Ford’s Sarika Goel Will Make Her Debut at CanUX 2025

What’s it like to design for the opposite of delight?

 Designing for the Worst Day of Your Customer’s Life
} Oct 3/4, 2025 TBD / 30 MINUTES

When a driver is in a collision, their car is stolen, or they realize too late that their child is still inside, the last thing they need is a confusing interface. As designers, we prioritize delight, efficiency, and engagement—but what happens when users are overwhelmed, injured, or in shock?

At Ford, our designs can mean the difference between chaos and control. In this talk, I’ll take you behind the scenes of the safety and security team to show how we

Design for split-second decisions when users have limited cognitive capacity
Create flows that support impaired cognition due to stress, injury, or panic.
Balance automation with user control to provide help without overstepping

As AI, automation, and connectivity shape our world, designing for critical moments is more important than ever. This session will equip you with strategies to build experiences that instill confidence, provide clarity, and drive action – when every second counts.

 Speaker Bio: Sarika Goel
 Design Automotive

Sarika Goel is a (loud and proud) Canuck residing in the Bay Area, current working as a Senior Digital Designer at Ford Motor Co, leading safety and security experiences. Previously, she helped Getty Images pioneer AI-driven content creation and led design for an eSports platform at Enthusiast Gaming as the only woman and POC on the team.

With a systems engineering background, Sarika blends analytical precision with deep empathy.
Outside of work, she is also a serial entrepreneur, slam poet, and amateur Muay Thai fighter.

Follow Sarika on LinkedIn .

*Image credit: Sarika Goel and generative AI.