Meet Lianna Wang, a talented UX Designer and current Digital Media Master’s student at Drexel University. With her expected graduation in 2025, Lianna is already making her mark through innovative projects that blend design thinking with real-world impact.
A Journey of Interdisciplinary Learning
Lianna’s decision to join Drexel’s Digital Media Master’s program stemmed from her desire to deepen her understanding of user experience design while expanding her horizons. She was drawn to the interdisciplinary perspectives offered through Drexel’s HCI, digital media, and animation courses.
For Lianna, the program represented an opportunity to challenge herself academically while broadening her expertise across design, research, and emerging technologies. This interdisciplinary approach has allowed her to develop a versatile skill set that spans multiple domains within digital media.
Exploring Inclusive Design
Among her most impactful educational experiences, Lianna highlights INFO 609, Accessible and Inclusive Design. The course opened her eyes to how digital environments can unintentionally exclude users with diverse needs.
A standout aspect of the course involved interviewing individuals from underserved communities and developing prototypes tailored to their specific challenges. This experience emphasized the importance of empathy, understanding, and having underrepresented voices in the room during the design process.
Embracing New Challenges
Lianna’s growth during the program has come through stepping outside her comfort zone. One particularly challenging yet rewarding experience involved a New Media Project incorporating augmented reality, motion capture, and animation.
Coming from a UX design background, this project pushed Lianna well beyond her familiar territory. She quickly adapted to new tools and creative workflows, collaborating with animators and developers in ways she hadn’t before. The experience required her to learn Unity, Unreal Engine, and Maya—tools she hadn’t previously worked with. Despite the learning curve, this interdisciplinary project ultimately broadened her skillset and helped her become a more versatile and open-minded designer.
Real World Impact Through Design
A project Lianna is particularly proud of came through DSRE 620, Design Problem Solving, where her class partnered with Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation. She tackled medical waste management as part of Penn Medicine’s sustainability initiative.
Her process involved on-site observations and interviews with medical staff and the Senior Director of Design & Strategy. The hospital setting presented unique challenges, pushing her to apply design thinking in a completely different context.
Her solution—an add-on system to standardize biohazard waste bins and reduce friction for correct sorting—demonstrated the potential for design to create meaningful impact in healthcare settings. While the final deliverable was a proof of concept, Lianna takes particular pride in creating something with real-world application and potential for tangible impact.
Research Methods and Tools
Lianna’s approach combined traditional design methods with field research:
- Fly-on-the-wall observation at the hospital
- Stakeholder interviews
- Affinity diagramming for synthesizing findings
- Sketching and wireframing for prototype development
- Collaborative visualization using Figma and Miro
The process taught her “how to gather meaningful insights in complex, fast-paced environments like hospitals,” skills that transfer across numerous design contexts.
Current Projects and Future Plans
Currently, Lianna is balancing several significant projects. She’s writing a thesis on Dark UX patterns, exploring “how digital literacy education can help users better recognize and resist manipulative design tactics.” Simultaneously, she’s working on her senior capstone as a UX designer for a subletting platform aimed at helping young adults find and list sublets more securely.
Her professional trajectory is already taking shape—after graduation, Lianna will be returning to Nuuly (Urban Outfitters, Inc) full-time as a Jr UX Designer.
The Drexel Advantage
Lianna credits Drexel’s accelerated degree program with allowing her to explore advanced topics “that aren’t typically covered in undergraduate coursework such as AI ethics, designing assistive technology, and advanced data visualization.”
The co-op system has also been instrumental in her development, giving her “the opportunity to work on various projects with real-world relevance and discover what field or type of work I’d like to pursue.”
Looking ahead, Lianna is excited to pursue roles that combine UX design with social impact, bringing together her technical skills and her passion for creating meaningful change.
Advice to Future Students
For those considering the Digital Media Master’s program, Lianna offers practical wisdom: start thinking about your thesis or capstone early and try to complete as many credits as possible in earlier terms. This approach provides the time and flexibility needed to dive deep into final projects.
She also encourages students to explore beyond their comfort zones while maintaining focus on their goals. Taking electives outside familiar territory can be valuable, but it’s important to remember the limited number of electives available and to keep main educational objectives in mind.