The National Institutes of Health: Biomedical Translational Research Information System (BTRIS)

The BTRIS project taught me that modernization is as much about trust as it is about technology. The NIH researchers who depended on this system had spent years navigating its quirks. They didn't need a radical overhaul—they needed a partner who respected their expertise while gently guiding them toward something better. My job wasn't just to redesign an interface; it was to earn the trust required to make change feel safe.

What I'm most proud of is the cultural shift that outlasted the code. When I joined, the engineering team viewed design as an afterthought. By the time we launched, they were proactively requesting user feedback and advocating for design reviews. That transformation—from "design is what you do at the end" to "design is how we start"—was more satisfying than any pixel-perfect mockup.

If I were to do this again, I would prototype with real users earlier and more often. Without direct access to the legacy system, I reverse-engineered workflows by observing researchers and asking questions. That worked, but I underestimated how much low-fidelity, clickable prototypes would have accelerated alignment—not just with users, but with stakeholders who needed to visualize the future before they could fund it.

Ultimately, BTRIS reminded me that great design is invisible. When researchers can focus on their science instead of the software, we've done our job.