A biologist turned designer
Using design ideation tactics to define my “why.”
“We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”
Maya Angelou
This adage brings to light the fact that you and I share something in common; complexity. Last Fall, someone pointed out to me, “Your background is so…different. Why did you pivot from medicine to UX?”
I felt like I couldn’t move. The question seized me, and wouldn’t let up. I stuttered out an answer that really had no depth or intentionality. The feeling felt familiar; when you know you’ve just told a lie to a person who can see right through it.
The inquisitor held a puzzled expression for a few seconds, examined my face and persisted, “sure…but, why?”
The Fallacy of Familiar
As humans, we try to make sense of the world around us. We can’t help it. Our brains evolved to sort and classify information about our environments, from animal habits to plant life in order to survive and propagate our genes. However, do these prodigious taxonomic capabilities still aid us in the modern era?
For one, it’s helped us establish the groups we interact with, or our in-groups. We stick with people that are familiar, as their behavior is the most predictable. However, the moment an out-group member approaches, we become cautious and apprehensive. Of course, the best examples of this are race and culture.
The same principle applies to our social circles and extends into the office, where we practice our passions with similar people. Let’s pretend everyone in your office ticks every box on the job listing, except for one individual. She’s one of those career-changers. She thinks differently than the rest of the office and seems to come up with ideas more rapidly. You pegged her as a wannabe outsider when she first started, but her work defied your in-group favoritism. She excels at her job, and her diversified perspective synergistically adds, rather than subtracts from your company’s work.
Only 27% of college graduates in the United States have a job related to their major. So…is familiar always better?
Mindful Rationality
The question still remained: why? In that moment, I couldn’t answer. What I couldn’t tell that individual was that I was upset with my clinical experience, where focus was put on billing and insurance rather than care and empathy. I also couldn’t explain how I’d been speaking with UX researchers and designers from companies like LinkedIn, Reddit, Facebook, and a healthcare designer to really evaluate if this pivot was the right one. Why couldn’t I explain all this? Because trying to make sense of your life is truly, incredibly difficult. Only after going through my UX bootcamp with General Assembly did I realize I could use ideation tactics to dive deep into my past and provide rationality to my way-finding.
For the sake of this article, I’m going to lend from my pal, Simon Sinek, and his golden circle to explain my what, how and why for this activity.
I wanted to find the logic behind my actions. Everything I’ve done has been rooted in mindfulness, a grounded awareness which I methodically use to guide me through life. I feel things out to understand if those things belongs in my life. In this way, I tried out medicine, tinkered in neuroscience labs and found my way to UX.
However, this doesn’t translate well when explaining to someone who you are. Your story is yours, you don’t have to justify your choices to anyone. However, being relatable to the people you tell your story to will yield you a spot in their in-group, and this can be a very valuable thing.
A Synthesis of Me
Armed with a solid understanding of why I felt it necessary to affinity map myself, I wrote all of my experiences, strengths, weaknesses, things I love about UX and what my future roles might be on sticky notes. I put everything on my bedroom wall and got this:
This was the tricky bit. I needed to understand the natural relationships that existed between my past experiences and current interests. I mapped topics I found similar. For example, I put ethnographic research and clinical observation together, as both require observing people in their natural habitat. However, to me, evolution can also be grouped there, because for me learning about evolution was simply observing nature over time. In this truly introspective way, I organized my map, my way.
Interestingly, two main groups emerged:
user experience
empathy & compassion
What did these groups and their inter-related contents tell me, about myself? Well for one, my seemingly disparate background actually worked to reinforce skills I practice in UX. For example, I may have taken a crazy course in undergrad called psychophysics lab, where there’s no user in the name. However, what if I told you I carried out 3 major eye-tracking experiments during that semester and have some knowledge on the F-shaped pattern seen in web content reading.
I’ve always been interested in social justice and worked in a nonprofit in undergrad called GlobeMed to put my interests into action. But on a deeper level, social justice is about equality, righting wrongs, and fundamentally about changing a population’s experience of life.
While going through this self-analysis, I quickly realized; essentially everything in my background has been geared towards improving the lives of others.
By way of scientific research, hospice volunteering, or user experience design, the goal has always been to innovate, improve and leave the world a better place than how I found it. This was the least common denominator I was looking for. This was the unapologetic answer to that person’s “why?”
A Biologist Turned Designer
A few weeks ago, I got coffee with a designer who asked me Simon Sinek’s favorite question. This time, however, I felt different about how I’d answer. I didn’t stutter, sneeze awkwardly or freak out. I turned the question back to her, and instead of asking why, I asked, “What led you to where you are today?”
And together, we told each other our stories, without regard for familiarity, requirements, or years of experience. Just two people, who didn’t quite “fit the mold,” working to design a better world.
Thanks for reading — I’m currently a UX Researcher & Designer looking for new opportunities. Feel free to get in touch or check out my website.
