Research Assistant in Design

We are a world class research-intensive university. We deliver teaching and learning of the highest quality. We play a leading role in economic, social and cultural development of the Northeast of England. Attracting and retaining high-calibre people is fundamental to our continued success.

The Role
The role will involve practicing creative design and supporting collaborative research activities on the EPSRC Northern Health Futures (NortHFutures) Hub programme (https://www.northfutures.org/). The role holder will be supervised by Principal Investigator and Professor of Interaction Design (Prof Abi Durrant), working in close collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of researchers, practitioners, academics and professional services staff at Newcastle University and at our partner organisations.

NortHFutures is a collaborative Digital Health Hub for the North East and North Cumbria (NENC), led by the region's universities and rooted in the ethos that healthcare technology designs should work for people and communities. We bring together universities, NHS Foundation Trusts, local authorities, industry, and the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector plus members of the public to understand how tools and services that use digital, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and data can be better designed to be useful and useable for people in the communities and places where they live and work. NortHFutures also takes a ‘Research-through-Design' approach to explore and evaluate new ways to connect and include people from diverse backgrounds, generations, and sectors of work in digital health design research and innovation.

One goal is to deliver high-quality research evidence plus design prototypes and demonstrators that inform strategic and policy decisions for digital health and care in our region.

The role will involve human-centred design research processes, including user research, concept sketching and testing of user interfaces for interactive systems and services, plus low- and hi-fidelity prototyping and evaluation of designs. The role holder will utilise their communication and graphic design skills to produce digital media assets, infographics, illustrations and document formatting for the hub, contributing to engagement by diverse stakeholder audiences via print, web and exhibitions. Overall, the role holder will contribute their design skills to support NortHFutures research (Research-through-Design practice), working in an interdisciplinary, cross-sector team.

Key Accountabilities

• Design and produce digital media assets, infographics, and illustrations to support NortHFutures communications and engagement via print, web and exhibition platforms, working with project partners.
• Support Hub research programme by contributing Creative Design Practice within an interdisciplinary and cross-sector research team.
• Undertake relevant training and development activities to develop capacity for taking on wider responsibilities.
• Follow Human-Centred Design processes by conducting user research, user-centred concept sketching, low- and hi-fidelity prototyping, and user testing of designs, with Hub partners and stakeholders for the hub programme.
• Use initiative and creativity to analyse and interpret research data and draw conclusions on the outcomes.
• Contribute to the facilitation and documentation of collaborative design (Co-Design) workshops for the hub programme.
• Contribute to and support the preparation of research reports for publication.
• Present project work and outputs, to colleagues (studio critique), to partners at project meetings, at public engagement exercises, and at conferences.
• Support project administration and research data and media management in line with hub objectives, under the supervision of the Principal Investigator and in line with university policies, ethical protocols and regulations.
• Work to deadlines and manage, with support, competing priorities.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate and/or Postgraduate Degree in Design or a related discipline.

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