My Story

The path to finding your calling in life is not always linear. As such, my journey to becoming a UX Designer was anything but typical.

I started out by pursuing a degree in Human Nutrition, and becoming a Registered Dietitian. While working at a major teaching hospital, I developed a deep sense of empathy, compassion for others, and creativity in problem solving. It is a difficult task making sure the sickest of the sick are able to get the nutrition they need to heal. The moments I enjoyed the most were working with patients and the interdisciplinary medical team to identify and find solutions to patients’ nutritional challenges. When we succeeded you could see the patient’s health improve. It was incredible.

Another important aspect of working in a hospital is the electronic medical record. Within 5 years, I had experienced at least 6 different systems, all of which had strengths, as well as design flaws. These flaws always seemed to boil down to not getting enough input and feedback from the caregivers that would actually be using the system.

While in my current role, I have spent time working with the clinical informatics team to help improve the medical record. From this I realized I could combine my patient centered mindset and passion for technology to make a bigger impact on people’s lives. This is what sparked my interest in UX Design and led me to the UX Design Course with Career Foundry. As it turns out, dietitian skills translate well into UX. I was able to take my experience with patient interviews, team collaboration, and medical technology and apply it to user interviews, usability testing, personas and learning design programs.

My design philosophy is that the most effective designs come from spending time listening to and understanding those for whom you are designing. Doing this effectively will set you on the path to make exactly what your users want and need.

I begin my process by listening to and empathizing with end users and stakeholders through user interviews or surveys. I conduct research to understand the current market, find out what is already being done, and what can be improved. From there I will create user personas and define the problem to be solved with design. The next steps are to begin designing a solution with paper sketches, high fidelity wireframes, and an initial prototype. I like to conduct usability testing early and often, to catch errors and opportunities to improve as soon as possible. The design can be refined and revised until the end product achieves the goal of meeting the users' needs.

Now that I’ve completed the course, I am pursuing a UX Design role. I hope to use my skills to design things that help improve the health and wellness of people and our planet. In the meantime, I am working on a freelance project at the hospital to help create an education booklet for chronic pancreatitis patients.

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