A Day in the Life of a UX Design Consultant

In this month's Day in the Life of, we spend time with Katie Price, UX Design Consultant for Team Consulting. Katie leads an active life driven by compassion and a desire to improve people's lives. 

Working across multiple teams of varying specialisms, Katie helps support the development and communication of our digital design capability. She is driven to identify what makes users “tick”, and turn these findings into requirements that drive design decisions to deliver impactful experiences. Team Consulting has a 40-year history of advancing the future of medical technology delighting end users, clients, and clinicians.

Please could you outline your background and the career path that has led you to your current position? 

Before becoming a UX Design Consultant, I designed mobile apps and medical device UX in connected health. I studied at Brunel University (London, UK) and graduated in 2020 with a degree in Industrial Design and Technology.

What would be the perfect start to your day? 

Getting up and active in the morning sunshine (which is quite common in Cambridge)! This sets me up well for a productive day working with my incredibly talented colleagues on challenging and exciting medical device projects.

Could you describe a typical day in your role? 

I’m generally straight into either design or research work. When designing, I’m often meticulously creating robust design systems simultaneously too – this not only makes working easier throughout a project, but it’s incredibly satisfying! If I’m doing research and innovation work, I’ll check in with the rest of the team or project manager on progress, align on deliverables, and proceed.

Could you describe the most challenging or interesting day in your career so far?

One of my first projects at Team was to design a mixed reality solution to elevate burns training for surgeons. I was fortunate enough to undertake some contextual research in Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the UK, where I observed how surgeons train for treating burns patients and how they complete their diagnosis. I was behind a one-way mirror with the training staff who were using controls to change the scenario and patients’ behaviour and responses in the practice room. After the training sessions, I was able to look closely at the equipment the surgeons trained with, such as the mannequins, and asked them questions to gain a unique understanding of their perspective.

It was an incredible experience that reinforced just how invaluable in-person research is to a design project. Conducting the contextual research allowed me to identify opportunities for design intervention to improve the training experience, reduce costs and time, and ultimately, improve patient outcomes. 

What do you most like about your role? 

I love finding ways to make products, systems, and experiences better to improve outcomes for the user. I enjoy reading between the lines to understand where the real problems and design opportunities are and what makes people ‘tick’, so they keep coming back to use a product. As a designer, seeing your work come to life is one thing, but seeing the positive impacts on an end user is continuously rewarding. 

What inspired you to get into your field in the first place?

I’m not sure I can narrow this down to one exact poignant moment, but growing up, my family always encouraged me to be part of the solution, not the problem, which is something that runs through your veins as a designer. In the book “Be Useful” by Arnold Schwarzenegger, he has a rule that resonates with me as a designer, “No complaining about a situation unless you’re prepared to do something to make it better”. This quote sums up the motivation I feel to find solutions. It’s a mentality I try to take with me wherever I am and apply where possible, both in and out of work. 

What are the biggest challenges you face? What issues affect your role?

There are two that come to mind. The first is trying to push the boundaries of creativity in the medical space – trying to merge the Venn diagram of sophisticated personal products and design for health is a real challenge due to regulatory constraints, which can sometimes restrict creative execution.

The second is keeping up with the speed at which human expectations and demands are changing in the products they use. It’s important to stay on top of this and embody this thinking when designing user flows. We’re all used to convenience, and more recently with the rise of GenAI, this is further impacting what people expect out of their products.   

What would you consider your biggest achievement to date, what are you most proud of? 

Recently, I found out that a product I helped design in the past won a Good Design award within the medical category. It was a great feeling seeing my name on the list!

What advice would you give to other people aspiring to your position or getting into this field? 

Research, research, research! The answers and inspiration you’re looking for are held within your target users, especially if you cannot ‘class’ yourself as one, i.e. designing for a demographic you are not part of. Watch, interview, discuss, ideate with users as much as possible. The most successful and enjoyable projects I’ve worked on have been because I’ve kept a parallel connection with users throughout the journey, making sure I’m seeing the full picture and staying on track with design.

What would you like to see from the industry to better support diverse people in STEM? 

Making sure that everyone gets a fair opportunity to explore how exciting design, human factors or engineering can be. It’s important that as designers, we design for all. We should always recognise that the best projects come from a diverse group working together, so all opinions are considered. I’m lucky at Team to work with a diverse talent pool, which not only allows me to learn and develop my own skills and knowledge, but also ensures that each project is worked on by a range of subject experts. 

How can people in your position better support each other? 

Whether it’s within your own team, or at an event/meetup, I think knowledge sharing is extremely important. No matter the company, designers should all have one goal in mind – to make the world’s products and services better. Having a curious and honest design community ensures that the right people are working together to do the right thing.

At Team, we consciously make an effort to ensure everyone is aware of the vast knowledge and skills we have internally which helps maximise project quality and outcome. We are also committed to collaborating with others to improve the medical industry by our involvement with regulatory boards such as ISO and RAPS, creating useful articles for Team’s Insight magazine, and giving presentations at events.

Do you have any further career aspirations? What do you think your next steps will be? 

My next steps are to keep learning and growing as a designer in my field, absorbing as much as I can from the extremely talented people around me. I’m still early on in my career, so exposure and involvement are important. I’d love to work on a complex, cutting-edge medical project that could really shake things up – that would be really rewarding. The burns solution project I previously mentioned was a first for Team in terms of working in the mixed reality space, and with this experience now under our belts, I’m excited to see how we can continue to shape healthcare in future projects.

What do you see as the next big opportunity in your sector?

Not to jump on the bandwagon but maximising the best way to use AI within design is a journey I think a lot of companies are on right now. Especially as convenience is now a huge part of our lives, I think AI will have a huge part to play. I am however sceptical about the integration and share the common concerns about data privacy, so I think it needs to be diligently monitored. It will also be key to ensure products feel human, so they don’t lose personality and become generic. Apple’s recent news about its AI doctor feature launching next year is an example of this.

Who do you look up to in the industry? Who inspires you?

Solveiga Paktaite, a Brunel alumnus and award-winning entrepreneur who invented Mimica. The product is a food label, which was designed for people with visual impairments who cannot read text on packaging, to ‘feel’ if a product is out of date. While initially designed for accessibility, it has grown to be applicable to everyone, encouraging people to check their Mimica label before throwing food away, reducing waste. Solveiga has created an incredible product that has changed people’s behaviour and attitude to benefit a hugely important problem – something I strive to do as a designer for medical products that improve lives.

How do you incorporate wellbeing into your day? 

Making sure to catch up with friends. I’m a keen rower too, which means I spend a lot of time outdoors and exercising, generally every day. Each session is followed by a hearty meal! So – social time, outdoors, exercise, and food!

Is living sustainably important to you and how do you incorporate being environmentally friendly into your day?

Living sustainably is really important to me. Team Consulting holds a silver EcoVadis medal, which makes me feel good knowing that I work for a recognised eco-conscious company. My main vehicle is my bike, the office is 20km from home, which I cycle to, meaning I get around 2 hours of cycling time in the fresh air on my commute.

If you weren’t in this field, what would you being doing? 

Probably psychology. The subject fascinates me. I used to live with a psychology student at Brunel, and I remember each day coming home to ask her all about her day and what she had learned – I couldn’t get enough! Today, I get to work with fantastic behavioural scientists at Team, which allows me to learn from experts how behavioural science shapes the user experience to be both personalised and inclusive.

When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up? 

After deciding a mermaid wasn’t a feasible career pathway, I knew I wanted to do something creative but wasn’t sure exactly what. My choices to explore avenues in art and design, followed by my time at university, helped shape my passions into where I am today – working to design the best products and experiences within the healthcare and medical space.