By: Alex Morgan

Yiwei Gao is not your typical product designer. With roots in architecture and a portfolio that spans award-winning health tech innovation and visionary environmental design, she brings a rare systems-thinking approach to UX. Most recently recognized with a 2025 Red Dot Award for her AI-powered strength training tool Hercs, Gao has also been leading critical design efforts at Headway, a mental health tech company dedicated to expanding care access for millions of Americans.

We sat down with Gao to talk about the evolving role of AI in design, the moral stakes of building digital infrastructure for care, and why “designing for impact” means rethinking everything—from pixels to policy.

Let’s start with the biggest buzzword: AI. How is it changing how you work?

Yiwei Gao: Honestly, AI isn’t just changing how we work—it’s changing what we can work on. At Hercs, for example, we built an AI layer that recognizes motion patterns, detects form breakdown, and adapts workouts to your fatigue level. That means we’re no longer just designing an app—we’re designing a coaching relationship. The interface becomes intelligent, responsive, almost empathetic.

Is there a risk that AI will flatten or over-automate what should be emotional experiences—like therapy?

Absolutely. That’s where design has to push back. The tools may be digital, but the outcome is deeply human. When we’re designing mental health experiences, we need to build for ambiguity, vulnerability, and trust. That includes small details—like how we frame a confirmation message before a first therapy session. Or how we signal to a user that they’re in control, not being auto-routed.

So, yes, AI can power the back-end, but design has to preserve dignity and softness in the front-end.

You’ve led major product efforts at Headway, especially around underserved communities. Can you share more?

Of course. One project I’m proud of is redesigning the onboarding flow for Medicare and Medicaid users. These are people who often face compound access barriers: digital literacy, trust gaps, language friction, and unclear billing.

We designed a flow that’s simpler, calmer, and more supportive, including language customization, upfront cost clarity, and error tolerance. That may seem minor, but in public health, removing friction is everything. One drop-off can mean someone never getting the care they need.

We also redesigned provider credentialing, which helped onboard more clinicians into our network, effectively expanding care access nationally.

This is systems-level thinking. Does that come from your architectural background?

Definitely. Architecture teaches you that design is environmental—it’s not just what you build, it’s what you enable or restrict. I think about care infrastructure the way I once thought about housing or urban systems. Who gets access? Who feels safe? Who gets left out?

That’s why I see UX not as “interface work,” but as public health architecture. We’re shaping the systems people live within—even if we do it through buttons and flows.

You’ve worked across architecture, AI, health tech. What unifies it all for you?

For me, it’s always been about designing for human resilience. Whether I’m sketching haze-filtering towers for Beijing (my eVolo 2013 entry), building therapy platforms, or designing AI fitness tools, I ask: Does this restore capacity? Does this support health, dignity, and growth?

We’re at a moment where design isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s about systems of care, trust, and equity. That’s what keeps me inspired.

Last question: What advice would you give to designers entering health tech today?

Design with consequence. You’re not just designing a screen—you’re potentially changing someone’s life trajectory. Take that seriously. Learn from public health, from sociology, from architecture. The future of design is interdisciplinary, and the best designers will be those who can zoom out and ask: Who am I really designing for—and why?

Yiwei Gao is a Red Dot–awarded designer, architect, and design lead at Headway