Seniors Are Sickest infographic showing chronic condition burden by body system across age cohorts
Policy and Stakeholder Communications Healthcare Data Visualization Data Storytelling 2024–2025

West Health Institute — Healthcare Affordability Research

Senior UX Designer role translating dense policy research into communication tools for lawmakers, researchers, and students. Built on the West Health-Gallup Survey on Aging in America, a nationally representative study of 5,000+ U.S. adults.

Collaborators
West Health + Gallup
Research and editorial alignment
Stack
Figma, React, D3.js
Recharts, Next.js, Storyblok CMS
Team
Distributed
Offshore developers across time zones

The Challenge

The data was rigorous and the stakes were real. Over 80% of older adults live with at least one chronic condition. An estimated 72 million Americans skipped needed care in a single three-month window because they couldn't afford it. By 2030, seniors will make up 20% of the U.S. population. The research said all of this clearly. The problem was making it land for audiences who don't read 36-page policy reports.

What I Designed

A suite of communication interfaces and data storytelling products that translated survey findings into tools people could actually read, absorb, and use. That meant decisions about hierarchy, visual weight, narrative entry points, and what to cut. The "Seniors Are Sickest" infographic organizes chronic condition burden by body system and age cohort, giving readers a spatial way into data that would otherwise require deep reading. Color does categorical work. The body silhouette grounds the statistics in something human. The layout lets readers navigate at their own pace rather than following a forced sequence.

Key Design Decisions

  • Led end-to-end UX and front-end development across the full publication pipeline, from research output to finished web products
  • Translated survey findings into visual hierarchies that served both general audiences and policy-focused readers
  • Used progressive disclosure to let the data breathe without hiding the complexity underneath
  • Coordinated across research, editorial, and product stakeholders at West Health and Gallup to keep outputs aligned with policy goals
  • Integrated AI tools across data exploration, content workflows, and rapid iteration cycles to accelerate delivery

Design Principle

The numbers already tell the story. The designer's job is to make sure the reader doesn't have to work to find it.

Pedi Crisis pediatric emergency decision support application showing crisis event selection screen
Healthcare Clinical Decision Support Human Factors Cross-Platform UX 2012–2013

Pediatric Crisis Decision Support System — Pedi Crisis

In collaboration with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Society for Pediatric Anesthesiologists, I designed a mobile cognitive aid for pediatric anesthesia emergencies, translating clinical crisis protocols into interactive treatment algorithms for iOS and Windows 8 tablets.

Platforms
iOS + Windows 8
Cross-platform clinical deployment
Use Case
OR emergencies
Decision support under stress
Core Function
Interactive algorithms
Weight-based dosing and treatment guidance

The Challenge

Operating room emergencies are rare, fast-moving, and high risk. In pediatric anesthesia, clinicians must diagnose, treat, and coordinate as a team while managing weight-based dosing and rapidly changing conditions. Printed references were too slow, and even experienced providers can miss steps when cognitive load spikes.

What I Designed

The system guided clinicians through a repeatable emergency workflow: select the crisis event, enter patient weight, confirm recognition criteria, follow staged treatment steps, review medication dosing, and move to a common end-of-algorithm review. The structure supported rare but life-threatening pediatric events such as anaphylaxis, bradycardia, hyperkalemia, airway fire, hypoxia, transfusion reactions, and cardiac arrest.

Key Design Decisions

  • Translated paper crisis protocols into interactive algorithm flows clinicians could follow in real time
  • Structured each event around the same pattern: event selection, recognition, treatment, dosing, escalation, and resolution
  • Designed weight capture as a persistent system input so medication guidance stayed relevant throughout the workflow
  • Used clear checklist interactions and progressive disclosure to reduce cognitive overload during emergencies
  • Maintained the same clinical workflow across iOS and Windows 8 while adapting to each platform's interaction model

How the System Worked

  • Converted paper checklists and treatment pathways into interactive Yes/No treatment flows
  • Kept patient weight visible and editable throughout the experience so dosing stayed accurate
  • Added a crisis timer to track elapsed time once an algorithm began
  • Created cross-links between related algorithms for escalation and differential diagnosis
  • Standardized a shared end-state screen prompting team review, therapy options, ICU transfer, consults, and procedure cancellation decisions
  • Included action logs, settings, hotline information, and other support features for real-world use

Cross-Platform Design

iOS and Windows 8 required different UI conventions, but the clinical workflow had to remain consistent. I adapted the interface to each platform while preserving the same underlying algorithm structure, navigation logic, and treatment sequence. Clinicians could rely on the same mental model regardless of device.

Process and Collaboration

Algorithms were revised through ongoing collaboration with clinical stakeholders to improve symptom ordering, simplify navigation, standardize medication units, merge related pathways, and clarify escalation logic. That collaboration shaped not just the screens but the decision model itself.

Design Principle

Do not ask clinicians to remember the protocol. Put the protocol in the interface, keep it structured, and make the next step obvious.

Pedi Crisis treatment workflow detail showing interactive algorithm steps
Pedi Crisis algorithm checklist and dosing detail
Providence Health System clinical desktop unification project
Healthcare Enterprise Workflow Constraint Navigation 2021–2022

Providence Clinical Desktop Unification

At Providence Health System, one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the country, I originated and led a project to reduce the workflow fragmentation that came with decades of hospital acquisitions. The goal was a unified clinical desktop that let administrators and providers manage requests across multiple systems without leaving a single interface.

Environment
Citrix secured desktop
Security-perimeter constrained
Users
Admins & providers
Administrators and clinical providers
Problem
Fragmented workflows
Multi-app switching across acquired hospital systems

The Challenge

Providence absorbed over 100 cyberattacks daily. That threat level required keeping the entire clinical desktop inside a Citrix security perimeter. It was the right call. But it meant that Epic, ServiceNow, and a patchwork of other systems inherited from acquired hospitals all lived as separate applications inside a walled garden with no shared layer connecting them.

Administrators bore the heaviest cost. Approving or denying routine requests—a new computer for cardiology, a schedule change, a supply order—meant navigating between multiple applications for tasks that should take seconds. Providers had the same problem. Everyone interviewed said the same thing: they wanted one place to handle this, and the constant switching was eating their time.

The Approach

The director who originated the initiative had prior experience at Citrix and identified a widget feature that could serve as an aggregation layer inside the secured desktop. The idea was to surface consolidated request workflows from Epic, ServiceNow, and other systems inside a single Citrix dashboard, available on login, without requiring users to launch separate applications.

I hired and led the development team, conducted discovery interviews with administrators and providers, and designed the workflow model. Our first test case was administrator request approvals: one interface, one click per request, no app switching.

Where It Broke Down

Two constraints converged and closed off the path.

The only sanctioned build tool for the Citrix widget was a low-code environment that couldn't support what we were designing. The workaround was to surface a web application inside the widget space, but that created security vulnerabilities the Citrix perimeter existed to prevent. We couldn't use the sanctioned tool and we couldn't safely use the workaround.

While we were working through this, Citrix engineers began signaling informally that the widget feature itself was not long for the platform. Shortly after, it was sunsetted entirely. The one mechanism that could aggregate inside the security boundary was gone.

What We Proposed Instead

We came back to leadership with an alternative. A standalone web application dashboard with broader scope, designed to span not just the original use cases but the full patchwork of systems across every hospital Providence had acquired. It was technically stronger and more scalable than the original widget approach.

But it couldn't meet the one non-negotiable requirement: available on login, inside the perimeter, without adding another application to the stack. Leadership made the right call and shut the project down. The team was reassigned.

What This Shows

The problem was real and validated. The approach was sound given the constraints available at the time. The technical path was closed by an external vendor decision, not a design failure. When it closed, we identified an alternative that would have worked in a different environment and were honest about what it couldn't do.

Designing inside a hostile constraint environment, where every integration decision carries a security implication and the vendor landscape can shift under you, is a different discipline than designing for a clean greenfield product. This project was that discipline.

Design Principle

Know which constraints are load-bearing before you build against them. When the foundation changes, stop, assess what's still possible, and say clearly what isn't.

T-Mobile internal sales analytics business intelligence platform
Business Intelligence Enterprise Analytics Internal Tools 2016–2020

T-Mobile Internal Sales Analytics Platform

Senior UX Software Engineer role designing and building an Angular-based business intelligence platform used by thousands of management and executive users for data-driven decision making.

Scale
1000s of users
Management & executive level
Innovation
First Agile team
Template for entire department
Lifespan
4 years
Active production use

The Challenge

T-Mobile leadership needed a scalable business intelligence platform that could serve both current reporting needs and adapt to predicted forms of data. Multiple access levels required different views of the same underlying data without creating maintenance nightmares.

Key Design Decisions

  • Determined user needs across all access levels through stakeholder interviews with leadership
  • Designed UI that made the app serve both current and predicted data structures
  • Implemented MVC architecture using Angular for clean separation of concerns
  • Conceptualized scalable platform to be reused for future internal apps
  • Led first team to adopt Agile Scrum methodology, which became department standard

Technical Implementation

Built with Angular MVC architecture, designed for maintainability and reusability. Collaborated with data analysts on ongoing upgrades until sunset in 2020. The platform's architecture was reused multiple times for subsequent internal tools.

T-Mobile sales platform design artifact
T-Mobile call center performance and coaching platform
Performance Analytics Employee Tools Data Visualization 2017

Call Center Performance & Coaching Platform

Redesigned the application call center staff used to track progress and predict monthly bonuses, combining data visualization with T-Mobile's energetic culture.

User Impact
Self-service
Employees predict bonus eligibility
Management View
Aggregated stats
By location and team

The Challenge

Care team needed a redesign that maintained T-Mobile's fun, enthusiastic culture while giving employees clear visibility into bonus calculations. Management needed aggregated statistics organized by location. The challenge: make complex performance metrics feel approachable and motivating.

Key Design Decisions

  • Worked with Java developer to realize dynamic tile function possibilities (interactive gauges, real-time updates)
  • Designed predictive interface allowing employees to model "what if" scenarios for bonus optimization
  • Created enthusiasm-driven UI matching call center culture without sacrificing data clarity
  • Built hierarchical views: individual performance → team → location aggregations

Design Philosophy

Turned dry performance metrics into an engaging, game-like experience. The UI celebrated achievements while providing actionable insights for improvement—reflecting T-Mobile's unique approach to employee motivation.

Call center performance platform design artifact
NOAA Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund data tracking system
Government / Conservation Data Systems Data Visualization 2012

NOAA Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund Tracker

Government conservation project tracking system connecting scientists, policymakers, and students through multi-level data access and visualization.

Audience
Multi-level
Scientists to students
Data Handling
Oracle APEX
Complex scientific datasets

The Challenge

Tracking information for salmon recovery projects required serving vastly different user needs: scientists wanting raw data tables, policymakers needing summaries, and students requiring educational context. Database queries returned massive tables of scientific data that needed progressive disclosure.

Key Design Decisions

  • Designed familiar webpage interface with intuitive navigation
  • Built progressive disclosure: summaries in graphics/charts for general users, full scientific data access on demand
  • Integrated with Oracle database using APEX (HTML/CSS front-end)
  • Created visualization layer that made complex conservation metrics accessible to non-scientists
  • Also designed commercial fisherman trading app with regulatory compliance built-in

Design Principle

Don't hide the complexity—layer it. Scientists got their tables, students got their charts, everyone got value from the same underlying data.

NOAA salmon recovery tracking system artifact
NORAD Tracks Santa responsive holiday website
High-Traffic Responsive Design Performance 2013–2014

NORAD Tracks Santa

Rebuilt holiday multimedia site from scratch after predecessor's indecipherable code caused production bugs. Millions of global users on Christmas Eve.

Performance
Bug-free launch
After previous year's failures
Code Quality
Reusable codebase
Used for future versions

The Challenge

2013 site launched with bugs due to deliberately obfuscated JavaScript. Lead programmer was fired, leaving company scrambling for 2014 deployment. Brought in late in the game to rebuild entire site with weeks to deadline.

Key Design Decisions

  • Threw out previous year's code completely
  • Rebuilt from scratch using Bootstrap, jQuery, and Greensock JS for animations
  • Optimized for performance under massive traffic spikes
  • Built fully responsive (kids use whatever device they can access)
  • Created maintainable codebase using well-supported libraries

What I Said No To

Clever code. No custom animation engines, no framework reinvention, no showing off. Used battle-tested libraries and clear documentation so the next person could actually maintain it.

Fun Fact

When NPR ran the headline "NORAD Tracks Santa Begins with a Typo" for the 2014 launch, I nearly had a heart attack before realizing they meant the 1953 origin story.

NORAD Tracks Santa design artifact