Senior UX/Service Designer – Digital Prototype at HighRegard, Remote, £400-£650+ per day

HighRegard is a UK digital, software and AI consultancy operated by PureView Scans Ltd. We design and build websites, digital products, bespoke software, workflow tools and AI-enabled solutions for organisations seeking practical, user-focused digital services.

We are looking for an experienced Freelance Senior UX / Service Designer to join HighRegard as a specialist delivery partner for a tender involving the discovery, design and development of a new digital prototype for a national UK charity.

The proposed project is a discovery-led digital initiative intended to help public-service professionals access evidence, navigate support options and develop coordinated action plans. The first phase is focused on understanding user needs, validating service concepts, designing user journeys and developing and testing a functional prototype, rather than delivering a production-scale national platform. The client expects the digital partner to work collaboratively with its internal research and website teams throughout the project. Invitation to Tender - Home Lea…

HighRegard would lead the technical architecture, software development, prototype engineering, analytics, technical QA, documentation and overall project delivery.

The successful consultant would provide senior expertise across service design, discovery, stakeholder engagement, co-design, user research, accessibility and user testing.

We are particularly interested in candidates who can demonstrate relevant completed work within the public sector, charity, education or related public-service environments.

Key responsibilities

• Help shape and validate the discovery and service-design approach
• Participate in stakeholder discovery and co-design sessions
• Translate research findings into clear user needs, journeys and service requirements
• Develop or review personas, service blueprints, user journeys and information architecture
• Work closely with HighRegard's technical lead to translate user requirements into prototype functionality
• Support UX/UI decisions throughout prototype development
• Design an effective approach to user research and prototype testing
• Participate in selected user-testing and validation sessions
• Ensure accessibility and inclusive design are considered throughout the project lifecycle
• Support WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility thinking and testing
• Analyse feedback and recommend iterative changes
• Contribute to the final findings, recommendations and roadmap for a potential future production service
• Provide senior design assurance throughout the engagement

The client will organise access to users and research participants, so the consultant will not be responsible for recruiting participants. The successful supplier will, however, be expected to help design the research/testing approach and attend relevant sessions. Questions and Answers for HLN I…

Essential experience

We are looking for someone able to demonstrate strong experience in several of the following areas:

• User-centred service design
• Discovery and requirements gathering
• Co-design and stakeholder facilitation
• User research
• Digital-product or web-application prototyping
• User journey and information architecture design
• Accessibility-led design and WCAG
• User testing and validation
• Working with multidisciplinary digital/product teams
• Public-sector, charity or education-sector digital projects
• Translating complex information or evidence into simple user experiences

Experience working on decision-support tools, evidence platforms, government services, local-authority projects, children's services, housing, education, health or social care would be particularly valuable, but is not essential.

Important tender requirement

As this role will initially support a live tender submission, applicants must be able to provide details of 1–3 relevant completed projects from the last five years.

Please include for each example:

• client/organisation
• project description
• your personal role
• discovery/service-design activity undertaken
• prototype or digital-product work undertaken
• accessibility/user-research involvement
• measurable outcomes where available

Applicants should also ideally be able to provide one or more professional client references who would be willing to confirm their involvement in relevant projects.

Working arrangement

This is a remote-first UK freelance engagement.

HighRegard will remain the lead contractor and technical delivery partner. You would work directly with HighRegard's project lead and, following contract award, with the client's research, website and stakeholder teams.

The wider project is expected to run until August 2027, but consultancy input is likely to be concentrated around discovery, service design and user-testing phases rather than requiring continuous involvement throughout the entire period. NCB's published programme currently anticipates prototype design/development primarily between February and May 2027, followed by testing and refinement in June and July. Questions and Answers for HLN I…

Rate

£400–£650 per day, depending on experience and relevance of previous work.

We are willing to consider a higher rate for an exceptional candidate with highly relevant public-sector/charity digital-product experience and strong referenceable projects.

There may also be opportunities to work with HighRegard on future public-sector website, software, UX and digital-transformation projects.

How to apply

Please submit your CV together with a short response covering:

• Your day rate.
• Your availability over the next week and from November 2026 onwards.
• Details of up to three relevant projects completed in the last five years.
• Your experience of discovery, service design, user research and prototype development.
• Your experience working with public-sector, charity or education organisations.
• Your experience with accessibility/WCAG.
• Whether you are comfortable being named as a proposed specialist delivery partner in a tender submission.
• Whether previous clients could provide references if required.

No recruitment agencies please.

Pay: £400.00-£650.00 per day

Application question(s):

• Have you personally delivered discovery, service-design or UX work for a UK public-sector, charity or education organisation within the last five years? Please briefly describe one example.
• Can you provide at least one client reference for a relevant completed project if shortlisted?

Work Location: Remote