To me, the user experience discipline started with a chair. The art museum near my childhood home has hundreds of them. They’re proud of them. Chairs in every material imaginable and unimaginable, every shape and size. Wandering among the chairs, I found myself bewildered and then fascinated. How can there be so many solutions for an apparently simple problem? Aren’t chairs a “solved problem”?

That’s when I realized what design is. It’s being tireless, iterating and advocating, and challenging assumptions at every turn. It’s an opportunity to be artist, scientist, creator- and humbled.

And then my sister was born. She’s not an inspiration or a charity case, she’s a role model. She has Down syndrome and she and many of her friends live in a world that excludes her and doesn’t take the time to understand. The best part is that she’s the most universally authentic and inclusive person I know.

As designers, we can include. This is authentic inclusion, which is inclusion for all, not just those who “need it.”UX is inseparable from culture, history, and lived experience. When we take the time to understand the full personhood of our users, we are designers. It’s possible to create a more inclusive world, and I am part of that possibility.

My design is research forward, authentically inclusive, and joyous. With a background in clinical research and cognitive psychology, I have skills uncommon in the UX world such as statistical analysis, cognitive and visual accessibility, and bias reduction.

I’m also a photographer and a writer and enjoy giving UX copy the attention it deserves.

The rest of the time, I’m climbing rocks, fixing houses, and catching up on Solzhenitsyn.