Description
Digital Counsel is seeking a Freelance Senior UX/UI Designer (hourly or project fee bids after interview confirming scope alignment) to redesign a branded cultural platform and its media archive. Expanded over 15 years, the platform now needs a more cohesive backend system and a frontend experience equal to the depth and sophistication of its content.
We are looking for a systems-minded designer who can bring clarity to a content-rich, architecturally complex product. The CMS contains more than 500 documents across multiple content types, and the work will focus on consolidating siloed Sanity structures into a unified schema that supports stronger taxonomy, search, discovery, mixed content feeds, and a scalable card system.
Partnering closely with our Account Manager, Creative Director, Project Manager, and development team, this designer will own the design layer of the project across IA, wireframes, high-fidelity UI, and a scalable component system.
This is a one-month contract engagement. Digital Counsel operates on a hybrid schedule, with in-studio days on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Strong performance may lead to continued freelance work or a full-time role.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
Information Architecture & Content Strategy
- Design the IA for a unified content model that spans exhibitions, commissions, editorial, and video, making 500+ documents navigable, filterable, and cross-referenceable.
- Shape taxonomy and tagging systems that work consistently across content types, enabling blended search, programmatic feeds, and meaningful related-content surfacing.
- Design CMS editor experiences in Sanity Studio, ensuring the content creation flow is intuitive, fields adapt by content kind, and editors can work confidently across the unified structure.
- Map user flows for discovery, search, and cross-type browsing that reflect how art-world audiences actually engage with editorial and archival content.
UI & Design Systems
- Design a scalable card system that adapts presentation by content kind, play icons for video, author bylines for articles, exhibition dates for projects, while maintaining visual consistency across mixed feeds.
- Build and maintain a structured design system in Figma with the maturity level this client expects: component libraries, design tokens, responsive behavior, and clear documentation.
- Design high-fidelity, responsive interfaces ready for developer handoff, with pixel-level attention to detail across every deliverable.
- Create landing page templates for programs and campaigns that can surface a complete picture of associated content— one query, one component, one consistent experience.
Validation & Measurement
- Define and validate design decisions using data, user evidence, and measurable outcomes, not personal bias or assumptions.
- Identify the right metrics and tools to evaluate how users discover, navigate, and engage with content across the platform.
- Establish a validation loop: propose, test, measure, iterate. Bring that mindset to every meeting and client presentation.
Collaboration & Client Partnership
- Partner with developers building in Next.js and Sanity to ensure design intent is faithfully implemented, understanding the constraints of headless CMS and component-based architecture.
- Present work to a detail-oriented client team, explaining design rationale in terms of user needs, editorial goals, and evidence.
- Push back constructively when needed by offering well-reasoned, documented alternatives rather than simply deferring.
- Contribute to QA, design reviews, and Notion-based documentation workflows.
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
- 5+ years of experience in a UX/UI design role, ideally in an agency or studio environment working across complex, content-driven digital products.
- Comfortable working within existing internal project management tools, including Notion and Basecamp, to support collaboration across time zones.
- A portfolio that demonstrates depth in both UX process (research, IA, content modeling, validation) and high-fidelity UI execution.
- Mastery of Figma for design, prototyping, and design system management.
- Direct experience designing for headless CMS platforms (Sanity, Contentful, or similar), understanding how schema structure shapes both editor and front-end experience.
- Strong grasp of information architecture for large, multi-type content libraries.
- Experience designing taxonomy, filtering, and search UX for content-heavy platforms.
- Comfort presenting to and collaborating with highly detail-oriented, design-literate clients.
- Excellent communication skills — you can articulate your process, defend your decisions, and adapt based on feedback.
- Strong grasp of accessibility standards (WCAG) and responsive design principles.
- Bachelor’s degree in design, HCI, or a related field preferred.
NICE TO HAVE
- Background in arts, culture, publishing, or museum/archive digital work.
- Experience with Sanity CMS specifically schema design, studio customization, GROQ queries.
- Familiarity with Next.js / React and how component-based frontends shape design possibilities.
- Experience with analytics, heatmapping, or usability testing tools (Hotjar, Maze, Google Analytics).
- Understanding of SEO for content-rich editorial platforms.
- Motion design or animation skills (After Effects, Lottie, Figma prototyping)
How to apply
Send your resume to [email protected] with "Your Full Name - Senior UX/UI Designer” in the subject line. Please include an introductory note, a link to your portfolio, and a brief case study or writeup that walks through your process on a past project involving complex content architecture or editorial UX, from problem definition through validation. Given the compressed timeline, we're prioritizing candidates who can start in early April.
Top Skills
