Great products are born of great empathy.

Although I spend my days drawing boxes, user experience design begins with listening; without it, both theories and boxes are empty.

The real work, though? Collaboration. Designers, engineers, and stakeholders each have unique insights and ways of communicating. Sometimes, UX is translation work.

Then comes the advocacy: pushing back at times on behalf of the user, the human on the other side of the glass whose day might be made worse because of a careless “yes”.

Listening, collaborating, advocating: in these are empathy developed. 

Only then are the boxes drawn, the pixels polished, the words selected. Only then does the product come alive.