UX for Good: Vancouver

Supporting mindfulness education

"How can we educate the hearts of children?" By raising this question, the Dalai Lama challenged us all to enable a generation’s capacities for compassion, empathy and resilience, thereby fueling a common will and determination to pursue and sustain peace among all people. Inspired by the words of His Holiness, UX for Good (http://uxforgood.com), in partnership with the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education (http://dalailamacenter.org), explored how to embed the social and emotional learning of children and youth in the education system of British Columbia. UX for Good 2013 coincided with the Center’s Heart -Mind Conference in Vancouver, B.C, Canada. Produced by CHISEL Industries (http://chiselindustries.com). More about this challenge: http://www.uxforgood.com/project/2013-vancouver

Foossa's Lee-Sean Huang served as one of the user experience designers for UX for Good 2013 in Vancouver, Canada.

UX for Good is a wildly ambitious effort to design systemic solutions for some of the most vexing social challenges. Top user experience designers convene to tackle problems that matter in the only design event of its kind. Assisting the designers are leading philanthropic change makers and some of the most interesting, creative thinkers we can find.

In our 2013 event, user experience designers from around the world will gather in Vancouver, Canada. Selected from some of the world's most important tech companies and hottest boutique firms, these twelve UX masters will put their heads together not to build a better online shopping cart, but to take on a fundamental problem in education: how to embed social and emotional learning into children's school experience.

Our partner in this event is the Vancouver-based Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education. The center draws its inspiration from a question His Holiness asked in a visit to Vancouver: "How can we educate the hearts of children?" Taking its mission from this question, the Center will also host its 2013 Heart-Mind Conference in conjunction with UX for Good on May 9-12.

Over these four days, the UX designers will fan out across Vancouver, learning everything they can about the region's public schools and diverse communities. They'll also gain insight into the latest scientific discoveries about social and emotional learning. Finally, they'll sequester themselves for a day to design interventions that will benefit the children of British Columbia and the rest of the world.