We often design for the "happy path" a user who is calm, focused, and sitting at a desk. We don’t design for the user whose hands are shaking, whose vision is blurring, and whose brain is operating on a fraction of its usual capacity. But when software is a medical necessity, your users encounter your work while they are scared, sick, and vulnerable. In this state, a "glitch" isn't just a ticket in a backlog; it is a moment of profound abandonment.

In this session, I share a raw, first-person experience report on navigating a diabetes diagnosis through the lens of using a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM). While CGMs are life-saving innovations, the reality of a "buggy" device takes on a terrifying weight when it results in missed lows and dangerously inaccurate readings. Using the Think, Feel, Say UX framework, we will step through the psychological and physiological toll of relying on a device that you can no longer trust.

We will explore the moments where the "technical requirements" were met, but the human requirements were ignored. If your system fails when a user is at their most compromised, you haven't just missed a requirement, you’ve failed a person in crisis.

Key takeaways include:
- Defining the High-Stakes Bug: Learning to identify when a bug is a minor inconvenience versus when it becomes life-threatening.
- The "Think, Feel, Say" Crisis Map: A deep dive into the user's internal state during a device failure.
- Designing for the Compromised User: Practical strategies for building empathy into error states, alerts, and data visualization for users in distress.

This isn’t just a talk about medical devices; it’s a call to action for every creator to recognize the human pulse behind every data point and the weight of the responsibility we carry as builders.