I want to understand you

I became intrigued by how persons use interactive tech while studying Informatics.

My early explorations of the art of influencing behavior came in the form of courses in psychology and HCI at university.

I have grown to love the complexity of strategically sound product design and now embrace a plethora of quantitative and qualitative methods where the needs and desires of “users” are balanced with the resources available to the team, the company culture and of cause the goals of the product.

I’m a collector

Early on it was stamps and comic books (Marsupilami is a favourite). Nowadays my butterfly net is filled with orchids of the genus Cattleya, fabulous rhums and colourful shirts.

While there are many reasons people collect, for me collecting is about “completing the set”, so having tried all rhums from Martinique feels quite nice.

Creating an information architecture where all content items fit and the structure conveys a clear message gives me the same feeling of completion. Having developed an interaction concept that is so profound that it helps answer almost all questions the developers have also gives me that great sensation.

I help people have great experiences

Over the years I have come to realize that my dad, Anders, achieves the same thing I want to achieve – but he does it in a profoundly different way.

Dad works as a scenic designer in an amateur theatre ensemble. During rehearsals I remember him sitting on almost all seats and walking in and out of the theater hall again and again.

He told me that for audience members the experience starts even before arriving at the theater. Entering, sitting and having champagne in the break is all part of that experience.

Therefore one part of his job is to make those moments and transitions at least pain free and hopefully even pleasurable and memorable. On top of that comes the job of helping create the magical illusion that is at the heart of great theater.

The origin story

Almost all superheroes have an origin story: a bedrock account of the transformative events that set the protagonist apart from ordinary humanity. … To read stories about destroyed worlds, murdered parents, genetic mutations, and mysterious power-giving wizards is to realize the degree to which the superhero genre is about transformation, about identity, about difference, and about the tension between psychological rigidity and a flexible and fluid sense of human nature. (Hatfield et al, 2013)

Image by the Superheroes of Victoria.