You don’t have to climb up onto your desk and chant “Ommm”, or forsake your loved ones and projects and let go of all your attachments to the Earth ;)
Mindfulness is a powerful tool we can use whenever we want to reduce stress, bring attention and clarity to the present moment, and cut through the noise. We notice the distractions and sounds around us, but we are not distracted by them. Mindfulness is being aware and open to acceptance. We listen with empathy to our own thoughts and feelings, without judgment.
To kickoff applying mindfulness to design, I want to lead you through a short mindfulness practice. Wherever you’re reading this, take a moment to focus on your body, unclench your jaw, relax your shoulders, and let your body feel heavy.
Bring attention to your breath. Take control of it, inhale slowly through your nose to the count of three, and exhale even slower through your mouth to the count of six.
I tweeted a quick guided UX meditation you can practice using the breathing technique above, or just continue without guided thoughts.
Repeat 4–5 more times. Yesss, good. Let go of the control on your breath, and when you’re ready come back and read the rest of this article, haha.
In that moment, you might have experienced less tension in your body, mental clarity, a quick recharge, a deeper connection to your mind and body and calm.
You just practiced mindfulness — 1000 points! 🙌🏽
Now how do we apply mindfulness to UX design?
Listen with empathy to your user’s thoughts and feelings, without judgment
By practicing human-centered design, we are innately practicing mindful UX. We are paying attention to our users, and empathizing. We can dive even deeper and notice how we are listening to users. Asking the right questions, and observing behavior during interviews, user testing, focus groups etc., will lead us to better understanding and outcomes.
Listen with empathy to your team’s thoughts and feelings, without judgment
It can be scary to speak up, even for talented designers, marketers, developers and researchers. Creating and contributing to a safe working environment where your teammates and colleagues feel valued and respected is key. UX design must be collaborative and inclusive to reach its potential.
Bring attention and clarity to your design strategy, information architecture, wireframes and prototype
Do you really need that animation? Being mindful of Maeda’s Laws of Simplicity, and applying Jakob Nielsen’s 10 heuristics for UI design can help us create design that reduces cognitive overload, prevents user error and paves the way for consistent UI and accessible easy-to-use products.
Cut through the distractions and the noise, what solutions are most simple and intuitive to achieve optimal user experience and design
It’s okay to think in meditation, but the goal is to let go of thoughts. Just so with users, as Steve Krug would agree: Don’t make users think!
Be aware of weekly goals and work on tasks within the scope…let go of extraneous tasks and issues
We all organize differently, physical or online calendars, via Slack, Notion, stand-ups, Kanban boards, etc. Be mindful of which methods help you organize best, and what might work best with your team and adapt. Sticky notes, whiteboards, collaboration and healthy over-communication with teammates can help you!
Accept feedback
As a UX designer, it’s important to foster a growth mindset. We are not in competition with others, but rather ourselves. Strive to empathize deeper, listen longer, design better, and be a better you everyday . Accept that there will always be feedback on your design and input (maybe some that makes you smile and some that makes you want to toss a table or quit and start a new life abroad).
Breathe and remember that you are a badass designer, contributing to making people’s lives more meaningful and delightful
Bring it! You know your craft, and whatever you don’t know you can learn it, Google it, or find someone who does know it! Imposter syndrome plagues us all and can impact our productivity, especially in design where we are using our mind and heart to translate emotion, pain, frustration and need into digital solutions.
What you think, what you tell yourself, what you think of yourself manifests itself. If you wake up in the morning and tell yourself that you are a world-class, award-winning UX designer in Figma (maybe you are, maybe you aren’t), that vision will propel you on that path little by little.
Come back for more mindful design and positivity. In the meantime, practice a little mindfulness each day.
Follow me, like, comment and share. The light in me sees and respects the light in you. ✨
Cheers,
Kamala
