Hello all,
Jay Vidyarthi, an independent UX professional and HCI researcher will be
visiting the lab on January 30th to give a talk on "The Role of
Mindfulness in Design Activism". Jay led the team that designed the Muse
EEG headband, and last year helped establish the City of Toronto's Civic
Innovation Office.
After his talk at 12:30 PM, Jay has a one-hour slot for demos from
2:00-3:00 PM. Anyone who is free should contact me and I will arrange a
time for you.
Details of the talk and Jay's bio are attached below.
Best regards,
Jacob
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Abstract
In the past few years, weve witnessed powerful unintended consequences of
modern technology. Researchers and journalists have been publishing about
the pitfalls of an attention economy, the internet as an echo chamber,
social medias effects on mental health, a lack of inclusive design, and
more. The hype around an internet utopia seems to be fading. As
technologists, its becoming more important for us to acknowledge how our
context, values and perspectives manifest in the ideas, products, systems,
and services we create.
Ive worked as a specialist in user experience and human-computer
interaction in a wide range of contexts, including startups, academic
research, hospitals, governments, and fortune 500 companies. 7 years ago,
I realized that aligning my personal values was the key to my best work,
so I quit my job as a UX mercenary and began to specialize in the
intersection of mindfulness, mental health, and technology. It is in this
space that Ive not only done my best work, but Ive also shifted my
perspective about the role of human-computer interaction and user
experience specialists.
Design activism is not just a side hustle, its part of the job. Good
design is not just about usability, engagement and instant gratification.
Modern organizations with lofty missions to improve the world rely on
researchers and designers to understand context, but its up to us to
ensure a holistic approach. The commodification of human attention has
enabled todays technologies to covertly influence our identities, our
politics, our relationships, and our health. This is why mindfulness a
practice which has been scientifically shown to train attention and help
manage mental health must play a role in shaping the way we design and
use technology in the future.
Bio
Jay Vidyarthi is an award-winning experience designer and researcher
focused on projects related to mindfulness and well-being. He guides teams
through a human-centered approach to creating useful products, systems,
and services.
Forbes recently named Jay in a list of 10 world renowned meditation tech
experts. He used a lean, iterative process to design Muse: the brain
sensing headband, a successful consumer product experience which gives you
feedback on your brain while you meditate. His related academic work on a
persuasive technology for mindfulness called Sonic Cradle has been
published and well-cited in the literature on human-computer interaction.
Jay also leads UX projects for major international clients in a wide range
of other sectors.
Jay helped launch A Mindful Society an annual conference which attracts
500+ leaders in healthcare, education, business and government where he
takes a unique design thinking approach to co-create each event directly
with the audience.
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Jacob Ritchie
M.Sc. Student,
Department of Computer Science,
University of Toronto