Health Care Design Conference - 2013 Boston

Something that has always irritated me is how much research has been done on different learning styles, yet patient education is often uniform from person-to-person. If given the chance, I would love to pick several methods of explaining critical health and care information and find ways for providers to better understand which learning style works best for each patient.

What I share with people evolves with time and most often is a blog post or article that gets at the heart of UX. Lately this post from Whitney Hess on the evolution of the Swiffer is what I most often share.

Frankly, I spend a lot of time explaining what I do. When appropriate, I'll share a link with someone (family & friends, product managers, clients, etc) to show another side of UX and that I'm not the only experience designer in the world. The Swiffer post from Whitney is particularly inspiring because it serves as a reminder that despite small budgets and tight deadlines, try to get out of the office and actually observe people.

This is complicated. I guess it all began in 1977 when I was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma. Thankfully I have no memory of those early years, so fast forward to 2010. I was a new mom, working in user experience for a Fortune 50 company, and thinking about what the future held when I randomly (at least in my mind) diagnosed with stage III colon cancer. I'd had no symptoms, and certainly no belief that I could possible have been at risk for that until was at least 50. In nearly three years, I've had multiple surgeries, additional complications, chemo (including some lousy side effects), and health problems related to all these surgical procedures. Patient life is never-ending and my latest issue is a non-life threatening kidney condition. Though my friends may say otherwise, my attitude is not always cheery and positive. I do become frustrated, angry, and annoyed, but I try to put everything aside so I can focus on something else – helping other patients get through their own healthcare experiences as smoothly as possible.

This is easy. I want more exposure to other healthcare design practitioners, as well as those in other healthcare roles who are interested in experience design. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to share my story and look forward to hearing what other practitioners and patients have to say.

Come to my session because I'm honest and perhaps a bit blunt, so you'll hear my reality. If you want to understand the impact my own health problems have had on my career, how I research and design, and the positive and negative aspects of "being the user," you should definitely come.