Products are all around us, and those daily interactions we have with products can connect us with others. The products we make are inherently influenced by personal experience. It is impossible to be unbiased as a designer, and so inevitably, the products we create are shaped by our own experiences with them. I designed for rock climbers as I rock climbed, I designed for delivery rooms while I was pregnant, and now, as a mother, I can’t help but think about and design for other mothers. As I created, I wasn’t only designing for myself, I was designing through the lens that I saw myself and others. Designing based on personal experience doesn’t mean that you are designing in a vacuum, it means that you are letting your own daily life open your eyes to a world of problems to solve. Your own views can give you a window into other peoples’ lives. As a designer, I have the ability to enrich another person’s life as I design thoughtfully through research and iteration. The best part of the process is seeing that what I made made a difference to someone else. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayla-stowe/