Job Opportunity for Design Researcher at Vihara

Job Title: Design Researcher

The context

Stanford University is partnering with Vihara Innovation Network on WASH UP! Evaluation Project which is a collaboration between Stanford University, World Vision, and Sesame Workshop.

It features a combined education and infrastructure sustainability program with two objectives: (1) to improve the knowledge and practice of safe WASH behaviors among primary school students and (2) to improve the sustainability of WASH service delivery at schools. The education portion of the program consists of a curriculum developed by Sesame Workshop. The purpose of the infrastructure sustainability intervention is two-fold: (1) to ensure that existing WASH infrastructure on school premises are always functional and (2) to ensure that the necessary WASH consumables, such as soap and water for handwashing, are always available.

Stanford University is seeking to collaboratively design an infrastructure sustainability intervention with Vihara, that incorporates insights from the systematic review conducted by Stanford around existing WASH service deliveries as well as insights from an in-depth formative research to be conducted by Vihara at the ground level. The infrastructure sustainability intervention will be implemented in 100 rural government primary schools across the Sitapur district, Uttar Pradesh.

What will your day-to-day look like?

• Lead the planning and design of design research studies including screening, recruiting, and developing field instruments
• Conduct in-person fieldwork across Sitapur district, U.P. utilizing an array of design research techniques and best practices
• Participate in rigorous analysis and synthesis process, identifying patterns, key insights, and opportunities
• Identify key design opportunities based on field insights and provide a rich evidentiary basis and stimulus for program decisions such as overall innovation direction, theory of change, key evaluation indicators.
• Work beyond just design, by working in tandem with the Business Development team to modify designs as per client needs, create concise concept notes, and be a design expert in client meetings
• Design and co-facilitate collaborative workshops, brainstorming, co-design activities within the team, as well as with clients and project partners
• Work closely with relevant team members on creatively packaging design work and learnings into narrative documents, reports, presentations, process notes and blogs
• Liaise with partner organisations i.e design advisors, monitoring, learning and evaluation teams, implementation partners and clients through the project

Role

We’re looking for a curious and enthusiastic Design Researcher, with relevant work experience (2-3years) in the public health space, gained through working on a portfolio of HCD/DT/Research projects. A collaborating spirit and an understanding of behavioral insights and insights led design is necessary to be able to design effective human-centric solutions.

Design Research

You will provide internal consultation around Design Research across multiple projects; lead the creation of research tools for co-design, concept generation and rapid prototyping for product and service solutions; conduct ethnographic research and design research in low-resource settings; synthesize data from multiple-perspectives; and identify patterns to drive creative direction for solution development. You will also co-create communication/business development collaterals such as narrative documents, reports, concept notes, etc for clients and partners as well as represent the organization to the wider ecosystem.

Project strategy

A large part of the project involves co-creation with external stakeholders. You will design and co-facilitate collaborative workshops, brainstorming sessions, codesign activities within the team, as well as with clients and project partners.

Good to haves ( skills / experiences )

• Bachelors or Masters Degree in Product Design / Service Design / Interaction Design / Digital
• Design / User Experience Design / Social Design / Strategic Design Management
• A combination of relevant technical experience in research and design as well as partnership, planning and management skills.
• Experience in designing systems and services with components of process and products in the health, public service and/or development sector. Your portfolio should highlight piloted service solutions. Experience in designing for health services, primarily in the WASH sector for low resource settings and/or prior experience of working with children or in schools is most valuable.
• Strategic understanding of the user centered design process, with experience in developing and leading teams through tailored design methods for public innovation projects.
• Knowledge of public health related issues, sensitivity to cultural differences and understanding of the political and ethical issues surrounding public health issues; superior written and verbal communication skills.
• Knowledge of relevant stakeholders within the community of practice, donors and their strategies.
• Proficiency of working with Adobe Creative Suite and ability to communicate insights through powerful and clear information design i.e. reports, data visualizations, illustrations, storyboards, photographs, videos and other multimedia techniques.
• Proficiency with Hindi, a plus if fluent in the regional language of Central U.P. (eg. Awadhi) 

How to apply

To apply for this job, please write a succinct email describing your interest in this position, and attach a writing sample, your up to date CV and a portfolio if you have one. Please highlight experiences that are relevant to the description mentioned above.

Send it to vihara@vihara.asia 

About Vihara

Vihara is one of India’s leading design led social innovation practices. It has been working in this sector for more than a decade, and has deep expertise in bringing innovation to social development.

Our teams are multi-disciplinary, representing wide expertise areas such as Design, Research, Management and more. Our way of working involves tying together these various technical skills to achieve the common goal of making social systems work for people. As such, we like to think of our team as changemakers, rather than identify them by their technical specialties.

You can read more about our work on our website