Introducing Mindful

A space for your thoughts, ideas, and ongoing tasks

Adrian Zumbrunnen
UX Planet
Published in
2 min readDec 14, 2016

Ever opened a website or an app and by the time you saw it, you forget why you opened it in the first place? Do you keep forgetting stuff because of short interruptions and stress at work?

If you do, we have a lot in common.

That’s why I created Mindful: a tab in your browser that accompanies you throughout your day.

Mindful (Beta) — A tab extension for Google Chrome

Mindful is based on a few simple design ideas:

1. It works where you work

Reminders only work if you remember to look at them. During a stressful day, it’s hard to find the time to even consider looking at your notes.

Once you minimize the window, it’s out of sight, out of mind.

Conversational design taught me the importance of providing tools and value where users already are. In this case, it’s the browser.

Mindful accompanies you. It’s a living document, in every new tab.

2. Repetitive exposure

Repetitive exposure is key in remembering things. Having your thoughts in every new tab increases exposure while at the same time reducing friction to edit them.

People with a huge amount of tabs often wonder: “where are my notes again?”.

With Mindful it’s simple: in your next tab.

Tabititus — People have more tabs than apps

3. Deliberate limitations

Mindful comes with many built-in limitations.

  • One single document: to keep your focus on your ideas rather than naming, moving, and retrieving separate files.
  • Balanced formatting capabilities: to help you structure your thoughts in rich and meaningful ways, without getting visually too creative.
  • The same Mindful, in every tab: for quick and easy access.

Is Mindful for you?

Mindful is not for everyone. It is not a fully fledged writing suite. Instead, it’s a space for your thoughts, ideas and ongoing tasks.

“Mindful is like a notebook that follows you everywhere.”
— Vladimir Vuskovic, Product Manager, Google

“A great tool to help you focus, be mindful of your attention, and stay on track.”
Denise Jacobs, TED Speaker + Author + Creativity Evangelist

“Mindful gives me a gentle reminder every time I start something new.”
— Emma Coats, Editorial Lead Writer, Google

“This is my #1 writing space for short notes. Just love it!”
— Nick Babich, UX Planet

Download

Feeling adventurous? Download the beta. Bugs included. For free. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Please hit recommend to spread the ♥︎. Let’s chat on Twitter.

Special thanks to Raphael Saunier for helping me making this possible. 🙌

Published in UX Planet

UX Planet is a one-stop resource for everything related to user experience.

Written by Adrian Zumbrunnen

Human Interface Designer at Apple • Opinions are my own

Responses (28)

What are your thoughts?

I really like the extension and how simple it is, but I’m running into the issue of having too many of these “new tab” extensions that I want to use. If there were a way for me to force it open through the toolbar menu rather than open a new tab…

2

Adrian Zumbrunnen I love this concept and execution! Funny that you used to be at iA because my first thought was that this reminded me of the streamlined approach of iA Writer.
One thing I would love is much bigger type (or a way to scale type in…

2

Once added, one does what exactly? Not being psychic not sure what to actually do to take action. Must be me…

1