Anna-Karin Johansson

Facilitating Design sprints on how AI can add value in library systems was a very interesting assignment for me. The aim was to design concepts for how AI could be used in two digital systems, to make better use of librarians' professional competence.

Axiell Media is the dominant distributor of digital books in Scandinavia. Me and a colleague planned and facilitated online workshops with the Axiell´s project team, inspired by Design Sprint methodology.

Challenges in the project
- Narrowing a very broad initial scope into a realistic roadmap that could bring value to Axiell within a very short time frame.

- Workshops for an international team needed to be arranged remote and in English.

Later I was interviewed about this and other experiences from leading remote workshops. Read more about my insights here

- The project's external AI expert had not yet been onboarded to the Axiell´s team and we knew very little about what data could be used for the AI.

Our approach
- We analysed the original Design Sprint method and boiled it down to a short sprint format that consisted of four half-day online workshops in Miro.

- A smooth communication channel with the customer was created through a chat group in Teams

- During the workshops, many ideas were generated and we helped the Axiell team to develop a number of concepts. The most interesting solutions were voted upon for further processing.

- After the workshops, we selected the most promising concepts, merged them and created clickable prototypes for mobile and desktop. We tested them on both librarians and borrowers.

- Insights from our tests provided guidance for further deepening certain parts of the prototypes, which we refined in a second step.

- During the project, we had a good dialogue with the AI expert to ensure that the data needed for our designs could be made available

Final outcomes
Our final delivery consisted of four realistic Figma prototypes, a report with recommendations and an oral presentation for Axiell.

The prototypes were well received by both librarians and borrowers and provided valuable insights to Axiell on how AI could be used to support librarians in providing qualified recommendations to borrowers.

For eight months I was part of a squad that develops “Fleet”, one of Husqvarna's most important digital applications targeting the professional market.

Fleet retrieves sensor data from Husqvarna's machines and robotic lawnmowers. With Fleet customers receive an overview of how and where all machines are used, their current status as well as how much carbon dioxide they release.

> Read more about Fleet on this website

UX designer in an international agile team
I was the responsible UX/UI designer in a multinational agile team of iOS, Android and desktop developers for “Fleet Robotic”. My team primarily built features in Fleet that supports and steer Husqvarnas robotic lawnmowers. We worked in three weeks sprints and the team members were located in various places in Sweden, as well as in India.

- I cooperated on a daily basis with the Product owner, the IT architect and our Team Lead to make sure that all my designs are aligned with the backend and that we implement features in an effective way.

- I work closely in cooperation with our Swedish frontend developer for the desktop application and our mobile developers for iOS and Android who were located in India. Also, our tester played an important part in ensuring that edge cases were taken care of properly.

User research and preparations for a major redesign
I also carried out user research projects, execute user interviews and tests as well as made field visits and on-site observations. A major re-design of the entire Fleet application will begin in the autumn of 2021. Husqvarna will also change design systems and software tools, moving from Sketch to Figma. I was actively engaged in these projects.

My two year long assignment as UX designer in an agile team at the Government offices of Sweden included interviewing and collaborating with stakeholders at all levels at the Ministries.

I worked on site at the Government Offices' IT department in close collaboration with stakeholders at the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

UX designer in an agile team
My role in the team was to modernise and improve the design and user flows for four internal systems to support the main users’ work process and professional needs. Due to security issues, I am not able to reveal here what the systems do.

User research and communication
I was responsible for conducting research, user interviews and on-site observations at the Ministries. I designed new simplified interfaces and flows in Sketch and iterated them in rounds with my team. I channelled questions from the entire team and reconciled them with the Ministries.

Challenges and constraints
The team had a tight roadmap, we had to move forward fast with short iterations. We were expected to develop several applications in parallel, which sometimes split our focus. Working in an agile way with sprints and scrum was also new to the organization. The visual design was not a priority at all.

My approach to the challenges
My focus was to create as much value as possible within set frames, for the system's users and for the client. I and my UX colleague discussed our draft designs with the system´s Architect and a requirements analyst every week. It was important to make sure our designs were efficient and easy to implement. UX was an integrated part of the team, participating in most scrum-related activities and standups.

Simple design system
To create good UI without having time to focus on visuals, we developed a simple design system in Sketch with main components, patterns and templates that we could re-use for all four applications. I classify our design deliveries as “advanced wireframes”.

User feedback to secure quality and usability
We arranged many demos with the system's main users to confirm the quality of what we built and make further improvements.

Sometimes I summarised my interviews by creating “impact maps” and E-mailed them to the users I have met. When reviewing the map, they were able to confirm that I had understood their most important needs correctly. Managers and others appreciated the map too. Because it was "non-technical", it was easy for everyone in the organization to understand.

The outcome
The end result was four new systems with improved technical quality, better usability and accessibility following WCAG. Functions that did not support the user´s work process were removed, making the systems more efficient and easy to use.

Electrolux had many completed research projects with user insights regarding vacuum cleaning and floor care that was of interest for future development. Me and two other designers from inUse aggregated the current user findings about floor care products into a Customer Journey Map.

1. We studied and analysed a large number of usability reports, marketing reports, evaluations and knowledge material from various workshops.

2. All relevant user insights we clustered, sorted and documented in an Excel-matrix

3. We mapped all customer insights and created a large Customer Journey Map for Electrolux vacuum cleaning and floor care. During the process we could identify “blank spots” where Electrolux lacked user insights. In addition we identified a number of key opportunity areas for future research.

4. The Customer Journey Map, our summarized insights and recommendations for future development were presented on-site at the Electrolux head office.

5. We organized an exercise for the stakeholders to prioritise and align on which key opportunity areas that were most important for the company to take future action on.

“From Business to Buttons” is Sweden's leading conference for digital designers. When the conference in 2021 would be arranged 100% online, I was engaged as a Service designer.

Me and a design colleague took a service design approach to the task of transforming the traditional conference into a full-fledged online event.

> Check out the keynote sessions from the conference here.

They are publicly available on Youtube.

We did benchmark research and collected impressions from other online UX conferences. We interviewed stakeholders in the organizing core team and thoroughly analyzed the conditions and restrictions that existed for the event.

One challenge was designing a full-day program with keynote speakers participating from several continents and different time zones. At the same time, we wanted to create a true “live” feeling during the event.

Some elements eventually were prerecorded, others went live. A TV studio in Stockholm broadcasted in between sessions and it worked well to tie the program together.

Before the event, we tested and evaluated several conference platforms. I also assisted in designing a number of pre-events with international guests during the Spring.

In 2017 I was engaged as Service and UX designer at the Swedish public employment service.

As part of an agile team, I developed a new simplified UI for a service called "Annonsera" which enable employers to publish their job advertisements in "Platsbanken" – Sweden´s largest website for job vacancies.

> I produced a super simple video about the "Annonsera" service for educational and internal use.

Together with other designers, I also lead and facilitated two Service design projects. One of them was a research project in order to further develop a job advertisement service that the public agency offered to large companies and organisations. See images of the Customer Journey Map and a demo presentation here on the left.

The other project aimed to make an inventory and identify eight viable ideas on how to further develop Arbetsförmedlingen´s digital recruitment services in the future.

> Eight ideas that simplify for employers was at that time published on the website Arbetsgivare.nu

Unionen is with its 685 000 members, Sweden’s largest labour union. It was urgent to improve the user experience of their course catalogue, signup flows and include webinars and other digital events in it.

I invited important stakeholders from different parts of the organization during two workshops to gather valuable knowledge and insights from them. During these events, me and my design colleagues also received important feedback on our early design sketches and prototypes.

After analyzing all workshop materials, we produced an improved clickable prototype and tested the new design and flows on a number of Unionen´s elected representatives.

Several rounds of adjustments later, we now have a new catalogue design with improved signup flows that also is anchored among internal key stakeholders. The new catalogue with will be developed during 2023.

Back in 2021 I made a UX-review of the current course catalogue and E-learning platform. I also executed a number of online user tests to evaluate current flows and UI. I coordinated inUse’s consultants in the project and had an overall responsibility for our deliveries.

Our initially assignment was only to “test Unionen’s course catalogue and E-learning platform”. But when we came in, the IT environment was not ready and test data, courses in the catalog and vital information on how to sign up for a course was missing.

1. My first step was to coordinate various teams at Unionen and together with team identify relevant flows to test and prepare the IT-environment with appropriate data for the user tests. At the same time, I identified some “low hanging fruits” that Unionen immediately could do to improve the user flows.

2. Meanwhile, the IT-environment was updated and test data were put into place, I conducted a heuristic review of the course catalogue and E-learning platform.

3. I helped “Unionen” to develop the test persons profiles, select them and assisted responsible persons in the process of recruiting

4. When the IT environment was ready, I conducted a dozen user tests online via Microsoft Teams. Test results were continuously shared with key stakeholders at Unionen via a Miro board.

5. Me and a colleague made a final presentation and developed recommendations for continued development. I also booked a final separate meeting with our key purchaser at Unionen to have a deeper discussion about our findings and future recommendations.

I organized a webbinar together with a colleague to share our experiences from doing user tests. We wanted disseminate our knowledge to other labour unions and anyone else interested in testing with users and customers.

> See the webinar here

I have been engaged at Telenor Myanmar as Service Design Specialist from September to April 2017. I spent the first five months in the Yangon Head office. After returning to Sweden I continued to work with my Myanmar colleagues on a consultancy contract.

Redesigning MyTelenor app
I have been leading an extensive redesign of Telenor's self-service app ”MyTelenor” in Myanmar. From the intention to design a new dashboard for prepaid ”Pay as you go” users , the project grew to include a total remake of the app. Together with Product owners, Management and the Service Design team in Yangon we have developed and tested a number of new functions and features that will be released during 2017. Using a variety of qualitative methods and prototyping tools, we have performed extensive user tests and developed the app in agile sprints.

UX Lead for MyTelenor Common Core
I have also been engaged as UX Lead for Myanmar in a transnational development project of the MyTelenor app initiated by Telenor Group involving Telenor digital, and Telenor Hungary and Myanmar. The aim was to develop a common technical platform for the MyTelenor app, a common core that easily can be used by Telenor companies in different countries. when they want to develop local versions of the app.

Ideation workshop
In addition I also arranged an ideation workshop in Yangon to inspire future development of the app. In three hours we created more than hundred ideas on how to develop MyTelenor and let customer's seamlessly access Telenor's services.

What role will artificial intelligence play in diagnosis in the future?

During one week I worked on the above brief from Ernst & Young Head Office in London. We formed a team of professionals from four different countries – UK, Sweden, Norway and Romania.

Health care statistics in the UK show that up to half of the people visiting General Practitioners don’t need to go. About 1/3 of visits to Accidents and Emergencies has shown to be unnecessary.

Addressing these facts we proposed a solution – the ”Eir Sensor Pad” that easily could be installed in local Pharmacies.

1. When someone feels unwell, instead of going to Primary care or A&E, they visit the local Pharmacy.

2. By putting the hand on the Eir Sensor Pad, the patients are identified by fingerprint recognition. and access their personal health data stored in Eir AI database.

3. Sensors in the Pad will take up to 20 non-invasive medical measurements. The data is sent to the AI engine which perform analyses and informs the Pharmacist on the patients medical condition

4. The pharmacist with support form the AI, gives qualified advice to the patient. If serious, the Pharmacist books the patient a doctor's appointment - if not, the patient can be reassured he or she is fine, be treated with OTC remedy and go home.

The "Eir Personal Healthcare" concept and the working prototype of the Sensor Pad was demonstrated by our team to Ernst & Young staff at the London Head Office.

I took on a voluntary challenge, just for fun, to design a banking service for children, 5-7 years old.

ICA Veckopeng is a payment solution for small amounts which can be used in a child's local store.

With the Veckopeng card hanging in a strap around the neck, the child walks to the local ICA-store to buy Saturday candy. The card´s display helps the child to understand how much money is left on the account.
The unique shape of the card makes it impossible for use in regular ATM:s.

By using a mobile app, parents can easily transfer money regularly to the bank account connected to the card. The "ICA Veckopeng card" could serve as a gateway to ICA's other bank services for children and families.

For four years, between Dec 2007 – Dec 2011, I was engaged as a Senior Program Manager, Analysis & Communication at the Baltic Sea Unit at Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

The Baltic Sea Unit of Sida developed and offered financial support to more than 100 cooperation projects per year between Sweden and countries in the Baltic Sea Region.

My role included:

- Executive responsibility for coordinating communication issues, developing strategies and plans.

- Initiate, prepare and execute strategic communication activities

- Programme Manager for one of the programme funding areas, ”Regional development” during 2009.

- Evaluation of project applications, follow up running projects,   evaluation of results, giving advice to partners

- Designated Deputy Head of Unit during the Autumn of 2011

One of the most interesting and challenging professional roles I have had was as Communication Officer at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation´s Head office in Stockholm, March 2001 – 1 Nov 2006.

Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) is with its 180 000 members and 300 local branches Sweden´s largest environmental NGO.

My role included:

- Responsible for information campaigns, exhibitions and activities for the Head office and the association´s local branches. Activity planning and production of material for the organisation´s networks and volunteers in a wide range of areas, for example climate change, mangrove destruction and marine issues and agriculture

- Simplifying complex information on environmental issues, aimed for dissemination to broader audiences.

- Overall responsibility for exhibitions, information material and all media relations during a number of large Sea Campaigns, which engaged a sailing ship cruising the Eastern and Western coasts of Sweden in 2004 -2006. One of these campaigns was awarded ”Multiplier of the year”, by the PR agency Hill & Knowlton

- Planning and managing of other information projects, producing exhibitions and printed materials as well as updating and developing the website, www.snf.se

- Budget responsibility, including the negotiation of agreements and contracts with consultants and partners

Before going to Hyper Island to study, I was professionally engaged as Head of Communications at Tram Cities Sweden since March 2013 until August 2015.

Members of Tram Cities Sweden are 17 municipalities and public transport authorities. The association disseminates know-how about sustainable urban development, infrastructure and is facilitating the implementation of modern tramways in Sweden and was nominated “Swedish lobbyist of the Year 2012”.

My role included:

- Overall responsible for communication issues including developing communication and marketing strategies as well as executing activities such as member conferences, media activities and producing analyses

- Initiated and lead a work national network ofprofessional communicators in the Light Rail sector

- Responsible together with the Secretary General in the building up, structuring and strengthening the organisation´s Head Office including securing financial funding

- Acting as Focal Point for media and journalists as well as managing social media channels and the website

- Producing digital Newsletters, reports and other printed material that brought new knowledge into the sector