Last night, I had the pleasure of speaking to the Vancouver User Experience group (AKA VanUE). The theme was “Inspiration,” so I decided to focus on something that’s preoccupied me for my entire career in tech, which is how we can bring our best selves to technology, and use technology in ways that help us grow and evolve in meaningful ways.

I titled my talk “Fitter, Happier, More Productive: How Tech Can Help Us Be & Do Better.” I talk about:

  • Why motivation matters less than you think.
  • The 3 factors you must have in place in order to shift your behaviour, according to Stanford professor BJ Fogg’s amazing research on behaviour design.
  • My rebuttal to venture capitalist Tim Chang’s “7 Deadly Sins” framework for assessing how successful an app is going to be.
  • Three apps that have made me a better, happier, more thoughtful person.

I’ve uploaded my slides to Slideshare with an audio track. (Warning: the slides make very little sense without the audio, because I’m a firm believer in using slides for illustration and counterpoint only.)

How do you think technology can help people be and do better? I welcome your thoughts in the comments.

[slideshare id=20346667&doc=vanuetalk-130501113324-phpapp01]