Hello, I’m Vincent

I’m all about crafting beautiful, intuitive interfaces & experiences that make businesses thrive and solve real user needs.

To make things that look nice & work well, I draw on insights from interaction design and behavioral psychology.

What gets me excited every day is making complex ideas easier to understand using the power of empathy and creativity.

Drop me a line ✍️ if you think we’d make a good match.

What I do best

With over 12+ years in designing compelling human-centered experiences, I help businesses implement product strategy at scale.

Having worked in teams and projects in the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway has allowed me to learn from experts with a variety of professional and cultural backgrounds.

How I think about design

Sometimes I’m asked what I’d define as great design. In my view it’s the ability to listen and empathize.

By looking at data and listening to users we can make evidence based decisions that let us ask the right questions, allowing us to support the user’s intent, and provide real value in context, at the right moment.

Clients

Skills & tools

UX/Visual Design
Prototyping
User research

 

Service Design
Design Sprints
Front End Development

Photoshop / Illustrator
Figma / Adobe XD / Sketch
Invision / Zeplin / Abstract
Continuous delivery (Agile / SCRUM)

Office 365 / Google Apps / Slack
Jira / Trello / Asana / Notion
Mixpanel / Qualtrics / Userzoom
Adobe Analytics / Optimizely

How it is to work with me

Justin Schwenk Senior Software Engineer at Bose Corporation

Vincent is a thought leader as well as a masterful UX practitioner.

During our time together at Bose, his mastery of design, user research, usability, and information architecture were second to none, and our frequent and thoughtful conversations always pushed the boundaries of how our customers could be engaged more effectively.

He has an eye toward the future, and his expressive manner of communicating regularly pushed our team in new directions. I would jump at the opportunity to work with him again.

Maiken Solberg Olsen Product Manager at Finn.no

I’ve worked together with Vincent in FINN.no for a short period and learned to know him as very professional and skilled. He dares to challenge and is always willing to discuss, iterate and work towards the best solution for the users.

He is very knowledgable and was a valuable resource for us in the apps team with his expertise in mobile development. He is also a fun, caring and interesting person, with whom I had several interesting conversations with.

Fredrik Holm SVP Engineering at Cognite AS

I had the pleasure to work with Vincent on many challenging assignments as we worked on improving productivity for Microsoft’s customers through Delve and My Analytics. He is truly obsessed with solving user problems and is great at making that the core of his designs.

You can even see traces of his design contribution in the material Satya sent out when LinkedIn was acquired. Vincent set the stage for how social graphs would be visually presented, and this has been adopted by all of Microsoft.

Amanda Bergknut UX Designer at Avensia

Vincent has great design skills and understanding of the UX design process.

He has good collaborative skills both in working with other professions and being a strong, reliable and kind team member. I would highly recommend Vincent for any UX design position.

Experience

2019 - Present

Senior UX Designer

Bose Corporation

At Bose my consulting responsibilities include creating and maintaining the design system for the Bose website, the Bose apps and store specific creative.

2017-2018

Head of product

Blockbridge

At Blockbridge I ran day to day operations for a fintech startup specialized in digital currencies.

2016 - 2017

UX Designer

Finn.no

At Norway’s largest ecommerce platform, FINN.no, I helped establish the design language for the FINN iOS and Android apps, and the FINN website design system. I left because I wanted to focus on Blockbridge, a start up I founded with friends.

2013 - 2016

UX Designer

Microsoft

At Microsoft I worked on apps and integrated web experiences across the Microsoft Office suite, including – Outlook, Office, Skype, Bing, Cortana and LinkedIn.

Portfolio

Bose Design System

A design language that embodies the design principles of a brand that’s engineered to perfection, including an Adobe XD sticker sheet and reference documentation and organizational onboarding.

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Bose Design System

Design System /

Project
Bose Design System
Client
Bose
Delivered
2020

Challenge

Bose wanted to optimise the workflow between Design and Development so creatives can do their best work and deliver pixel perfect design on time for every product launch.

Solution

A design language that embodies the design principles of a brand that’s engineered to perfection, including an Adobe XD sticker sheet and reference documentation and organizational onboarding.

Key Results

About Design Systems

  • Design systems + pattern libraries are used by many companies to create one central source of truth for internal teams so that everyone has access to the most up-to-date assets throughout the design and development process.
  • In a design system based workflow, product teams start by checking if the design system already contains the UI elements required for the feature to be delivered:
    • If the UI elements already exist, then the existing CSS Classes are used to implement the feature
    • If not, then designs are created and CSS classes are written and added to the design system and pattern library, and then used to implement the feature

 

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New10 employer branding

A series of custom illustrations used as murals and on room dividers in the New10 office.

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New10 employer branding

Other /

Challenge

Capture the spirit of the culture of New10, an Amsterdam based startup facilitating small business loans, through an employer branding package,

Solution

A series of custom illustrations used as murals and on room dividers in the New10 office.

Key Results

  • 3 co-creation workshops to unearth the essence of New10’s culture.
  • 1 comprehensive set of illustrations that supplement New10’s brand identity.

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Finn Design System

A unified design language that breathes the familiar brand customers know and love, including a Sketch sticker sheet and reference documentation and organizational onboarding.

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Finn Design System

Design System /

Project
Finn Design System
Client
FINN
Delivered
2017

Challenge

Finn.no, Norway’s largest classified’s platform wanted to improve user experience their and consolidate their brand identity across all 12 vertical markets.

Solution

A unified design language that breathes the familiar brand customers know and love, including a Sketch sticker sheet and reference documentation and organizational onboarding.

Key Results

  • 12 market places integrated
  • 1 design language across Web, iOS and Android
  • 5 teams empowered to deliver features at higher velocity

About Design Systems

  • Design systems + pattern libraries are used by many companies to create one central source of truth for internal teams so that everyone has access to the most up-to-date assets throughout the design and development process.
  • In a design system based workflow, product teams start by checking if the design system already contains the UI elements required for the feature to be delivered:
    • If the UI elements already exist, then the existing CSS Classes are used to implement the feature
    • If not, then designs are created and CSS classes are written and added to the design system and pattern library, and then used to implement the feature

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Delve

Delve Analytics empower information workers within Office 365 with insights into how they can reclaim their time spent dealing with email, attending meetings, and interacting with key contacts.

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Delve

Web /

Project
Microsoft Delve
Client
Microsoft
Delivered
2016

Challenge

Microsoft has at its core mission to empower information workers around the globe to do their best work. Inside large organizations it can be hard to navigate the shoals of corporate complexity. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has called for “a new information discovery and knowledge tool to track your time, because that’s the valuable resource you have.”

Solution

Prototypes, concepts and final visual language for Delve Analytics, which empower information workers within Office 365 with insights into how they can reclaim their time spent dealing with email, attending meetings, and interacting with key contacts.

Key Results

  • 100 million Monthly Active Office 365 Users empowered.
  • 1 integrated tool that provides insights across chat, email, meetings and documents
  • 4 integrations with Office 365 (Desktop Client, Desktop Browser, iOs, Android )

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Skybase

SkyBase lets app developers audit their source code and business processes via legal knowledge provided by partner law firms.

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Skybase

Web /

Project
Sky Base
Client
Odyssey Hackathon
Delivered
2019

Challenge

Globally, about 100 million code repo’s are exposed to potential compliancy challenges. There is no straightforward and cost effective solution that allows empowers entrepreneur to be fully legally compliant.

Solution

SkyBase lets app developers audit their source code and business processes via legal knowledge provided by partner law firms. Red flags are highlighted, and app developers can have their issues mitigated and their code certified at a fraction of the cost of a regular audit.

Key Results

  • 2 place winner at Odyssey, Europe’s largest start up hackathon.
  • 48 hour’s to go from problem to final user tested prototype.
  • 1 weekend spent learning a lot and having a great time with old and new friends.

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FINN Android App

A reenvisioned Android app experience that uplifts the user experience to match the Finn brand promise, while leveriging native app capabilities and Android design patterns.

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FINN Android App

Mobile /

Project
Finn Android App
Client
Finn
Delivered
2017

Challenge

Tailor the FINN.no classifieds products to be optimally experienced on mobile devices.

Solution

A reenvisioned Android app experience that uplifts the user experience to match the Finn brand promise, while leveriging native app capabilities and Android design patterns.

Key Results

  • 12 market places integrated
  • Over 1 million active users affected.
  • Improved look & feel, usability, and customer satisfaction.

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Dono

Dono is a free, open-source password management tool for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.

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Dono

Mobile /

Project
Dono
Client
Personal
Delivered
2018

Own your passwords.

Dono is a free, open-source password management tool for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.
It doesn’t store or sync your passwords, unlike other password managers like 1Password or LastPass.

Dono doesn’t store your passwords, not on a server nor on your device. This allows you to use really secure passwords without having to trust a service or company to store and sync them for you.

Every time you use Dono, it regenerates your passwords using your passphrase and your labels
(short hand descriptions of the products you use).

Dono’s password technology is really hard to break. An attacker needs more than fifty times the estimated annual budget of the American National Security Agency ( more than half a trillion dollars ), to reverse engineer only one label, comprising only a single user.

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ConnextLab Mural

A 3-wall spanning mural that brings about the design thinking mentality required from participants to bring a design sprint to successful completion.

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ConnextLab Mural

Other /

Challenge

ConnextLab, a Rotterdam based design agency specializing in design sprints asked me to help brand itself as the Netherlands’ most forward looking innovation center.

Solution

A 3-wall spanning mural explains the out of the box thinking expected from design sprint participants and brings about the design thinking mentality required from participants to bring a design sprint to successful completion.

Key Results

  • 3 walls explaining the design sprint journey customers embark on.
  • 1 mini design sprint to conceptualize the content for the mural

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Brightlands Design Sprint

A web platform where entrepreneurs, researchers and students can come together and collaborate on materials, health, nutrition and services across campuses.

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Brightlands Design Sprint

Web /

Challenge

Start up accelerator Brightlands wanted to position its four campuses in Limburg, the Netherlands, as the backbone for innovations.

Solution

A web platform where entrepreneurs, researchers and students can come together and collaborate on materials, health, nutrition and services across campuses.

Key Results

  • 4 campuses represented:
    • Greenport Venlo Brightlands
    • Chemelot Geleen
    • Health Maastricht
    • Smart Services Heerlen
  • 1 shared ambition
    • To innovate business, research and education

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Overleef Corona

A website inspired by The Onion which highlights the positive events happening during the pandemic, that would otherwise go unnoticed.

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Overleef Corona

Web /

Challenge

How can we make the barrage of negative news related to the Covid-19 pandemic more endurable, using humour in a respectful manner to offer encouragement and support during times of crisis?

This was a pet project that I worked on with a few friends over an afternoon.

Solution

A website inspired by The Onion which highlights the positive events happening during the pandemic, that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Key Results

  • 1 new skill learned: Advanced animations in Adobe XD
  • 50 obscure yet news worthy positive events discovered while doing research.

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My friends tell me I'm

  • Obsessed with user needs
  • Entrepreneurial and data driven
  • Thriving in complex organizations
  • Detail oriented
  • Self motivated
  • A team player
  • A cat person

Languages

English fluent
Dutch native
HTML / CSS / Javascript / Node medium
Norwegian / German medium

Education

2020

Maastricht Summer School

Modern Monetary Theory & European Macroeconomics

In this course I learned how:
• Banks create deposits when extending loans to the private sector
• Central banks create central banks deposits
• This shapes monetary policy and a macroeconomic view of the economy.

2010 - 2012

Malmö University

MA in Interaction Design
2005 - 2009

Academy of Fine Arts & Design Maastricht

BA in Communication & Multimedia Design

Hobbies

  • Hackathons
  • Weekend projects
  • Working out
  • Reading
  • Creative writing
  • Baking
  • Designing stickers
  • Strategy games
  • Petting cats