Bridging Digital and Physical UX
This 45-minute interactive workshop explores why digital UX/UI principles are important in healthcare and how UX/UI skills can be applied in this work. Using our adapted heuristics tool from an Aging in Place case study, participants will evaluate real-world healthcare scenarios where smart technologies and physical spaces intersect.
Through hands-on activities and scenario-based discussions, participants will learn to evaluate usability in socio-technical systems, ensuring safety, independence, and dignity for users. This session provides one example of a practical framework for designing seamless, intuitive, and accessible experiences that integrate both digital and physical needs as it relates to innovation in healthcare.
Speakers
Kathryn Arnold
Human-Centered Design Lead at W21C
Kathryn is the Human-Centered Design Lead at W21C, supporting healthcare innovators in bridging the gap between innovation and real-world implementation. She specializes in behavioral design, scenario prototyping, and user-centered evaluations, ensuring that healthcare solutions are practical, scalable, and human-focused.
With a systems-oriented, evidence-informed approach, she integrates digital and physical environments to enhance accessibility, connectivity, and patient-provider interactions. Kathryn is passionate about translating research into actionable solutions, helping healthcare organizations and entrepreneurs design innovations that not only meet real-world needs but also foster meaningful human connections, ensuring that technology enhances, rather than replaces, the care essential to healthcare delivery.
Anna Bradford
Senior Research Associate - Human Factors at W21C
Anna is a Senior Human Factors Research Associate at W21C, where she applies a human-centered, evidence based approach to help innovators bridge the gap between emerging solutions and real-world implementation. With a background in biomedical technology, Anna specializes in integrating human factors and systems-thinking methodologies to support healthcare and technology innovators in designing solutions that are feasible, impactful, and – most importantly – usable.
Anna works at the intersection of research, design, and strategy, to ensure new technologies and services fit seamlessly into real-world environments. She thrives in the messy middle of problem-solving, where ideas evolve, users challenge assumptions, and potential solutions emerge. Whether conducting usability studies, facilitating workshops, or collaborating with partners, Anna applies a human-centered approach to ensure the solutions are intuitive, effective, and actually solve the problem they claim to.