The UX of Burnout

"As long as you are still creative you are not affected by Burnout.“ Unfortunately, this is not true. We need to talk about Burnout and Creativity. How to realize, how to avoid, and how to help.

We are hosting together with IxDA San Francisco a mini Interaction Conference Redux. Our featured speaker is Thorsten Jonas, and he'll be with us to take questions and join the conversation.

AGENDA:
8:00 pm - Watch together Thorsten's presentation
8:25 pm - Quick discussions in small groups
8:40 pm - Q&A with Thorsten
9:00 pm - Happy Hour for those who wish to stay after the event

In his talk, Thorsten will be taking you on his personal journey through a Burnout.

Burnout. Depression. You name it. Everybody hears about it. Many more people than we think ran into it or are facing it right now. But still, we are not talking enough about it. It’s always "the others", who are affected.

Burnout as a "creative person" does not necessarily mean you are not creative anymore. Rather this is a dangerous mis-judgement: "As long as you are still creative, as long as workshops are successful and your team is happy, you are not affected." This is how I thought for too long.

But, when we already get into the burnout spiral, when the depression gains control, or when anxiousness takes over, our creative mind and toolset can be really helpful. We can use it to support our healing significantly as well as supporting other people from our teams.

Along Thorsten's personal journey through a burnout, he wants to share his personal experience, what Creativity had to do with it, and the changes he made to his (work-)life as a Creative Person and Leader as well as how we can help others as Leaders and Colleagues.

And last: why the Burnout was the best thing that could happen to him and why we all have to talk much more about this topic.

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SPEAKER: Thorsten Jonas
Strategic UX Consultant & Coach

For 15 years Thorsten (@dolbydigger) is in the field of UX, supporting clients to create meaningful products, platforms, and experiences. During his career, he worked with clients like Red Bull, Intel, the NZZ, European Telecommunications companies like Sunrise (Switzerland), A1 (Austria) or PŸUR (Germany), and various Broadcasters like ZDF, ARD, ProSiebenSat1, or the Tagesschau.

Besides he speaks at conferences and is mentoring young UX professionals.

Thorsten believes that we have the responsibility to make tech accessible to everyone and create a world where tech helps humans to live a delightful & meaningful life. We have to move from human-centered design to a humanity- and environmental-centered design approach.