‘ I Didn’t Expect to Find This Here’ – Trami Nguyen on Beginning a UX Design Career in a Small Midwest City

In this episode of Landings, host Camille Zyniewicz sits down with Trami [ge-MEE] Nguyen [WIN], a UX designer from Goshen, Indiana and 2024 graduate of Purdue University, to talk about growing up in a small Midwest city, navigating cultural identity, and launching a UX design career outside a big-city tech hub.Trami reflects on how her Vietnamese-American upbringing shaped her values and ambition, her pivot from pre-med to UX design, and what it’s been like working at Viewrail—a Northern Indiana manufacturer actively building its UX practice.Together, Camille and Trami discuss the realities of starting a design career in a small city, the excitement of shaping the future of UX at Viewrail, and their shared appreciation for the close-knit communities of the region they call home.Key Topics Discussed:Growing up in Goshen and navigating Vietnamese-American identityDiscovering UX design through Pinterest, school binder covers, and RedditWhy Trami chose Purdue’s UX Design program—and what made it specialHer path to landing an internship and full-time role at ViewrailThe challenges and opportunities of working at a company with low UX maturityThe need for more UX community in smaller cities—and what that could look likeDreams of big-city living vs. the deep connections formed in small-city lifeThe empathy and insight gained from growing up beyond tech-saturated spacesQuote of the Episode:“I never expected that I’d join a company that didn’t already have UX established… but it’s actually been such a cool learning experience to help build those processes from scratch.”Brought to you by:Season One of Landings is sponsored by the University of Notre Dame’s Industry Labs—partnering with regional companies to realize a shared competitive advantage.Production assistance by Wayfare RecordingEpisode Links:Learn more about ViewrailIndustry Labs at Notre Dame: industrylabs.nd.eduLearn more about Landings