Mental health & design in the midst of chaos 🦠
Our session on March 27 is about staying mentally and emotionally healthy as designers, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic.
This is Alicia looking wholesome. She is a UX Researcher living in Toronto.
Hello social distancing fellows! Anne-Marie here, reporting from her apartment which she hasn’t left for the past three days. I hope that you are all home and cozy.
Let me share some good news with y’all amid this crisis: I am hosting UX Sauna Session 03 on Friday, March 27 at 6PM! It will be held online since we are all taking particular measures for our personal and collective health.
Designers, how do we remain afloat?
As we are all going through interesting times, hearing about the virus everywhere we go, I hesitated to write this one. I wanted to shelter us from all this craziness and chaos. But, I also thought it would be the appropriate time to reflect on health, especially on mental and emotional health. And since we are all here (in front of our laptops 🙋🏾, hello), how do we all manage to stay calm and collected in the midst of this storm?
Two guest speakers!
Well, guess what, you are all in great luck since this Friday, we will talk about that with not just one but two guest speakers (whaaaatt 😲). I know right? Alicia and Lucia will share their personal journeys into UX and give their take on mental health, especially when it comes to staying in good mental shape both in your personal life and on the field. They are both fabulous UX researchers living in Toronto. Let’s hear who they are:
Alicia Zhong 👆🏾is a researcher, strategist, and experience designer whose focus is designing for an inclusive and sustainable future. She is the co-founder of research consultancy Future Insight Group. Her portfolio of work spans across non-profits, public service, startups, and enterprise organizations.
Besides having worked in education, healthcare, insurance, and communications, her work currently involves engaging with marginalized and under-served populations at WSIB. She believes that by taking an inclusive approach to learning about people’s motivations and behaviours, we can better understand specific challenges in the context of a product, service, or experience. She has spoken at Ladies that UX, mentored at meetups like UX Research Collective and IMPACT TO, and is volunteering for Hexagon UX Toronto.
Lucia soaking some sun, looking fabulous!
Lucia Hsieh is UX research lead at Ontario Digital Service. She started user research drop-in sessions for public servants to have open conversations related to experience design (XD) and is also the primary author of Ontario's user research guide.
Her recent work include calling for businesses to supply emergency products for COVID-19 and top 10 ServiceOntario vehicle-related transactions. In stressful, ever-changing and high demand situations, Lucia practices Wim Hof technique which guides through a series of breathing exercises, meditation, and cold showers to support her physical and mental health. Lucia will share her experience on how she takes care of herself, get support, and use her skills to serve the public.
Keeping up with our people 🤜🏾 🤛🏾
Mackenzie! UX designer, ex-Google.
Can you believe that UX Sauna Session 01 is already three months behind? I checked-in with our first guest speaker Mackenzie Dérival to see what he is up to. His response was, “OMG life has been hectic!” He is currently thinking and planning content for his YouTube channel. He is following the pandemic closely, especially through Valuetainment’s videos. You now have some things to watch, right? How appropriate for our times. You can thank him later.
Finally, when it comes to design, his current focus is Web UI Design patterns. He shared the resources he recently discovered:
Join us online 💻
Wow, it’s coming soon. I hope you are ready and in front of your computers! Come say hi to Alicia, Lucia and all of us. Tune in on March 27 at 6PM.
Until then, be of good courage, stay healthy and looking forward to destroying this sucker with you all 😉.
AM