Hi! I'm Charlie Blue,
UX Researcher

Charlie Blue Brahm
they/them

My interests revolve around exploring how HCI experiences can mediate emotional healing. During my undergraduate Electrical and Computer Engineering studies at Carnegie Mellon, I dug into low-level details of how technical systems function and interact. I then built on this knowledge by becoming a Program Manager in Microsoft’s Operating Systems Security team after graduating in 2018. By leading large cross-team efforts to deliver customer-facing security product and feature improvements, I was able to quickly gain experience across the complete product lifecycle. I contributed to business and strategy decisions; co-designed solutions with partner teams, enterprise customers, and product designers; worked closely with engineers to ensure high-quality delivery; drove the shipping and documentation processes; and finally collaborated with data experts to analyze our in-market products.

As a designer and researcher, I now aim to expand upon this technical and logistical thinking to build a holistic practice which deeply centers human (and other user) considerations. I bring a critical, systems-thinking perspective to my work, making me well-suited for service design/research positions. I am especially interested in healthcare roles, as my research interests include post-traumatic growth and end-of-life care.

Outside of work, I love to explore Seattle by going on long bike rides with my partner, and then recover from those bike rides by snuggling our cat and eating heart-warming meals from Bryant Terry’s Vegetable Kingdom cookbook.