Hi! I'm Chelsea, a UX/UI designer based in NYC. My journey into design looks a bit different from most designers'.

Before I ever opened Figma, I was working in the healthcare field as a Speech-Language Pathologist. In that role, I was surrounded by tools built for healthcare — some designed for clinicians, some designed for patients, but all lacking in basic usability. The clinical side, with its clunky EMR systems and billing software, showed me how poor design decreases efficiency of care, impacts patient outcomes, and contributes to burnout. The patient side made the usability issue even more apparent. My patients with physical, cognitive, and age-related challenges were presented with apps and digital tools meant to support their recovery and independence, yet the design of those tools often created more difficulty and frustration. There's a particular irony in an accessibility tool that isn't accessible.

That experience led me to UX design, and it's what continues to shape how I approach it. The skills that made me a good clinician — active listening, close observation, empathy — translate seamlessly into building products that work for real people. I care deeply about accessible, inclusive design, and given my background, I'm especially drawn to products that exist at the intersection of healthcare and technology, a space that deserves more careful, empathetic design than it usually gets.