Position:-User Experience Designer, #defyhatenow, South Sudan
Duty Station: Virtual with travel to project locations in South Sudan
Duration: 12 months
Type of contract: Fixed Term Contract
Form of employment: Part-time
About #defyhatenow
#defyhatenow is a global initiative that works on creating frameworks for enhancing trust between stakeholders in Africa and beyond through mobilising civic action against all forms of hate speech, misinformation, human rights violations, and incitement to violence, primarily that which is induced through online media. The initiative is considered one of the leading entities working on providing data-driven and community-based solutions to the problem of hate speech, fake news, and misinformation, working at the nexus of technology, peacebuilding, and human rights. #defyhatenow’s teams of researchers, designers, data analysts, artists, activists and programmers have a wide range of experiences. They are currently leading flagship projects in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Cameroon, and Kenya.
#defyhatenow has provided extensive capacity-building programs for civil society, humanitarian agencies, the media, the private sector, and government agencies in the region. Through these programs, #defyhatenow has reached over 300,000 people with essential hate speech awareness and knowledge on the impact of misinformation. #defyhatenow is also invested in nurturing a community of young people through Fellowships. #defyhatenow Fellowships provide youth activists and community leaders with resources and expertise that enable them to tackle hate speech online and offline; thereby bringing together grassroots organisations and youth groups to create a healthier public discourse and prevent conflict among communities. #defyhatenow has had over 50 fellows across its countries of operation. #defyhatenow utilises a partnership-centred approach to program implementation; this model emphasises the need to enhance collaboration and strengthen the capacity of local and international actors while creating synergies with like-minded individuals and organisations.
About our South Sudan Program
The South Sudan program is part of a broader intervention framework that aims at increasing trust among stakeholders online and improving the public discourse health among social media users in Africa; with a specific focus on Hate Speech Mitigation, Misinformation Mitigation, Tackling Incitement to Violence and Data Analysis. The program aims at promoting freedom of expression, access to information, and digital rights to create a framework for increasing trust between stakeholders and communities in South Sudan while mobilising civic action against all forms of hate speech, misinformation, human rights violations, and incitement to violence. Our program relates to the global objective of supporting and strengthening civil society organisations, democracy activists and human rights defenders working on critical human rights and democracy issues in South Sudan. #defyhatenow South Sudan Program functions on the frontline of the fight against hate speech, misinformation, and human rights violation. We believe in the centrality of human rights and human dignity in all our programs and projects. We draw inspiration and guidance from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights & African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. These principles and values guide the #defyhatenow South Sudan program.
Program Objectives
- To contribute towards freedom of expression, access to information and the fight against misinformation and hate speech in South Sudan.
- To empower South Sudanese civic actors to mitigate hate speech, misinformation and increase access to information.
About the Role
The user experience designer works as senior staff with a portfolio that links #defyhatenow’s research, tech, data, and media teams. The UX Designer works on integrating human-centred design as an essential part of #defyhatenow’s work which seeks to understand how hate speech and misinformation impacts the state of public discourse in South Sudan and East Africa.
The UX designer is the principal manager of SIFTA Space #defyhatenow’s East Africa Design Studio, a space that focuses on studying user behaviour and social media trends to provide solutions that will empower users in Africa, with the ultimate objective of preventing the misuse of Social Media Africa and reducing other online elements that reduce the health of public discourse online.
To succeed in this role, you should have:
- At least two years of experience working in design and interactive media
- Have a good understanding of product development and product testing
- Have demonstrable experience in creating wireframes and high fidelity mockup designs for web and mobile applications
- Be good at multimedia designs and interactive media outputs
- Have a good grasp of design tools, this includes but not limited to Adobe Creative Suite, CSS, Rawgraph, Flourish, and bootstrap.
- Excellent writing skills
- A team player attitude
- Be self-directed, take initiative, and be attentive to detail.
Main Roles and Responsibilities
- Understand product specifications and user psychology concerning Social Media and online content (Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat etc.).
- Conduct concept and usability testing and gather feedback on various products that #defyhatenow is working on.
- Create personas through user research and data.
- Define the right interaction model and evaluate its success for various user interfaces and products by #defyhatenow and its partners.
- Develop wireframes and prototypes around user needs.
- Find creative ways to solve UX problems (e.g. usability, findability).
- Work with UI designers to implement usable and contextually relevant designs.
- Communicate design ideas and prototypes to developers.
- Keep abreast of trends and products in the industry and how it impacts the work of #defyhatenow .
This is a time-limited, task-oriented engagement, funded as a project between September 2020 and June 2021. If you are the person, we are looking for; please send us your Curriculum Vitae/Resume and Cover Letter to [email protected] by 30th September 2020. Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
