• Preferred but not required languages: Amharic, Arabic, Hausa, French or Kiswahili.

What We Offer

• A competitive salary, subject to experience, with opportunities for performance-based growth, both in terms of career path and public stature.
• A dynamic workplace, with a transnational team, occasional international travel, and generous vacation benefits.
• Ongoing opportunities to learn new cutting-edge skills and techniques/technologies to future-proof yourself in a rapidly evolving industry.
• A chance to shine on a global stage, writing for international audiences and interacting with colleagues around the world.