Terms of Reference UI/UX Designer (Individual Consultant) at Girl Effect

Scope of Work

• Your main goal will be to design with youth fresh digital solutions and refine existing digital products owned by Girl Effect by developing creative answers to diverse design questions. Every solution must be deeply rooted in our behavioral change objectives and the specific requirements of our target audience in Kenya. You will utilize a human-centered design methodology, looking beyond individual tools to consider the broader Girl Effect ecosystem and the intricate pathways girls navigate as they move between our various products. 
• This consultant will conduct design sprints, consolidate outputs of design sessions, and support the running of feature prioritization sessions. They will also conduct prototyping activities collaboratively with a cohort of young people and other stakeholders across products such as chatbots, mobile applications, and brand websites, among others, related to upcoming and existing products.
• In this role, you should be an analytical and creative designer who can grasp user needs and solve problems. A strong portfolio of successful UX and other technical projects is essential. The engagement will start from August 2026 to January 2027.

UX Analysis: 

• Devise and conduct a consultation plan with key stakeholders and target audiences, including questionnaires, focus groups, or interviews.
• Conduct a thorough assessment of the current UX design, identifying usability challenges and opportunities for improvement. 
• Create user personas and scenarios to guide the design improvements based on user needs and goals. 
• Conduct concept and  usability testing in the field with users
• Provide a detailed report summarizing the findings, including prioritized recommendations for UX enhancements to stakeholders and developers. 
• Work with data to optimize and enhance products.
• Own and conduct design reviews with data, engineering, and content teams to ensure a successful deployment with an appropriate go-ahead.

UI Enhancement: 

• Utilize the insights from the UX analysis to redesign and enhance the visual appearance of the web platform's user interface. 
• Define interaction models, UI components, and navigation structures to optimize user engagement and facilitate information discovery.
• Incorporate interactive elements to enhance usability and convey complex concepts effectively.
• Develop wireframes, interactive prototypes, and mockups to illustrate proposed UI changes. 
• Implement modern design principles, including responsiveness, consistency, and visual hierarchy, while aligning with our brand identity. 
• Ensure the new UI design elements fit seamlessly into the existing platform's technical framework, ensuring a consistent and cohesive user experience across all website components.
• Collaborate with Designers and Developers to create intuitive, user-friendly software to ensure that the updated UI maintains or improves the platform's overall performance and loading speed.
• Support UI content creation as and when required.

Who You Are

Skills, expertise, and requirements:

• You must be based in Kenya with the ability to attend in-person sessions in Nairobi and Migori counties.
• Female candidates are encouraged to apply.
• You must be fluent in Swahili and English.
• 4+ years of professional experience in a design consultancy or equivalent position, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams
• Fluency in the human-centred design process from qualitative research and synthesis to ideation, prototyping, and implementation.
• Service Design, UX, UI - Proficiency in wireframing, prototyping, and design tools such as InVision, Figma, Miro, etc.
• You are solution-focused and medium-agnostic, willing to step out of your core skill set or discipline to find the correct solution to a design challenge.
• You have cultural sensitivity, creativity, and resourcefulness—comfortable finding your way through.
• You deliver precise and effective written and verbal communication to convey ideas, instructions, and feedback to team members, girls, and young women.

Highly Desirable

• Experience in health-related content/Behavior change content production in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Economic Empowerment would be a massive bonus.
• Experience in Conversational Interfaces such as Chatbots, 
• Understanding/development of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning
• Cross-cultural design experience and/or working in design for ICT4D
• Experience working in emerging markets.
• Experience collaborating with in-house and third-party developers in agile sprints, stewarding the transfer of design to development.
• Familiarity with tools such as Google Suite, Asana, and Slack is a bonus.

Attitudes we are looking for: 

• Comfortable with complex organizational structures and multiple stakeholders 
• Comfortable with shared decision-making 
• A ‘do-er thinker’ 
• Enthusiastic about talking to and interacting with people across cultures and geographies - this role will require extensive conversations, presentations, documentation, and fire-fighting 
• Highly empathetic and context-sensitive - able to balance conflicting needs and priorities decisively 
• Mission-driven and cares about making a difference in the lives of young people and vulnerable sections of society.

Expected Commitment 

• The assignment will take approximately 6 months to complete.
• The consultant will be expected to spend a maximum of 5 days a week or up to 40  hours each week on this assignment, depending on the programme's needs.
• The consultant's assignment period is from  August 2026 to  Jan 2027 with the possibility of extension.