Mindful design: Designing with presence for purpose and inclusion

While the notion of mindfulness has had a resurgence as a buzzword, its most profound meaning goes beyond light meditation and coloring books. The principles of Mindfulness can also be applied to all aspects of our work.

Mindfulness is a state of being, an approach to life (and to work, regardless of its genre) that calls for presence and awareness, care and purpose. Living mindfully, designing mindfully, coding mindfully can be extremely rewarding, for us and for the beneficiaries of our work.

A mindful approach to design intrinsically implies awareness and the necessary presence for inclusivity, accessibility, openness, and ethics, but it also adds value to our daily practice, as well as to our final outcomes: a powerful and relevant way to make a difference in our life, and in the lives of those who share our path.

This talk mixes a personal story, the principles behind the practice of mindfulness, and their application to the design practice (or, in fact, any practice that implies the production of a creative product, including, at large, coding or other practices). It also aims at introducing mindfulness (as a quality of the mind and as a practice) as a successful approach at the work we do in tech, along with offering – lightly – inspiration for dealing with mental health-related issues, like rumination, the Impostor Syndrome and overall anxiety.

Speaker