Designing for the Well-Being of the Public: The Story of Leading UX Designer Olivia Ya-Han Hsu

Photo courtesy of Olivia Hsu

The opinions expressed by Digital Journal staff 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 contemporary tech society through her designs, but also actively shares her design and career insights online, gaining wide influence.

Olivia’s journey in design began with her love for art from a young age. She showed a strong interest in art and design since high school and began studying in professional institutes. She accumulated more than 10 years of experience in visual art design in Taiwan, won multiple design awards and participated in various exhibitions.

During her graduate studies at Northwestern University in the United States, she began exploring the field of engineering product design and user experience. In particular, she showed a deep interest in public service and impact design. She believes that design will play an increasingly important role in shaping the future of our society in this increasingly technology-mediated world. Her vision is not limited to improving the efficiency of public spaces, such as urban infrastructure, public transportation systems, and healthcare, but also to bringing more humane 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 U.S. healthcare industry, particularly in the field of dental health. As a senior designer at TAG, Olivia has used her creativity and problem-solving skills to improve the user experience across the healthcare industry. She simplified the medical loan application process by designing a clear and compassionate patient loan platform, allowing more patients to receive timely dental treatments. Furthermore, her portal website design effectively improved the interaction between patients and clinics, allowing patients to book appointments and track their treatment process more efficiently and pleasantly, thereby 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, helping them make better medical decisions. These patient-centric and humane 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 UX design across the healthcare industry.

Olivia is also passionate about improving efficiency in other public sectors, such as transportation and network security. For example, during her time at Atom AI, she designed software that optimizes the Department of Transportation’s workflow and more effectively tracks transportation facilities in real-time, significantly improving the efficiency of maintaining and managing transportation infrastructure. Additionally, while working at internationally renowned cybersecurity firm 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 was also the founder and 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, enabling users worldwide to preserve their “family culture” and spread love and “connections” in the digital space.

In addition to her continued 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 American 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 want to work in the American tech industry.

Looking back on her journey, Olivia says her design purpose is not just for today, but for the well-being of tomorrow and future generations. She believes that designing with the future in mind encourages innovation. It forces designers to think beyond current limitations and create solutions that anticipate future needs and challenges, thereby driving progress and development. Olivia is also acutely aware of the power and responsibility of being a designer. She says that 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 us in tackling societal challenges and collectively create a more prosperous and human-centered future.