How I Discovered UX Design
Years ago when I was sitting in front of my computer in a nursing home, I didn’t know that there was a technical term for what I was experiencing and problem-solving in that moment, until years later.
I hung up the phone and held my head in my hands as I chuckled to myself in moderate bewilderment.
My colleague had just confirmed that, yes, as the rehab manager I would have to continue on a daily basis to hand-count on my desktop monitor how many billable therapy units were expected to be provided that day for the entire department — because our assigned scheduling software couldn’t do it for me (or my boss).
We then had to handwrite those units onto a printed PDF form and fax it to our boss by the deadline each morning. The form was then archived in a manila folder in one of the many bloated filing cabinet drawers until enough time passed that you felt you could shred it.
Many managers kept those pieces of paper on file for six months or more (if you ever need to strike fear into the heart of a rehab manager— whisper gently into their ear the word “audit”).
Being the somewhat more technically-oriented professional compared to most of my peers managing other sites, I made the decision to instead type the tallies into a Word document, convert to PDF, save to my time-labeled folder archive on my local drive (no backup available), attach the file to email, and shoot off the report to my boss. I experienced some relief in saving time, trees, and toner. Especially toner.
I quickly came to accept that my employer was more than willing to pay me nearly six figures to choose either my index finger or writing-utensil-as-stylus to hand-count these units every day as part of my morning duties. To make the best of my bewilderment, I felt that re-designing the process in a way that I found more acceptable softened my frustration.
I didn’t have any control over the software’s inability to provide me with critical departmental operations data on a daily basis, and so I modified my task approach while meeting my employer’s needs and preserving a sliver of my sanity.
After a few more years of continued technical problem-solving in similar positions across different companies, Life hit the reset button.
I relocated from Chicago to Silicon Valley and had some thinking to do about my career trajectory, knowing that I’d been ready for years to move on from my current path. After learning about different careers in tech, I came across the mysterious initialism (yeah, technically not an acronym) “UX.”
The more I read about user experience research and design, the more I realized that what I had been doing all these years in improving and streamlining procedures and processes in my various healthcare roles was just that, except I often didn’t have the tools or authority to make every change that was needed, especially when it came to modifying electronic medical records and billing systems.
I was intrigued by my discovery and soon after began my journey in UX studies.
In my next post, I plan to share the process I went through in determining how to move forward with studying UX.
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