Sharon Williams in action, leading collaborative design sessions to create digital tools that empower clinicians and improve patient care.
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Master's Programme in Interaction Design
Sharon Williams, UID alum and design leader at Philips, is shaping the future of healthcare through empathy, collaboration, and responsible innovation.
“I was very fortunate to join the team in person for a few weeks,” she recalls. “The project was healthcare-related, which is a topic close to my heart, and the team was incredibly talented and fun.”
That small assignment led to more collaborations and eventually to a full-time role as an interaction designer.
Today, Sharon is the design leader for clinical informatics at Philips, within its professional healthcare solutions division. Her team focuses on empowering clinicians with digital tools for decision support, helping improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.
“Our goal is to create solutions that are safe and meaningful,” she explains. “We bridge the challenges of the healthcare world with the possibilities of digital transformation.”
Collaborative spirit
Reflecting on her time at UID, Sharon highlights two principles that shaped her career: empathy and collaboration.
“Empathy was at the core of our design thinking,” she says. “It allowed us to be user-centric and creative, not just in our designs but in the methods we used to ensure they were meaningful.”
That mindset remains central to her work today, especially in healthcare, where designing for experiences she has not personally lived through is a unique challenge.
The collaborative spirit at UID also left a lasting impression.
“Understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses helped build strong teams,” she says. “But it was the shared purpose and personal connection that made it special. Many of those classmates became lifelong friends.”
A process grounded in context
Sharon’s design process begins with deep research.
“In healthcare, we need to understand everything from disease-specific domains to hospital departments and imaging modalities,” she explains. “It’s a lengthy but essential step to ensure our ideas are relevant to real clinical challenges.”
Once the groundwork is laid, her team follows a collaborative design process involving engineers, product managers, marketers, and clinical experts. Regulatory considerations, such as FDA approval, are also part of the equation.
Designing with responsibility
One challenge Sharon often encounters is technology bias.
“As digital tools become more widespread, we need to ensure their outputs are equitable and fair,” she says. “Bias in AI is a clear example. Who is included in the data? Who is left out?”
Her team actively addresses these issues, developing UX approaches to mitigate bias.
“As designers, we have a responsibility to anticipate and define ethical paths forward,” she adds.
Leading with purpose
As creative lead, Sharon’s mission is to uphold design quality and empower her team.
“I inspire and define the design vision by creating synergies across functions and with our customers,” she says. “Philips’ mission to improve health and wellbeing through meaningful innovation is something we’ve internalised. It’s what drives us.”
Outside of work, Sharon spends most of her time with her two-year-old daughter.
“Whatever she’s into at the moment, usually crafting,” she laughs.
She also enjoys socialising with friends and, when time allows, visits the local yoga studio or bouldering gym.
Looking back on her UID days, Sharon wouldn’t change a thing.
“Conditions weren’t easy for someone born in Panama and raised in Spain,” she says. “But I gave it my all, especially in building relationships. Many great friendships and life experiences came from my time in Umeå. I’ll always cherish that.”
A design superpower
If she could choose one superpower, it would be true empathy.
“Really feeling what our users or their patients experience, even just a bit,” she says. “I’ve role-played scenarios and even poked myself with a needle to understand IVF treatments. But what if we could go beyond that?”
When it’s time to think deeply, Sharon turns to lo-fi beats. For everything else, it’s dancy music.
“It goes great with a standing desk,” she smiles.