Placement Experience: Interaction Designer at HMRC - Orla Jones

Who do you work for?

HM Revenue and Customs is the government department responsible for collecting taxes and are the authority for payments and customs. They collect the money which pays for the UK’s public services and help families and individuals with financial support. They have offices all over the UK, and I am based in their Worthing specialist site.

How is your placement going so far? 

I am on an Interaction Design placement, and as such have been shadowing the work of a couple of senior interaction designers on two different teams in HMRC to really understand the day-to-day role of interaction designers. After settling into my office in Worthing, I started by shadowing the work of a lead designer in our design resource team, creating new content and guidance for other HMRC interaction designers. I am currently shadowing an interaction designer on the Plastic Packaging Tax team.

What new skills are you developing? 

So far I have picked up a huge variety of new skills, both in the technical sense of the role of an interaction designer as well as the ‘soft’ skills of working in an agile office environment. Accessibility for users is a huge part of my role, which I had not given much consideration to as a designer in my previous work, but now is pivotal to everything I create, and I think will be when I come back to university for my third and final year as a result of my placement. I had no previous experience in coding, which is required for interaction designers to create front-end prototypes, and so I learned some HTML and CSS on coding courses and through tutorials to bridge this gap in my knowledge. I have been creating prototype pages for user journeys, which are then handed over to front-end developers to be created / coded into the ‘real’ pages which you can see on HMRC and GOV.UK pages. While I still code the prototype, it is simply coding the front-end visual elements, without the back-end functionality which developers will then add in.

How is your placement experience helping you with getting industry experience? 

I have learnt a lot about how the industry works, and how designers connect in the wider GOV.UK design community to share knowledge and work together to ensure that our work matches the guidance for HMRC pages. I am currently working as part of an agile scrum team, with fortnightly sprints on our project. I have also learnt a lot about working in an office environment and working on an agile team, as it is very different to the day-to-day routine in university!

What is the next project you will be working on?

I will be working on the Plastic Packaging tax team until February, when I will then move on to my final team at HMRC, and it is yet to be decided where I will move to for this final team rotation. In Plastic Packaging Tax I will continue to work with our user researcher and content designer to iterate our service prototype, making it as simple as possible for users to sign up to plastic packaging tax based on findings from user research, and adding any changes from policy. 
 

What is your advice to a student considering placement?

I would highly recommend doing a placement if you are considering it, the benefits are endless! The skills you will pick up in your chosen area as well as the skills of working on real projects in a professional workplace are invaluable, and will make a transition to the workplace after university so much easier. Networking with professionals in your chosen industry is a huge advantage too, and can open many doors in the future. Don’t be disheartened if you are unsuccessful with some applications as it is very competitive, and don’t get too caught up in finding the perfect placement for your dream job- be open-minded as experience in any professional working environment will be a huge advantage when applying for post-graduate jobs. I’m loving my placement and I’m sure you will too :)