Our “Get To Know” series features young professionals in Ohio who have started or pivoted to UX and adjacent fields in the last five years.
Zoë Wrisley, UXer and Community Advocate
Tell us a little about yourself! What do you enjoy outside of work?
I’m Zoë Wrisley, I love animals, music, and creativity; and I like to travel and see new places. I most recently visited Toronto for the first time to see a Beyonce concert with my friends. It was a dream of a lifetime experience for me, and the city is huge! This summer I’m growing a garden of fruits and vegetables, my first time trying to grow corn, okra, and watermelon- wish us luck! 
Tell us about your path to becoming a User Experience Designer (or whatever title or label you’re comfortable with.) How did you end up in this field?
While pursuing my undergraduate degree with a focus on political science, I had an internship that introduced me to the tech side of a government relations software company. Following the internship, I joined the IT department as a permanent employee and graduated from Kent State.
Having graduated in May of 2020, I felt swept into the uncertainty of the 2020 pandemic. I liked the work I was doing and enjoyed learning more about Information Tech and how to support web applications. Upon hearing about Kent State’s User Experience Design program, it seemed like a perfect fit considering my career path, and to be able to learn in a 100% online setting.
I call myself a UXer (I sort of made it up) because I have applied my UX knowledge, research strategy, and the design process in many different settings. After graduating from the program, I wanted to become a UX researcher, that being my strongest interest (but titles are not as important as vision and strategy within the work.) I worked on projects in a corporate setting with Fortune 500 clients to improve online services, and conducted research for designing technology and advocating for the needs of public schools and their supporting orgs. I recently took an entrepreneurial route with the goal of launching a desirable-to-user, problem-solving application.
What’s your favorite part of your workday, week, or the work you’re doing?
My favorite part about doing the work I do is having the power to be able to advocate for others and make a real difference in their lives; specifically, to be able to make their experiences easier.
Easier can mean many different things depending on the values of the user; such as clearer, faster, safer, or simply more pleasant. The world we live and operate in is becoming more and more reliant on digital processes that can be enhanced through the focus of UX practices. Everyone deserves to be heard and accommodated so they can achieve the same outcomes as other users. In UX this can be shown by encompassing user values, providing accessibility features, and incorporating guidance for success within the design of websites and applications.
I am currently working on a project to support our public schools’ work with organizations that seek to improve local education. There are many voices to hear from and accommodate when designing a digital process like this one. I must listen to all user parties to collect their concerns and pain points, then work to design a system and journey that is feasible and can support their tasks in an agreeable way- so the user will want to use it. Even though this field pertains to digital experiences, the ideas and strategies can overlap with other practices of design and advocacy.
What was getting an MS in User Experience like? What areas do you wish you had learned more about?
I had a great time during the MS program at Kent State University. The online aspect not only made it more convenient to complete my projects and classes, but it concurrently reminded me of the importance of seamless digital experiences and inspired me to think of supportive designs. We had the opportunity to work in groups as a team, and even simulate work environments with assignments where we had to communicate with and present to ‘stakeholders,’ (our professor.) This program prepared me for vast opportunities, or to be what we call a UX unicorn & do it all!
I like that the staff and faculty encouraged us to pursue areas of UX that we felt most passionate about. The variety of classes offered us the chance to go deeper into different routes, for instance design, research, accessibility, and more. The culminating requirement could have been a project or portfolio, really putting everything we learned and worked on into practice before graduating. The one thing I wish we could have learned is popularly used UX software and practicing with it. I feel that could give us more experience essential for landing a User Experience role post-grad.
Do you use anything you learned for your undergraduate degrees in International Relations, Political Science, and French that surprises you?
Surprisingly, there are similarities and crossovers in ideas and problem-solving techniques found throughout my studies. While the approaches to learning in each program were very different, I find that for me, user research and advocacy is comparable to the idea of diplomacy, a role found in the field of International Relations. UX is sort of like the middleman between users and developers, such as a diplomat would be the communicator/advocate between foreign parties.
Another subject that piqued my interest in undergrad was foreign language and translation studies. The use of language is very prominent in UX and ultimately is what guides users to have a successful journey within a digital process or product. We must ensure that any user can use the platform successfully, so research should be conducted to support many languages and ensure that translations are accurate, intuitive, and equal when guiding users through a platform.
In the UX design and research process, it is vital that research participants are diverse to sufficiently discover the needs and preferences of all potential users and not overlook groups. In my future studies, I would like to look more into how we can incorporate practices of equity and inclusion to promote social justice when designing technologies and organization developments.
If you could give yourself 10 years ago advice from yourself today, what would it be?
People tend to think that they are not successful until they reach their goal, or get their dream job, etc. I’ve learned that you can still be very successful while working towards your goal. Even though it may not be accomplished yet, or you have not seen your dream come to fruition, every day is an opportunity to take one step closer to that dream, and in that alone there is success. I have realized that I will consistently be working towards a new goal, so success has become a redefined term to me. As long as I can stay true to myself, take advantage of good opportunities, and be focused on what matters, I will be able to keep climbing to redefined heights of success.
I am currently pursuing a Doctorate degree in the field of Interprofessional Leadership with a concentration in Educational Technology while simultaneously working on my own UX projects. Although I do not currently have a UX title, the MS program and professional work I have done is supporting my continuing education, and providing crucial components for my research and understanding, as well as the opportunity for real world application in my experiences careerwise.
I would like to tell my past self to not lose hope due to not achieving the ‘role’ that I set out to become. I understand that everything I am learning will be useful for my journey, even if I don’t get to practice it right away or in the anticipated capacity. I am and have been accumulating skills and knowledge that will support my future roles. I have faith that as I start to step into new forms of leadership and more opportunities for growth come my way, everything I have practiced and learned will come out to support my goal of improving lives and add to my own personal growth.
Do you know a stellar UX, UI, Product, or Software Designer or Researcher who has joined the field in the last five years that we should feature? Let us know!
