Mindful Design is a book designed to infuse your design process with the understanding and appreciation the human mind deserves, Mindful Design presents a responsible deep dive into the areas of cognitive psychology and neuroscience that can most improve design.

Hi friends! This book was pretty much my full-time project for the whole of last year and it's something I'm super proud of. (And honestly, mildly terrified to see it go out into the world!) For the last decade, given my struggles with mental health, I've poured over the brain science literature, a million fucking self-help books and more white papers than any non-academic human should probably read, trying to find out why/how things like depression and anxiety come about. Throughout this research, I've been consistently underwhelmed by how design and tech treat the human mind, especially the minds of those of us seen as 'neurodivergent' (fuck that word, but okay). Mindful Design is my attempt at a counterpoint to that. It's the antithesis of the popular 'habit-forming' and 'persuasive' approaches to product design, and presents some alternative thoughts and ideas to the attention economy-driven, pseudo-addictive experiences that are presently put on pedestals. The book explores how we can use the mind's systems, heuristics and idiosyncrasies as inspiration, as muses, rather than as obstacles we must design around or over. One of the key messages within this 380-page fuckshit is that technology should embrace the weird shit that goes on in our heads, that human beings aren't fucking edge-cases, and that designing with choice, freedom, protection, intrinsic motivation and cognitive limitations in mind is one way to a more compassionate design process. Writing a book is hard as fuck. Writing a book when your brain thinks jumping off a bridge is a fun hobby is even harder as fuck. I'm going to be honest and say there's a _lot_ of personal attachment to this, I'm still recovering from the mental toils of the writing and publishing process, but stuff like this should be challenged and prodded so I'll do my best to answer any questions anyone has! Hugs and loves ~ Scott

@scott_riley No questions, but I wanted to say thank you for writing this! Was an instant buy for me and I can't wait to dig in. The relationship between mental health + tech is something I'm personally heavily invested in, and such an important subject. Will be sharing this around our team, too.

@trybradley Thanks so much, Bradley <3 Totally agree, mental health discourse in design is so important. I think (and hope) that a larger dialogue around design's role in the MH landscape is opening up and I'm excited for times when such a difficult, visceral topic can be tackled from different angles by talented and compassionate designers. Hopefully Mindful Design can offer reference or perspective on this discussion, even in the tiniest way!

@scott_riley Without a doubt - hopefully that time is coming soon. Our biggest focus this year is to look at our products impact on MH - not only everyday products, but designing products for MH. Mindful Design will definitely be a reference point for us. Overall, I believe technology has a huge amount of potential to help people suffering from mental illness, that for the most part hasn't come to light. I'm excited to see it being talked about more, and hopeful for a change in industry focusses and priorities.

Are all the f bombs really necessary?

@rmagrino is that comment really necessary?

What a fantastic idea, just ordered. Great work Scott! PS: what are your favourite books / apps / interviews etc about mindfulness in general?

@zorzini Thanks so much Catalin! Some of my favourite resources: Books: - 'How to be Human' and 'Frazzled' by Ruby Wax - 'Full Time You' by Meg Lewis - 'Emptiness' by Guy Armstrong - 'Calm Technology' by Amber Case - 'The Organized Mind' by Daniel Levintin Apps: - Calm - Headspace - 10% Happier - Day One - iA writer (for distraction-free journalling) Podcasts: - Lawrence Ampofo's Digital Mindfulness Other tools: - Bullet Journaling - Therapy - Yoga I'm probs missing tonnes but that's what I've got off the top of my head!

@scott_riley Great stuff, thanks Scott!

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