Product Design/Graphic Design Consultant-Ethiopia

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 28 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

PlayMatters reimagines childhood for refugees. It will bring play-based learning to 800,000 children across Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania. It will redefine education and cultivate a generation of lifelong builders. PlayMatters is inspired by LEGO Foundation’s call to challenge the status quo, to offer children the quality education they dream of. Children are not gaining the skills they need, teachers are under-supported and parents are overwhelmed. The systems built to serve them are failing them. PlayMatters proudly offers something different. It will be delivered by a coalition with a track record of thinking and delivering differently.

Position Summary:

The IRC is seeking a product design consultant who will work closely with prototyping teams in Tanzania or Ethiopia to develop two solutions to integrate play-based learning into schools. This project consists of using recently completed qualitative research on the context to understand opportunities and barriers for play-based learning; in addition to collaboratively working with education experts, behavioral scientists and human centered designers to design and test prototypes in refugee and host populations in Tanzania or Ethiopia.

These prototypes will consist of content designed to support behavioral change for educators, caregivers and community members to embed learning through play into the lives of children aged 3-12+ in the spaces in which they live and learn. 

Major Responsibilities:

The education design consultant will be an integral part of our team and will work collaboratively with PlayMatters prototype teams, leading the following work:

• Product Design: The design consultant will help adapt content with the team such as digital/analog user flows, mockups, service design storyboards, informational design for implementors, short videos or audio, and other assets necessary for each program.
• Workshop Facilitation and Design: The designer will work closely with the PlayMatters prototyping team, and the IRC research and innovation team to co-lead co-design workshops with key stakeholders (remote and/or in person). They will synthesize insights from interviews and design workshops with the team.
• Prototype Creation and Testing: The designer is responsible for connecting the dots between user research, evidence and expert direction from the team, and generating testable prototypes. Examples of prototypes include low-fidelity printouts/illustrations, clickable mockups, sample messages, high fidelity mock-ups of service experience, user journeys, and illustrations to test for understanding.
• Prototype testing: The designer will work with the team to test prototypes with key stakeholders (remote and/or in person where possible).
• Graphic Design: The design consultant will adapt, design and contextualize content with the prototyping team to create final assets that ensure uptake and understanding. This includes creating graphics, illustrations, printed and digital materials, as necessary for each program.
• Final Documentation: The design consultant will be responsible for designing assets (visuals, relevant materials) to input into the final guide and implementation deck for the two programs that explains how to use the final assets to roll out the program.
• Piloting: The designer will co-create instruction guides for using and implementing final assets. They will work with the monitoring and evaluation team to draft questions to be answered during the piloting phase. They will work with the team to adapt the final assets and guides after the pilots based on feedback from the research conducted by the M&E/project team.