OpenCities is looking for an experienced Web Designer to create great websites for our local government clients in Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

As a Web Designer at OpenCities, you’ll take the lead in working with our government clients to conceptualize, workshop, and finalize beautiful, user-centered visual designs for websites built using the OpenCities platform. Sometimes this will involve creating visual elements within a client’s existing brand, while at other times your design work will be more greenfield. For this reason, please be sure to include a link to your design portfolio in your application.

You will work closely with your web developer colleagues to ensure a proper and hassle-free implementation; they will be doing most of the code work for your designs. However, web designers should feel comfortable using semantic HTML5 and CSS/Sass when needed, and be able to support those aspects of the design.

This role will report to the Implementation Team Manager within Customer Success and be part of a squad with visual design and web development skills. In addition, you’ll work closely with designers in other parts of the company to continue to build out a ‘design community of practice’ at OpenCities that supports best-in-class visual, experience, and service design. The position is now and will continue to be a fully remote work-from-home position located within Australia, however we have a Melbourne office should you wish to work in person alongside peers.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Produce high-quality visual designs (page layouts; templates) that account for the peculiarities of designing for the web, such as:
• Flexibility in screen size (let it flow)
• Changing content (never know how long or short that title might be)
• Performance (keep it snappy)
• Accessibility (choose clear over flashy)
• Use modern interaction design patterns and UI best practices, understanding that there are exceptions to every rule
• Facilitate conversations and OpenCities design workshops with clients to move them through a mature design process; clearly articulate the rationale behind design decisions to stakeholders
• Facilitate decision-making and create designs that strike a balance between stakeholder needs, usability for end-users, and ease of maintenance in the OpenCities SaaS product
• Clearly communicate user-centered methods and their value to non-designers
• Make visual design work visible and reusable in shared design and project management tools (for example, in tools such as Figma, Asana, Jira, and GitHub)
• Work in partnership with the other designers at OpenCities to contribute to and refine our design systems with enhanced components, joyful interactions, and improved processes
• Give partners and peers advice they need to hear versus what they want to hear, in a manner that respects their intelligence and experience

ABOUT YOU

You see web design as a way to be creative both visually and technically. You love working with clients to bring them along for the creative process, and you know how to be an advocate for user-centered best practice in conversations with non-designers. You understand what is needed to make a website functional and easy to use, but at the same time make it aesthetically appealing to the user. And of course, your visual designs show attention to detail, consistency, and reflect today’s best practice and style.

In addition, you’ll exhibit many of these qualities:

• A creative approach to problem solving and aptitude for analyzing constraints and strategizing for better solutions
• Exceptional communication abilities, effectively summarizing results to create a compelling case for user-centered design decisions
• A strong online portfolio showcasing design work for the web
• Strong command of color theory, image composition, and typography
• Proven experience working with a team to iterate and implement projects
• Demonstrated ability to take a project from concept to launch
• A clear understanding of web design fundamentals and systems, such as interface style guides, responsive design, grid systems, front-end frameworks, and accessibility best practices

Bonus points:

• Experience working with local or state government, non-profits, or in GovTech
• Experience designing for content management systems
• Experience developing with HTML/CSS/JavaScript
• Experience working remotely in a fast-paced startup, quickly growing and maturing

ABOUT US

What started out as a bespoke website shop for a handful of government clients has since transformed to the OpenCities SaaS platform, built with and for government. We provide the website and forms functionality modern governments need to transform their digital customer journey without custom coding.

We take pride in building flexible and accessible products that help local governments reimagine how to build, deliver and evolve their website and online services. We know the work we do matters because our products power millions of resident interactions around the world and we’re only getting started. OpenCities was created to help local governments serve better and we’re looking for others to join us in this mission.

Please only apply via our website, as this role is being posted on several job-boards. https://opencities.freshteam.com/jobs

Send any questions you may have to [email protected] Please be sure to include a link to your design portfolio in your application.

Individual applicants only, no recruitment agencies please.