User Experience Designer
- 27 Jan 2025
ABOUT US
We are Shujaaz, an Emmy award-winning team of East African creatives, researchers and strategists. For over a decade, we’ve been working alongside young people to make authentic, engaging, trusted media that reflects the reality of youth culture, without filter or judgement.
Our comic books, digital dramas and social content tell stories – some real, some fictional – that start conversations and break down barriers. In them, everyday shujaaz (heroes) make and face decisions about sex, relationships, money, power and work.
Shujaaz media connects young people with the knowledge, self-belief and inspiration they need to imagine the future they want – and the support to make it happen. We call it ‘the superpower of story’. Distributed and activated by our network of over 3,000 on-ground and online SuperFans, our media reaches 60-70% of 15-24-year-olds in Kenya.
Founded in 2009, Shujaaz is now one of Kenya’s biggest youth brands and one of the world’s most successful media for social change programmes. In a world that too often leaves young people feeling powerless, Shujaaz media helps young people take control.
THE BRIEF IN BRIEF
The Shujaaz SuperFans Network has long been a critical element of Shujaaz’s outreach strategy, acting as the bridge between our content and the communities we serve. Historically, our SuperFans have played a pivotal role in distributing Shujaaz comics and amplifying our media through grassroots engagement, acting as trusted intermediaries in various communities around the country. Over time, the network has evolved into a dynamic group of youth ambassadors who have not only distributed content but also fostered conversations and built connections that have deepened the impact of the super power of story in their communities.
However, as the media landscape and audience behaviors shift, so too must our approach to engaging this vital network. This year, Shujaaz has the opportunity to rethink and enhance the SuperFans’ role beyond traditional content distribution. By exploring ways to expand their influence, from fostering community-led initiatives to integrating new engagement formats, Shujaaz aims to create a more impactful and versatile SuperFans Network.
This initiative is rooted in the need to bridge the gap between Shujaaz’s robust digital content and the on-ground realities of a digitally dark audience aged 15-17 years. By leveraging innovative, community-centric, and human-centered design (HCD) approaches, the goal is to craft an engagement strategy that not only revitalizes the SuperFans Network but also strengthens its ability to connect with audiences both online and offline. This new approach should empower SuperFans as facilitators of change, enriching their role within the Shujaaz ecosystem while ensuring that Shujaaz’s barrier breaking media reaches and resonates directly with its intended audience. Through this initiative, we aim to:
- Reimagine the analogue experience: Redesign Shujaaz’s on-ground presence to resonate with both our fans and SuperFans by crafting immersive, community-driven offline experiences that complement the digital ecosystem and address the needs of the digitally dark audience (15-17 years old).
- Bridge digital and physical engagement: Develop cohesive strategies to integrate digital storytelling and content formats with innovative on-ground activations, ensuring a seamless, unified experience for Shujaaz’s audience across platforms.
- Evolve the SuperFans Network:
Strengthen the role of SuperFans as grassroots changemakers and brand ambassadors by delivering engagement toolkits, introducing new experiential formats, and empowering them to lead diverse community-driven initiatives such as school programs, youth clubs, and localized campaigns.
- Prototype and refine:
Design and implement an iterative testing framework to pilot the new strategy, gathering feedback and insights to adapt and optimize the approach for scalability and long-term impact.
We’ll workshop the full scope with you, but we anticipate the final outputs will include:
- A comprehensive engagement strategy document
- A detailed roadmap outlining the revamped SuperFans engagement strategy.
- Strategic insights for integrating digital and physical touchpoints, with actionable recommendations for implementation.
- Frameworks for new analogue and digital engagement formats that are aligned with the needs of digitally dark audiences.
- A SuperFans toolkit
- A suite of ready-to-use resources and tools, such as:
- Activity kits to guide on-ground and hybrid engagement activities.
- Step-by-step guides for SuperFan activation and management.
- Customizable templates and formats to maintain consistency and flexibility.
- Tools that are visually compelling and easy to adopt by SuperFans and community partners.
- A pilot implementation report
- Detailed documentation of pilot activities, including methodologies, key findings, and insights gathered.
- Data-driven recommendations for refining the strategy and tools.
- Metrics and benchmarks for measuring long-term impact.
- Supportive media and communication assets
- Prototypes or final versions of revamped analogue and digital media formats.
- Clear messaging frameworks for SuperFans and partners to ensure consistency in communication.
- An impact measurement framework
- Metrics and tools for evaluating the effectiveness of the new strategy.
- Guidelines for tracking behavior change, audience engagement, and community impact over time.
PROJECT SCOPE HOW WE’D LIKE TO WORK
You’ll collaborate closely with representatives from our Programmes, Media, and Research teams, as well as our SuperFan network team and the SuperFans themselves.
We’re a small team, so we need a consultant who can support us holistically across all project phases:
February 2025
- Project Kick-Off: An in-depth workshop to familiarize you with Shujaaz’s history, goals, and existing work. Together, we’ll co-create a detailed work plan for sign-off.
- Understanding Our Audience: You’ll conduct a User Needs Assessment, speaking with key stakeholders (e.g. Shujaaz team, SuperFans, CBOs) to identify knowledge gaps, user needs, and insights. Deliverables will include a summary deck of key findings and implications.
- Evaluate existing tools and engagement formats: Such as Shujaaz comics, board games, and other experiential activities to identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities for innovation.
March 2023
- Developing the strategy: Utilize a human-centered design approach to develop a framework for creating a seamless and scalable hybrid engagement model that leverages digital content and physical activations cohesively to deliver the broader Shujaaz mission.
- Designing the user experience: Design or refine tools and resources that enhance the engagement strategy, including experiential formats and activity kits tailored for Superfans, and package them into intuitive, user-friendly formats for easy adoption and application by various other key stakeholders.
April 2025 (Launch End of April)
- Piloting the toolkits: Plan, coordinate, and execute pilot programs in select regions to test the new strategy and tools, ensuring diverse demographic representation, iteratively refining the strategy and tools based on pilot learnings, ensuring they are scalable, adaptable, and effective in diverse contexts.
May — July 2025
- Launch & Long-Term Sustainability: Ensure the strategy and resulting toolkits go live by May 1st, 2025, and create short and long-term work plans for handover and continuity.
REQUIRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS
- Human-Centred Design Expertise: Strong understanding of HDC models, their design, application, and strategic implementation.
- Metrics & Testing: Experience defining and tracking success metrics for community engagement and alignment with strategic goals.
- Design & Development: Proven ability to design user-centric community experiences aligned with organizational objectives.
- Collaboration & Communication: Strong teamwork and communication skills, with the ability to present complex information clearly.
- Platform Knowledge: Familiarity with Shujaaz’s digital platforms and youth audience engagement strategies (both online and offline) is a plus.
OTHER DELIVERABLES (To Be Finalized in February Workshop)
- Clearly defined metrics aligned with Shujaaz goals.
- Comprehensive documentation of personas, user journeys, and use cases.
- Prototypes of design assets for all defined use cases.
- Pilot test results with recommendations for improvement.
- Final report summarizing all findings, progress, and future suggestions.
REPORTING AND SUPERVISION
The consultant will report to the Shujaaz Head of Brand & Media and work collaboratively with internal and external teams.
DURATION
This engagement will span 6 months, with potential extensions based on project needs and outcomes.
HOW TO APPLY
Please send your CV and a covering email expressing your interest in this role to jobs@shujaazinc.com by 31 January 2025.
We can’t wait to hear from you!