Meet the Team: Mok, UX Designer
Describe your role at BioCommons
I’m a user experience (UX) Designer at BioCommons, which means that I help improve infrastructure and scientific research by being the friendly translator between complex systems and real humans. This type of role is new in the life sciences field, making it a lot of fun, as I sit at the intersection of science, data, and human-centred design, helping researchers, bioinformaticians, and software engineers make sense of the inherently complex biological tools and platforms they use everyday. The goal is to make it look easy - even when it’s not!
It’s challenging work, because the problems are big and complex. You’re designing for expert users, emerging technologies, and systems that genuinely matter.
There’s a lot to learn, a lot to ask, and plenty of moments where curiosity and collaboration are essential. This makes the role deeply rewarding, as your work doesn’t just improve usability; it helps accelerate research, supports discovery, and amplifies the impact of national life-science infrastructure.
How can UX Designers improve infrastructure and/or scientific research?
Think of scientific infrastructure as a powerful machine: data platforms, tools, pipelines, and services that can do amazing things. A UX Designer ensures that people can actually use that power without needing a PhD in ‘figuring stuff out’.
By taking complicated processes and reshaping them into smooth, logical journeys, we turn confusion into clarity. This saves researchers time and frustration - when tools are intuitive, scientists spend less time wrestling with interfaces and more time doing what they love: discovering, analysing, and innovating.
Good UX also makes infrastructure more accessible. It opens the door for students and early-career researchers to use advanced systems confidently, rather than those tools being limited to the experts that already know the ropes. By asking the right questions early and understanding user needs upfront, we help teams build the right thing the first time. This reduces rework and ensures that research workflows flow smoothly, helping insights travel from idea to impact more quickly.
What is the real-world impact of human-centred design at BioCommons?
At BioCommons, my impact is all about making powerful research infrastructure feel simple, friendly, and usable. I focus on turning complex scientific tools into clear experiences, helping researchers spend less time navigating systems and more time doing great science.
By listening to users and smoothing out workflows, I help ensure that BioCommons tools are not just functional, but adopted and used to their full potential. In short: I make hard things easier, science faster, and national infrastructure more human.
What makes solving scientific problems so rewarding?
This is not your average UX gig, and that’s exactly the point. I get to work closely with scientists, engineers, product leads, and stakeholders who are passionate about what they do and who will happily stretch my thinking.
It is incredibly rewarding to work in a space where UX isn’t just ‘nice to have’, but genuinely transformative. There is a unique joy in those moments where a complex process suddenly becomes clear and usable.
In short: it’s a role for UX designers who like their work meaningful, their challenges meaty, and their wins shared with science itself!
