Learn to design for real humans

Mindful Design

Combining modern positive psychology and industry-leading design practices, I’ll teach you to really understand how humans work and explore problem spaces with empathy, curiosity, and accountability to push your overall design skills beyond the next level.

Really good design that works is rooted in understanding how humans work

Understanding typography, colour, space and flow are fundamental in producing great design work, but that’s only half of the story. Before you get to that part, you need to understand the humans you are designing for.

In this course, we’ll go through key theories and pivotal studies around how the human mind works. We’ll explore how our brains handle attention, distraction, vision, perception, learning, memory, predictability, surprise, motivation and self-determination; as well as how we can design better experiences based on these new understandings.

In the second part of the course, we’ll bring everything together and follow along a complete, real world design process. From research and scribbles, all the way through to final prototypes, you’ll learn how to conduct and manage a full-stack design project. Along the way, you’ll learn effective communication and project management strategies, lightweight and repeatable research approaches, how to maximise your sketching and wireframe stages, and the key concepts that power good, accessible, well-balanced design work.

This is an in-depth course, designed to be taken at your own pace and could easily be the focus of an entire semester of study. Take your time with it, let the ideas breathe, and get to work!

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While those of us working in tech are being pushed towards speed and automation more than ever before, Mindful Design offers a refreshing invitation to slow down and reflect.

Scott’s book is a beautifully-written reminder that well-designed products are not exploitative, but work instead to give choices and encourage individual agency. I just know his course is going to be even better.

Amy Hupe, Design systems and content design consultant

Mindful Design brings a fresh perspective to digital product design with practical advice grounded in neuroscience and psychology. If you’re serious about designing accessible products that meet the needs of real people, this book is a must-read.

Geri Reid, Lead Accessibility Specialist, Just Eat

Reading Mindful Design felt like an antidote to all the coercive patterns and manipulative bullshit that has been normalised throughout the tech industry. It changed my approach to building software and should be essential reading for anyone looking to build responsible, human-centred experiences

Robb Owen, Freelance Front-End Developer

You won’t be the same designer after completing this course

Overview

The skills learned in this expansive design course will help you in everything you do, both personally, and profesionally.

You won’t be the same developer who has an interest in design either because the core skills and knowledge of humans taught in this course can be transferred between disciplines, and also industries. Learning to be more empathetic and understanding will make you a better, rounded human.

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Scott is one of those rare designers that has extremely high levels of talent — not just in the tangible output of their work, but also in how he understands the mind. Not to mention — their teaching style is up there with the best in the business.

I’m equal parts in awe and absolutely furious that I could never be that good.

Andy Bell, Founder of Set Studio

The Mindful Design book is an essential read for anyone who wants to build empathetic, inclusive and just plain good experiences. It’s become an essential buy for any designer I work with, and should be mandatory for any designer building digital products today.

Luke Murphy, Head of Advocacy, zeroheight

Scott’s book masterfully bridges the gap between mindfulness and user experience, offering a refreshing perspective on intentional, empathetic design. He blends theory with actionable insights, such as mindful prototyping and ethical considerations supported by vivid case studies and accessible exercises.

Suleiman Leadbitter, Lead UX designer, Money and Pensions Service

Frequently asked questions

Let’s clear up any worries you might have with some quick-fire answers.

  1. When is the course going to be ready for purchase?

    The Piccalilli team and I are aiming to launch this course in the early Autumn 2025, with an opportunity for you to get a large discount by pre-ordering the course in the summer.

  2. What skills do I need to have?

    All you need for this course is a basic understanding of design tools, along with beginner level skills in UX and UI design. You can get support from your peers and myself in our exclusive Mindful Design Discord community.

  3. What other courses/books have you written?

    I wrote Mindful Design, first and second editions.

  4. How is this different to the Mindful Design book?

    The book is in-depth, theoretical and full of useful insights, with a practical twist. But it's also academic and verbose by design. The video-first approach to this course means we get far more practical and visual, far more quickly. The book is a good companion to the course (and vice versa!), but we've designed the course to bridge many of the gaps you get from a linear, self-led reading experience.

    The course also covers more detailed examples and new content, like managing feedback stages and collaboration, deep-dives into design tooling, and a better explanation of just what the heck it means to design autonomous environments. The book was written to make people think; the course is here to help you learn, and to help you craft something you'll love.

  5. Is there a set timeframe to complete the course?

    The course is a mostly video course with no set timeframe. You can start whenever you like and pick it up when you have time available. There’s no set cohorts or timelines to work to.

  6. How long does the course take?

    My advice is that the course should take around 30 hours to complete the key content. If you tackle all the side quests too, it’ll take 40+ hours.

  7. What’s the refund policy?

    I’m confident that you’re going to get a lot of value from this course, but if you are not happy with your purchase within 14 days, reach out to [email protected] and your purchase will be refunded in full.

About your instructor

Profile shot of Scott Riley. Curly-haired lad wearing glasses and a white jumper poses earnestly for his school photograph.

Hiya, I’m Scott! I’m an independent designer, front-end developer and the author of Mindful Design. I’ve worked in design and development for over 15 years, and people hire me to design accessible products that aren’t soulless, boring tripe. I started my career designing for local and central government in the UK, then spent a good few years in design leadership roles. Now, I spend my days working on early-stage design and research projects for startups and scale-ups.

I specialise in design informed by cognitive science and positive psychology, helping craft stuff that’s mindful, accessible, and truly human-centred. Now I split my time between doing all that for nice clients, and teaching folks how to do all that for themselves and their companies.

I believe that democratisation can be at the core of design. We learn from the early days of our career that our job is to ‘simplify’ things, but often what we’re really doing is taking complex systems and allowing people to affect change upon them. A huge part of Mindful Design lies in questioning those systems, whether they be technical or societal, and democratising access to them for everyone.

Ultimately, I want to show that it’s possible to make good, profitable products while still genuinely and actively caring about the wellbeing of the people who end up using them.

Let’s take your design skills further than you ever thought possible

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Front-end education for the real world. Piccalilli, established 2018

What you get

  • Comprehensive, structured learning

    The course is delivered in an accessible, mixed media format that’s easy to consume and easy to pick up where you left off.

  • Lifetime access

    Pay once and get lifetime access to all the current and future course material.

  • Support and community

    Everyone who purchases Mindful Design gets access to an exclusive Discord community where you can get support from your instructor and your peers.

  • A certificate of completion

    It’s really important for some organisations that you get a certificate of completion. We’ve got your back with that.

  • Customer support

    Our customer support team — [email protected] — are ready to help out with queries whenever you have them.

  • Effective use of training budgets

    You’ll learn transferable and high quality, applicable skills, making this a sound investment of yours or your employer’s training budgets.

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