User researcher justice service - Volunteer

Overview

Criminal Justice Hub has launched its beta. We need an experienced user researcher to help us understand users, test journeys and improve accessible content and tools for people navigating the justice system.

Your work will directly shape the future of Criminal Justice Hub.

The criminal justice system can be difficult to understand and even harder to navigate. People often need clear information at stressful or important moments, but that information is spread across many different websites, documents and organisations. Our aim is to bring reliable, accessible and practical information together in one place.

By helping us understand what users actually need, where they get stuck and how they search for information, you will help us build a website that is clearer, more useful and more inclusive.

Your research will influence how we improve our beta website, prioritise new content, design future tools and make complex criminal justice information easier for people to use. It will also help us make better decisions, avoid assumptions and ensure the project is shaped around real user needs.

This role is especially important because Criminal Justice Hub is still developing. A strong user research approach now will help us build a better foundation for the future and ensure accessibility, clarity and public benefit are central to the project as it grows.

We are looking for someone with professional experience in user research, UX research, service design, digital research or a related area. You should have at least three years relevant professional experience and be confident planning and carrying out research independently.

The ideal volunteer will have experience of:

• user interviews, usability testing, surveys or other research methods
• analysing findings and turning them into clear recommendations
• testing websites, digital services or online content
• working with diverse users and considering accessibility needs
• communicating research findings in a practical, proportionate way
• helping small teams make user centred decisions

Experience in public sector, charity, legal, justice, advice, health, education or other public interest settings would be helpful, but is not essential.

We would particularly value someone who understands the importance of plain English, accessibility and trauma informed or sensitive research. Some of our users may be dealing with stressful circumstances, so empathy, professionalism and good judgement are important.

You do not need to be an expert in criminal justice. We are more interested in someone who can help us ask the right questions, listen carefully to users and turn insight into practical improvements.

We are looking for someone reliable, thoughtful and collaborative, with the confidence to challenge assumptions constructively and help us make Criminal Justice Hub genuinely useful for the people it is intended to support.

This is an unpaid, UK based volunteer role. The volunteer will not be required to line manage staff. We are looking for someone with at least three years professional experience in user research, service design, UX research, digital research or a closely related field.

Criminal Justice Hub is a public interest digital project making information about the criminal justice system in England and Wales easier to find, understand and use.

We have recently launched our beta website and are now looking to improve the user experience, develop new content and build better tools for the people who need them. We are seeking an experienced, committed and enthusiastic user researcher to help us understand our users, test what we have built and shape what we develop next.

The volunteer will help us plan and carry out user research across the website, including with members of the public, people affected by the justice system, students, volunteers, frontline practitioners and organisations working in criminal justice.

• helping us identify priority user groups and research questions
• reviewing existing user journeys and suggesting improvements
• planning and carrying out user interviews, usability testing or surveys
• helping us test content, tools, navigation and accessibility
• analysing research findings and turning them into practical recommendations