Would you like to collaborate with me? I do design, I am the founder of Mentallys, and I also do human-centered finance!
« I've never been able to fit into any one box, and I've always found it very boring to do just one thing at a time. I see myself as a passionate person who follows my intuitions and opens up unexplored avenues where I'm not expected to. » — Stéphane Vial
I do design
The son of a carpenter, I'm a former first-generation university student. I owe everything to school and work. With a PhD in philosophy, I began my career in teaching, before discovering design at the École Boulle in Paris. It was also in Paris that I trained in the practice of interaction design through the association Designers interactifs. A Full Professor at the École de design de l'Université du Québec à Montréal, I am now one of the most internationally recognized French-speaking design researchers. Founder of the journal Sciences du Design, I am the author of several classic books on design, which are required reading in many universities and countries. A pioneer of research in digital philosophy, I am also the author of the book Being and the Screen, published in English by The MIT Press, which earned me an invitation to lunch at President François Hollande's table in 2015. I'm currently working on Vocabulaire du design, the first and largest specialized french-speaking design dictionary, which I'm co-editing with my colleague and friend Éric Kavanagh, a Full Professor at the École de design de l’Université Laval, and which brings together over a hundred authors.
I develop the Mentallys app
With a degree in clinical psychology and a background as a web designer, I was led to see, in the interstices, connections between things that evolve separately. That's how, around 2011, I came up with the idea of developing a digital platform for mental health. When I arrived in Quebec in 2019, I initiated a new and unparalleled field of research at the Chaire Diament: design for e-mental health. Thus was born Mentallys, the mobile application that facilitates the experience of accessing mental health care, the first version of which was completed in 2024, after several years of research and development. Created at UQAM in collaboration with the Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal, Mentallys is the result of a groundbreaking codesign process involving community and public partners, as well as people living with a mental health disorder, peer support workers and healthcare professionals. Mentallys is a demonstration of what design can do. I've put into it everything I know, can do and love to do. Our mental health deserves the best! With my team, I also created Visuallys, the first mental health image bank.
I do human-centered finance
I've never had any interest in the financial field and I've never been interested in money. Over time, however, I realized that my level of financial education was really too low, compared to my university education, and that it wasn't having a positive impact on my life, my loved ones, my dreams. I decided to become financially smarter, to improve my personal finances and to help others do the same. Approached by the World Financial Group, I discovered to my great surprise that there could be a social mission in finance, and became a financial security advisor. Registered with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers du Québec and a member of the Chambre de la sécurité financière, I manage Résilience, a team of advisors who help Quebecers better understand money and improve their financial strategies to reduce financial stress and promote well-being. We provide financial education and our services are free. What I love about this team environment is the positive mentality, the winning mindset, the discipline of success, which made me realize how deep the entrepreneurial fibre runs in me.