UX Designer & Researcher | Working on my Ph.D.
Nina
Sakhnini
Designing systems that make sense of complexity — grounded in research, shaped by real users, and focused on meaningful impact.
Designing systems that make sense of complexity — grounded in research, shaped by real users, and focused on meaningful impact.
I'm a UX designer and researcher who’s spent the last three years working in enterprise software, redesigning an internal engineering platform at Caterpillar through user research, design systems, and close collaboration with product and engineering teams in agile environments.
Alongside that work, I’m completing a PhD in Computer Science at UIC, where my research focuses on how real people use the digital tools they’re given, from patient portals to mobile apps to wearable sensors. The throughline in my work is understanding the gap between how systems are designed and how they’re actually used, and inclusively closing that gap with evidence.
When I’m not doing UX, I’m usually being outwitted by my toddler.
Designing for real users inside complex systems, where constraints are real and impact matters.
The work. Redesigned interfaces and built UI components for an internal engineering platform used daily by Caterpillar engineers; modernizing legacy workflows and improving usability across core tasks. Partnered with product, engineering, and tech support stakeholders inside agile delivery cycles.
The research. Conducted user research with two distinct audiences, engineers using the software and the tech support team fielding their issues, to identify pain points, validate design directions, and translate findings into actionable design recommendations. Designing for expert users in a large enterprise environment meant navigating organizational constraints, aligning teams with different priorities, and advocating for user needs within systems not built to change easily.
What I took from it. An enterprise UX practice grounded in real users, real constraints, and real product environments, focused on making complex systems actually work for the people using them. Specific details under NDA.
Mixed-methods UX research spanning enterprise health platforms, environmental sensing, accessibility, and misinformation published at top HCI venues (CHI, IEEE ICHI, ASSETS, MobileHCI, UbiComp).
My dissertation focuses on understanding why older adults do not adopt or continue using patient portals, and what it takes to close that gap. Across multiple studies, I examine how real-world digital behavior reflects how older adults and people with ADRD engage with these systems, including patterns that may signal cognitive decline. At a broader level, my work synthesizes two decades of research on patient portal use among older adults. The consistent finding is not that older adults are unwilling or unable to use these tools, but that the barriers they face are largely driven by design and support gaps within the systems themselves. The goal of this work is to surface those gaps and inform the design of more accessible, inclusive digital health systems.
Details to be shared upon publication.
Patient Portal Use Among Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis More Older Adults Try Patient Portals in Recent Years, but Many Don't Continue: A Meta-Analysis
A four-year arc: two publications, a master's thesis, and one hand-painted minion keychain. Built myCityMeter: hardware, firmware, Android app. Then ran a mixed-methods study (n=321 survey + 7 technology probe interviews) to understand what people actually need. Key finding: the barrier is not technology, it is the perceived lack of actionable steps.
myCityMeter: Helping older adults manage the environmental risk factors for cognitive impairment Towards Self-Tracking Personal Pollution Exposure using Wearables (Master's Thesis) Personal Air Pollution Monitoring Technologies: User Practices and Preferences
Sparked by COVID-19 misinformation. Led end-to-end: systematic review of 8,372 smart-phone apps screened to 45, plus 11 interviews with older adults in the US and Jordan. Not a single participant used a fact-checking app despite universal concern about misinformation. The gap is not a user failure; it is a design and trust problem.
A review of smartphone fact-checking apps and their (non) use among older adults
Built a fully functional tablet app using Unreal Engine and MetaHuman. The app showed a photorealistic avatar responding to user input with synchronized facial expressions and body language in real time, backed by AWS conversational API and supported by an AI speech agent. Designed for pre-clinical mental health screening with incarcerated women. Working prototype completed before the project continued with another team. This project represents range: AI, clinical application, and deep research sensitivity toward populations most underserved by technology.
Quantitative analysis on a survey study (n=138) examining how proficiency and emotional states shape older adults' preferences for tech support. Multiple regression and mediation analysis showed proficiency and confidence jointly predict preference for self-reliant support and its perceived effectiveness.
How proficiency and feelings impact the preference and perception of mobile technology support in older adults