UI/UX on FLEEK: First Leveraging Empathy Earns Kudos

Presented at 2021 Cigna’s Women in Technology (WinTech) Conference | Tues 03/23/2021

As the majority of the attendees at this conference were either software engineers, project managers or scrum masters, I had the understanding that UI/UX was an unfamiliar topic. Thus, I created an acronym: UI/UX on FLEEK. “On fleek,” which is defined as “extremely good, attractive, or stylish,” was repurposed to stand for “First Leveraging Empathy Earns Kudos.”

To emphasize the theme of “female empowerment” for the Women in Technology Conference, I started the talk with a focus on one of many women’s strengths: empathy. Though it is not exclusive to women, it is proven that women have the ability to be more empathetic than men and perhaps that’s why women dominate the UI/UX scene compared to the rest of the IT field. Empathy is a crucial skill set needed as a UI/UX designer as you are required to design from various perspectives: business, engineers, and users.

To further highlight the importance of incorporating empathy and UI/UX, I noted a few statistics showcasing how UI/UX can ensure higher success with a shorter time and lower cost.