NICLAS ÅSTRÖM

Digital strategist with 10 years in the business of turning ideas into experiences

work

Experience

I've been spending the last decade working for Knowit Experience Linköping doing strategic design work for clients and leading the design team as well as the direction of frontend development.

My main focus is helping organizations forward in their IT projects through workshops and idea work while visualising everything through charts, mind maps and sketches.

I've worked for companies large and small, from local to global. Everything ranging from industries with Holmen and Toyota to museums like the Vasa museum and the musem of wrecks. Projects have ranged from strategic to design and implementation. Usually involving a web based system such as an external website, an intranet or an internal tool.

I've got a deep technical understading thanks to having learnt to program early in life. From there I've worked as a developer, studied cognitive science with an emphasis on interaction design and lately worked with stragegic questions regarding the web as a communications channel for larger clients.

What I can contribute

These are some of the methods I've used and roles I've had when contributing to client projects.

Impact mapping, Customer journey mapping, Roadmapping, Workshop facilitation, Concept sketching, Prototyping, User testing, User research, Information archtechture, SEO, UX Lead, Team leader, Project manager, Product owner, Software architect

Clients I've worked with

Holmen, Toyota material handling, Väderstad, Vrak museum, Vasa museum, Marinmuseum, Östergötlands museum, Uppsala Konstmuseum, Softube, Kammarkollegiet, Göta kanalbolag, Bixia, Tekniska verken, Region Östergötland, Region Stockholm, Sankt Kors, Dukaten, Hyresbostäder, Vätterhem, Ambea

Going forward

Going forward I'd really like to deepen my experience by doing more work in strategy and leadership roles.

My interests tend to shift with the times, sometimes it's beacause I want to take another step professionally or something that is changing in the environment around us.

What really piques my interest right now is how AI will influence everything we do, our work and our everyday life. I'm looking into both new ways of doing things and how we can apply all these new toys and tools to make better work.

Tied to this is leadership in a remote world, the definiton of the digial workplace and the new tools and methods we need to invent to make it all come together.

Lastly, I've always had an interest in personal integrity and information security which is more important than ever with our lives being lived almost entierly online. I've researched a lot about the implications of new regulations such as GDPR as well as current security threats and have a lot to contribute when it comes to your organization handling those challenges.

Talks

I love to educate by sharing my knowledge. I do talks on subjects ranging from impact mapping and customer journeys to the future of the web, digital workplaces and design strategy. I've given talks large and small, as part of an educational package, inspiration days or as part of a bigger conference. If you want to discuss booking a talk, please, don't hesitate to get in contact.

labs

Sometimes I spend a couple of nights experimenting with ideas and technologies. These sites represent the eclectic result, a collection that I still keep updated.

What if a virtual synth could travel the world?

Geosynth

A small experiment in randomly generated music by way of a traveling keyring used as a Geocaching travel bug that generates notes according to visited places and people it has met up with.

It was launched in Sweden in the spring of 2019 and has since visited Kebnekaise, Svalbard and parts of continental Europe.

Screenshot of Geosynth

What if UX work had drills?

Morgonövning

Morgonövning, swedish for morning exercise. In music there are drills, scales and rudiments that are an integral part of learning an instrument. What if the same was true and available for UX work?

It's a bit tongue in cheek since the grammar can generate some intensely surreal exercises.

Screenshot of Morgonovning

Where is my MTV?

Optimus Poptimus

Optimus Poptimus started as a music blog when electro house ruled the blogosphere.

Since then it's evolved into an archive of music videos.

Screenshot of Optimus Poptimus

What if finding the best music was collaborative?

Thirty days of awesome

A project built around a Spotify playlist. The rules are strict and elitist where a group of participants can add to the list but also have veto to remove bad tracks. Additionally a song can only be added in 6 months since release and it can't stay on the list for more than 30 days. Hence the name.

Screenshot of Thirty days of awesome

What if you knew when to visit McDonalds?

Har donken Big Tasty?

A small site setup to test out social media impact. The site recieved over 10000 visits within a couple of hours of being posted on one of Sweden's then largest blogs. It still attracts about a thousand hungry visitors a year.

DDB reached out for a campaign but I declined since I didn't want to become Mr. Big Tasty.

Screenshot of Har donken Big Tasty

contact

Niclas Åström

Want to get in contact? Don't hesitate!

+4673 629 89 65

niclas@neeke.se

Instagram @nickoleinen

LinkedIn @neeke

Blog Interaktionsverket