Influential Woman · Healthcare, Finance, Tech

Gabriela Rivera- Velázquez

Sr. UX/UI Designer, Zelis

Sun City Center, FL

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Business Administration Degree Accounting Degree And International Business

Her Story

About Gabriela

I graduated from college with a major in business administration, accounting, and international business, but when I entered the field, I didn't feel like accounting was really what I wanted to do. I've always loved art and the art industry, but I couldn't find a way in that made me feel 100% passionate about it until I started taking coding classes to build websites. That's when I discovered the world of UX. I self-taught myself everything related to user experience design and user interface design, taking some online classes but nothing super formal. I got my first job as a freelancer designing and building a platform for a company called Makers Valley, which connected fashion designers with factories in Milan so they could buy good fabric that would otherwise go to waste. After freelancing for about a year, I found a full-time job and started making my way up through corporate America. What really inspired me was discovering how to understand code and design better interfaces. Learning technology was a very strong skill that I could develop, and it was just natural to me to understand it and make it more user-friendly. It was so natural and organic that I just followed it, and it took me where I am today. Now I design platforms for the healthcare payments industry, working across departments from engineering to marketing, compliance, experience design, and customer success. My work involves making sure what we're designing makes sense for everyone inside the company, and when we have the opportunity, I interview end users of the product. My main focus is problem-solving and creating solution-oriented designs for every type of user in the healthcare industry, always thinking about the person first and humanizing the product.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Gabriela

01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

I think the number one advice that I would give people, women particularly, is not to be afraid of not knowing something, and not being afraid of letting people know you don't know. This is something that I did early in my career that a good manager that I had once told me was great, that I wasn't afraid of saying, 'Hey, I don't know, I need to dig in more into that.' Because that's actually part of the curiosity that I was talking about earlier. As a designer, you won't know all the things. There are going to be many, many domains that are very complex. Going in with the mindset of I'm just going to learn first, be empathetic, know about and get to know people, get to know how things work, and then try to build a solution around that. I think that will open many, many doors for women coming into tech in general.

02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

Right now, UX designers are very valued at companies, but I feel like there is no representation, necessarily, at a C-level, at sea level management. We have product, we have marketing, we have technology, but between the technology, marketing, and product, you need someone who can think about the product in a different way and can humanize the product. That's really the bulk of our work, to build product in a way that it's empathetic and you think about the person first. So I think that's the biggest challenge, proving that value to the leadership right now in corporate America. The opportunity is to keep working towards that, towards demonstrating that value and educating people. My work is, yes, designing things, but it's also getting people to understand why we do things the way we do them, with a lot of purpose and passion. Demonstrating how humanizing the product can also bring a lot of value to the company in so many ways. It can help gain reputation and trustworthiness from people when you're able to market your product as something that we've taken users or people first, and we're building for them. That's the opportunity we have.

03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?

One of the values that I really appreciate from people and that I bring to the table is being driven and passionate about what I do, because that gives me the engine to kind of start my day. Also, curiosity and thinking differently are some other values that I try to carry with me. These values are important both in my work and personal life.

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