Opinions expressed by Digital Journal contributors are their own.
Olivia Ya-Han Hsu is known for her designs that focus on social impact. As a designer, she not only improves and shapes the infrastructure of our current-day tech society through her designs, but also actively shares her design and career insights online, gaining widespread influence.
Olivia’s journey in design started with her love for art from a young age. She exhibited a strong interest in art and design since high school and began studying at professional institutions. She accumulated over 10 years of experience in visual arts design in Taiwan, won multiple design awards, and participated in several exhibitions.
During her graduate studies at Northwestern University in the United States, she began exploring the field of tech product design and user experience. In particular, she demonstrated profound interest in public service and impact design. She believes design will play an increasingly important role in shaping the future of our society in this increasingly technology-mediated world. Her vision is not only limited to enhancing the efficiency of public areas, such as urban infrastructure, public transportation systems, and healthcare, but also bringing more humanized and intelligent solutions to these areas through the combination of design and technology.
For example, her current company, TAG (The Aspen Group), is one of the leaders in the US healthcare industry, especially in dental health. As a senior designer at TAG, Olivia has contributed her creativity and problem-solving skills to enhance user experience in the entire healthcare industry. She simplified the medical loan application process by designing a clear and compassionate patient loan platform, enabling more patients to receive timely dental treatments. Additionally, her design of the portal website has effectively improved the interaction experience between patients and clinics, allowing patients to make appointments, track their treatment process more efficiently and enjoyably, thus improving the efficiency and quality of medical services. Furthermore, her interactive Q&A interface helps patients learn about dental health in a more engaging way, enabling them to make better medical decisions. These patient-centric and humanized designs have earned Olivia international design awards, including The UX Design Awards, during her time at TAG. These design innovations have also made Olivia a new benchmark in the UX design field of the entire healthcare industry.
Olivia is also passionate about improving efficiency in other public sectors such as transportation and network security. For instance, during her time at Atom AI, she designed software that optimizes the workflow of the Department of Transportation and tracks transportation facilities more effectively in real-time, significantly enhancing the maintenance and management efficiency of transportation infrastructure. Additionally, while working at the internationally renowned cybersecurity company Keeper Security, she set a new standard for the entire network security industry by designing more user-friendly, efficient, and visual password management tools.
In addition to these work experiences, Olivia also served as the founding designer, helping the startup CircleIt design an innovative overall user experience and develop the company’s design system. CircleIt’s product is an app that helps people create family trees for free, preserve intergenerational “digital heritage,” and express love to family and loved ones. Her excellent design helped the company successfully raise $5.1 million in funding and gain 3.5 million users in 174 countries, helping users worldwide preserve their “family culture” and spread love and “connections” in the digital space.
Beyond her continuous breakthroughs in design and creating social impact, Olivia also gives back to the design community in her spare time. Her YouTube channel has over 27.3k followers, where she shares knowledge about UX design, her experiences as a designer in the US tech industry, and invites other designers from major tech companies to share their work insights. Her videos have garnered over 1.15 million views in total, with the highest single video reaching 420k views. Her YouTube channel has been a major source of inspiration for many designers worldwide who wish to work in the American tech industry.
Reflecting on her journey, Olivia says her design goal is not just for today but for the well-being of tomorrow and future generations. She believes designing with the future in mind encourages innovation. It pushes designers to think beyond current limitations and create solutions that anticipate future needs and challenges, thus driving progress and development. Also, Olivia is well-aware of the power and responsibility of being a designer. She says, designers have the opportunity to leave a lasting legacy. By focusing on the well-being of tomorrow and future generations, she is able to create work that is not only functional and beautiful but also responsible, innovative, and sustainable. Through design as a catalyst for social change, Olivia hopes to inspire more designers and tech professionals to join in addressing societal challenges and collectively create a more prosperous and human-centered future.
