Digital strategist & Experience architect

NICLAS ÅSTRÖM

I turn complex ideas into digital experiences.

15 years in the business Strategy + UX + Frontend Industry, public sector and museums

My experience Get in touch Browse labs

work

Experience

For the past decade I’ve worked at Knowit Experience (Linköping). I help teams plan, build, and improve digital services, often as the person who makes the work feel clearer and more doable. I’ve led design work for clients, coached teams, and helped steer how design and frontend work together.

A lot of my job is helping people move forward when things are messy, uncertain, or politically complicated. I run workshops, turn fuzzy goals into concrete decisions, and make sure everyone shares the same picture of what we’re doing and why. I’m big on visuals, not because they’re pretty, but because they reduce misunderstandings.

I’ve worked with organizations large and small, local and global, from Holmen and Toyota Material Handling to museums like the Vasa Museum and the Museum of Wrecks. The work usually lands in real things people use, like public websites, intranets, and internal tools, from early direction to launch.

I’m also technical. I learned to code early, worked as a developer, and studied cognitive science with a focus on how people interact with systems. That mix helps me talk to both developers and decision-makers without the usual translation problems.

What I can contribute

If you bring me into a project, you get someone who helps the team do good work without burning out or getting stuck in endless discussions. I’m direct, but not sharp. I lead through coaching and care, and I try to make the people around me better at what they do.

Here’s what I often end up doing:

I’ve held roles like UX lead, team lead, product owner, project manager, and (in web contexts) software architect.

Clients I've worked with

Swedish Geotechnical Institute, Östergötlands museum, SBU, Elmia, Vasa museum, Museum of Wrecks, Swedish Naval Museum, Swedish Railway Museum, Uppsala Konstmuseum, Väderstad, Holmen, Region Östergötland, Region Stockholm, Kammarkollegiet, Göta kanalbolag, Bixia, Tekniska verken, Softube, Toyota material handling, Sankt Kors, Dukaten, Hyresbostäder, Vätterhem, Ambea

Going forward

These days I’m especially interested in work that sits at the intersection of direction, leadership, and change.

Three things I keep coming back to:

If your organization is trying to move forward without losing people along the way, I’m very into that kind of challenge.

Talks

I like teaching. I give talks and run sessions on topics like user journeys, shaping a project before it starts, design strategy, digital workplaces, and where the web is heading. Sometimes it’s a small internal session, sometimes it’s a bigger event.

If you’re thinking about a talk or a workshop, feel free to reach out.

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