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Personal Health Personal Statement

Decent Essays

In November 2015, my world was changed because my daughter was born. As a new mom, I had a hard time getting through baby blues due to sleep deprivation, breast engorgement, worrying about insufficient breastmilk and being a good mom. I felt isolated and lack of social support since I was the first one being a mom among my friends, as a racial minority in the U.S. and an international student. At the one-month checkup, I did a survey from the pediatrician about postpartum depression, and I got 7 points out of 10. I decided to go out and looked for new mom groups and talked to them; I realized that I was not alone. The experience inspired me to find solutions to benefit new moms and this community and to explore the role of technology in personal …show more content…

I took Professor Andrea Parker’s Human/ Computer Interaction course. I sought her out to explore about HCI and her research. My conversation with Andrea helped me realize the enormous scope of combining technology with personal health. With my keen interest in this field, I joined Andrea’s research group working with Yawkey Boys and Girls Clubs and Orchard Garden, focusing on how technology can help kids promoting wellness. As an observer and facilitator, I took field notes and gathered data from their survey, and also assisted in qualitative analysis. Having interacted with the kids for half a year, I learned more about the barrier of improving the awareness of physical activity and wellness among the the low socioeconomic …show more content…

I worked as a user experience/ web designer intern for Illumina, a biotech company based in San Francisco Bay area. My daily work included user interview, finding the right problems, created a scenario, designed wireframes and flow, and developed prototypes rapidly. As a designer, I have to make decisions every day, with a reason. The rationale behind each design decision either comes from the interview data/ field notes while observing or from the design and behavior theories. I also did usability testing with users and based on the result; I modified the design, and finally, I developed a new intranet system in 3 months. Last month, I received an email from my supervisor at Illumina and was glad to know they are still using the website that I designed.

Alongside the growing interest in HCI, I am more concerned about the wellness of people, particularly after becoming a mother. I care about the health of my family and other families like us, and the community. I was particularly interested in human/ computer interaction in the context of personal health, exploring how technology can support the upper-stream of health behaviors, including self-reflective methods. Also, I was keen on understanding user behavior, and learning how users interact with the

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