Finding UX: a new world, a familiar feeling
This is my origin story of how I became a UX designer. This is why I’m here
I fell into UX design by accident, and fell in love with it on purpose. Learning about this field was like learning of a place that you feel is a part of you without ever having been there. It was the best intersection of who I am, where my interests are, what my strengths are, and where I come from. My high school English teacher, Mr. Delo, asked us three questions that are essential to reflect on in understanding our parts in life:
Where did we come from?
Why are we here?
Where are we going?
I knew that where I came from would complement my transition into UX. Having answered the first question in my previous post, I now want to shift the focus to the present day through the lens of my experiences to answer the second question:
WHY AM I HERE?
Looking Back and Leaping Ahead
I took a leap of faith, bet on myself, and enrolled in the Bloc bootcamp (now under Thinkful) in June 2019. I fell in love with the design process of problem seeking then problem solving: from researching and discovering problems to exploring solutions, developing and testing them, and then iterating and re-testing. I of course realized that in the real world it’s never that smooth. As I worked on more projects, I found myself enjoying the latter part of the design process where I could develop wireframes, prototypes, high-fidelity user interfaces, and testing (and re-testing) those designs. I found the balance of leveraging my technical background with my love of creative expression and thinking. Taking this step has opened me up to a community and a profession that I am eternally grateful to now be a part of. Post-graduation, thinking back to my prior experiences, I saw and applied UX principles and thought processes without realizing it before! Putting those pieces of the puzzles together retrospectively helped me solidify my ‘why.’
Biomedical Engineering and UX
My undergraduate experience in biomedical engineering at Rutgers University inadvertently prepared me for tackling design problems using a systems thinking approach by breaking large or complex problems into smaller, incremental tasks to be done. In engineering, the products and systems that you create to solve a real-life problem can have severe ramifications if you do not perform quality assurance. For example, when my father goes to get a fitting done for a new prosthetic leg, missing any measurement by even half a millimeter can result in a myriad of issues: loss of balance, difficulty walking, and muscle pains in the stump and/or lower back due to extra efforts to compensate for the physical imbalance. That’s why in the office, the prosthetist observes my father’s gait (how he walks), makes notes, and then adjusts as needed until everyone is satisfied with the final fit.
My classmates and I also realized that if we wanted to go far, we had to go through class struggles together. Through these shared experiences, I met some of the most wonderful people who are still some of my closest friends despite everyone having gone their separate walks of life. Being in such a demanding and technically rigorous field of study meant collaborating A LOT, lending a hand by filling in knowledge gaps, and putting our collective brains together to solve problems (such as the concentration of a drug inside the body after X hours have passed, or replicating the electrical principles that enable pulse oximeters to work). Instead of a senior thesis, we broke off into groups of 4–7 and created our own engineering design projects. My team and I came up with a money-saving proof-of-concept system to conduct total knee replacement surgeries, and we won third place of the 20+ groups that year. We each had different strengths, and by exploring each other’s work styles and interests, we were able to come together to realize this idea in the first place.
So what’s biomedical engineering got to do with UX design?
My undergraduate experience taught me that, like in the UX design field, product success can heavily depend on teamwork and collaboration. Being a team player who’s willing to play to strengths, learn new things, and communicate with others is invaluable. Science in general is about testing your hypotheses, and as with UX design, it’s important to test and retest to gather data and reproducible results that inform the next step(s) in your process.
Clinical Research and UX
I started out at New York University Langone Medical Center (NYULMC) as a part of their in-house temp pool; this was the lowest hanging fruit to start building my professional repertoire post-Rutgers. In my time at NYULMC, I worked on 2 clinical studies of different sizes and complexity. One was small scale and involved face-to-face communication with participants, while the other had many moving parts and many more stakeholders we collaborated with.
I was first staffed on a 4-week assignment. I spoke to and recruited candidates in the university’s student health center to participate in a study where they would self-screen to identify patterns and degrees of substance abuse. My manager and I positioned ourselves to the side of the reception area and as students passed by or were waiting for their appointments, we would speak with them to build some rapport as we informed them of our goals, how they may help, and how they benefit. Interested students would fill out a screening on an iPad, we would capture the data, and eligible students would be asked to use an app designed to help control and mitigate alcohol consumption, with periodic follow-ups. In 3 weeks, I hit our recruitment target of 70 students and moved on to another assignment: the ISCHEMIA Trial.
The ISCHEMIA Trial was a juggernaut and the first of its kind that tested two standard-of-care practices for patients with heart disease: conservative versus invasive treatments. Under this umbrella trial were several “ancillary,” or additional supportive trials. I worked on the ISCHEMIA-CKD Trial that looked at patients with chronic kidney disease who also had heart problems, as this demographic tends to be overlooked in diagnosis and treatment. I was one of the primary contacts for 300+ research sites and hospitals worldwide, to help facilitate conversations and provide support where and when needed during the patient recruitment period.
I also had the pleasure of designing monthly newsletters to communicate trial-related updates to these sites. Each month I picked a relevant theme and color palette and ran with it. The project manager and principal investigator would discuss expectations for style, layout, and content. I had to manage both their expectations, what study teams want and need, and of course, what I felt was best. Without realizing it at the time I was already trying to figure out best practices in design, from color psychology to typography. Pushing these newsletters out resulted in positive reception by study teams, which led to a boost in patient enrollments soon after. I took great joy in these projects among my many other duties.
So what’s clinical research got to do with UX design?
Iterating fast and on the fly is important while also being able to balance multiple perspectives and expectations. Being a UX designer means also forming relationships and connections to folks you work with and for. Actively involving other teams and stakeholders and building those relationships is mutually beneficial: they know what you’re there to do, how you’ll do it, and why; you can roll up your sleeves and get to work with buy-in from other teams to reach all desired objectives. Teamwork and collaboration lead to something greater than the sum of its parts.
Education and UX
The New York City Teaching Fellows (NYCTF) is a learn-by-doing type of program because of how accelerated it is, and so my training involved teaching summer school biology to students who either didn’t pass the class or didn’t pass the state-mandated Regents exam for the subject. This was the second time I was thrown in the deep end to start and ended up delivering results (with the first being my time working on the ISCHEMIA-CKD trial at NYU Langone when my supervisors left for India on business for my first 3 weeks on the job). While NYCTF provides graduate-level courses in education through local universities, I grew the most in front of my students. As I contended with multiple learning styles and personalities in the same space, I had to iterate and adapt my lesson plans (sometimes on the fly) to capture and maintain students’ interest and focus.
Being a teacher transcends instruction of content and knowledge. I was responsible for the wellbeing of 30+ students, for their growth as young adults, for managing their behaviors and encouraging them towards bettering themselves. There were times where I had to have conversations with students that went beyond their time in the classroom and into the burdens they were carrying and what they were feeling, sometimes with little or no support. Burdens that I have seen elsewhere before or have experienced myself. I found that because I spoke to those students as people, beyond the lens of an authoritative figure to a subordinate, they were generally more invested in the class. Each person is unique in their struggles and strengths. Taking some time to learn a little about each student helped me better connect and build mutual trust.
So what’s education got to do with UX design?
This experience reminded me that the human experience is not monolithic. Designing for others, whether it’s a product, a service, a curriculum, or a system, comes with a great sense of responsibility. This was something I had not been aware of until I stepped into the classroom. The same can and must be said about creating or reworking products as a UX designer. When teaching off your lesson plans, it’s important to note what techniques succeed in engaging students and what don’t, so that you can adapt on the spot or the next day. This is essentially A/B testing on a much more consistent level. When in a position of power or authority, acting in the interest of those you are managing is what drives cooperation, trust, and community. If they are motivated, it makes your job easier because you can focus on progressing forward instead of playing catch-up. Empathy is the foundation for understanding others and their pain, but compassion can help drive change.
An Empathetic and Solution-Oriented Approach
My father has worn a prosthetic left leg since the late 1970s. Growing up seeing how he walked, joining him in clinic visits to make adjustments to the leg, and my fascination with biomechanics (the study of movement in living things) all led me to explore biomedical engineering as a career path in the first place. Part of me still wanted hands-on experience in the space, despite the already unconventional path my career had taken. So, for a few months, I volunteered at Mobility Clinic as an informal apprentice. While the work itself was interesting (e.g. fitting braces, crafting prosthetic sockets, analyzing patients’ biomechanics and literal pain points), I found myself more drawn to the people we were serving. Hearing their stories always resonated with me since it went beyond empathy. There was a true understanding I had because of my proximity to their stories.
To bridge what my time at Mobility Clinic has to do with UX design, I want to share an experience I had.
During a visit my supervisor and I made to a patient’s home to test out prosthetics she needed for both legs, her partner was getting frustrated as she was having a difficult time adapting them. Since this was her first time trying on prosthetic legs, she was still relying heavily on her wheelchair. It got to a point where the patient wanted to stop despite my supervisor and I encouraging her. I took the gentleman to the side and explained to him why his approach was not helping. I said that my father had been in similar states before, to which he snapped, saying “well that’s your problem!” My immediate response was that “she is your responsibility.” I knew that he had been battling fatigue of being a caretaker, but I reminded him that as able-bodied people, we take many things for granted our loved ones no longer have. They didn’t choose their circumstances, but they want to make the best of them. It then behooves us to be that bridge between where they are and where they want to be, both physically and metaphorically. After this conversation, he was the most encouraging person in the room, cheering his partner on; eventually, she had managed to get accustomed to her new legs!
Summarizing My ‘Why’
I fell into UX design by accident, and fell in love with it on purpose. I can build on my past experiences working with teams, researching, and clever problem-solving. I get to add a creative and personal touch to do that work and give back to a world that could use more good in it. I love connecting with people through design and art, hearing their stories and learning from them. This quote (from a top-notch anime called Psycho-Pass) says it best:
“I want to see the splendor of people’s souls.”
The human experience is not a monolith and as a designer I aim to solve problems for users in a way that marries art and science. Ultimately, through the practice of design I can fulfill a purpose greater than myself, while also being able to bring as much of myself to my work as possible and utilize my uniqueness as a strength. I am eager and excited to bring this passion into my jobs and my own future goals.
Thank you, dear reader, for joining me as I recount my journey into UX design! What is your ‘why?’ What experiences do you draw on to answer that? I love hearing people’s stories and having a hearty conversation about life, UX, food, anime, Star Wars, and many many things in between! Let’s connect on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Clubhouse (@ayoubience)! And feel free to check my work out at https://ahmedayoub.design/. Cheers :)
