Warmth of the Setting Sun: Belief and Identity in Digital Life | Next Conference

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Written By Joe Macleod

As our lives move entirely online, deleting an account or leaving a platform shifts from a minor tech hurdle to a profound identity crisis. This high-profile keynote explores how digital product endings must respect user agency, human belief systems, and personal legacies.

• Modern digital offboarding directly intersects with profound human concepts of personal identity and belief.

• When digital product design denies users clear agency at the exit, it triggers severe psychological friction and distrust.

• The future of digital consumption requires platforms to facilitate dignified, completely transparent departures.

• Balancing onboarding excellence with a highly intentional offboarding strategy is the next frontier of premium UX design.

Joe Macleod

Joe Macleod is founder of the worlds first customer ending business. A veteran of product development industry with decades of experience across service, digital and product sectors.

Head of Endineering at AndEnd. TEDx Speaker. Wired says “An energetic Englishman, Macleod advises companies on how to game out their endgames. Every product faces a cycle of endings. It's important to plan for each of them. Not all companies do." Fast Company says “Joe Macleod wants brands to focus on what happens to products at the end of their life cycle—not just for the environment but for the entire consumer experience.”

He is author of the Ends book, that iFixIt called “the best book about consumer e-waste”. And the new book –Endineering, that people are saying “defines and maps out a whole new sub-discipline of study”. The DoLectures consider the Endineering book one of the best business books of 2022.

https://www.andend.co
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Endings Matter: Joe Macleod on Offboarding, Brand Value & Responsibility | Next Conference
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If I Only Had a Story | Andy Ruben & Joe Macleod | Circularity 2025