Two sides of the same problem
I’m a product designer. I’m also a licensed occupational therapy practitioner, and I still treat patients a few hours a week. The two jobs look far apart, but they share one question: what does it take for someone to do something on their own?
One question, two angles
Design answers it by shaping the product. Therapy answers it with the person in front of you, one task at a time. Doing both means I see every problem from the screen and from the person trying to use it.
Close to real people
Research can drift into personas and averages. A treatment session can’t. Someone recovering from surgery tries to put on a sock, and you see exactly where the task breaks, often somewhere nobody would have guessed. Those hours keep my research honest. I trust what people do over what they say, and I look for the one step where things fall apart.
Fix the setting first
Therapists learn early to change the environment before asking a person to change. A reacher, a chair with armrests, a shelf moved to waist height. Design is the same instinct at a bigger scale. A clearer screen or a shorter path helps everyone who uses it, all at once.
Built for real conditions
My patients are tired, in pain, distracted or relearning something they used to do without thinking. Plenty of people use software in that same state. Seeing it every week means accessibility and cognitive load shape my work from the first sketch.
Why I keep doing both
Design is my career. Therapy keeps me close to the people I’m designing for, and reminds me what it takes to help someone well.