As a User Experience designer for Deepend, I create user journeys for people I don’t know and who I may never meet, every day. My goal is to enable these users to interact with an interface with ease and intuition. However, what I had overlooked was the reality that these interfaces were not always in the digital space.
I recently read a statistic that more than 1.5 billion people in the world have never even used a computer. It made me think, can UX extend beyond digital and into life? Can I help someone on their journey far from my traditional area of expertise?
Every day I come into a job I love and take for granted the ease of my bus ride in and my daily challenges. I started to think of ways I could help some of these people I will never meet and those whose journey in life is much more difficult than my own. What I decided to do was help by challenging myself beyond anything I ever imagined. I decided to climb a mountain. A really big one.
My sister, Lana, works as a communications assistant at the SAN hospital in Wahroonga. She works closely with Operation Open Heart Australia. A humanitarian organisation that provides heart surgery to children in south-eastern Asia who can’t afford, or don’t have trained surgeons, to execute such complex operations.
This aid struck a cord with me. I approached Lana and we decided to help raise funds for Operation Open Heart and to do it by reaching the summit of the biggest mountain in South East Asia. Borneo: Mount Kinabalu.
Deepend funded the cost of my hike as part of their new Positive Change Initiative. Once booked, Lana and I set up a page and used social media channels to help us raise over $1700 for Operation Open Heart. As rewarding as that was, the greatest reward was reaching the top.
On the 15th April 2013, our journey began… and it was not easy. The stairs; in no way were they user friendly. I carefully calculated every step, felt every breath, every bead of sweat and every heart beat until I reached the top at 6:20am on the 16th April, 4098m above sea level.
No one could ever prepare you for a view like this one. The sky was on fire and the giant rock beneath my feet was millions of years old. I was standing on top of the world. Being up that high and being so small in comparison certainly makes you question your existence and your journey in life.
My passion for user experience design, in turn saved a child’s life; whom I will never meet. My climb to the top started in the office and ended on a mountain. It has made me realise the opportunities and experiences you can create for yourself and others with an open mind, an open heart, a goal and a little creativity.
