Ask me about support for trustworthy decisions and responsible innovation in digital
About
Making tech safe and compassionate since 1997.
Projects
Between 2017-2022
UX Lead, design strategy, research and analysis, visual explainers (diagrams, videos, prototypes), workshop facilitator. Leadership advisor and project support.
Services have included:
- chatbot research and design
- new health advice interface (including video and image features) and
- home testing for Covid-19.
Have worked with almost half of all national services at some point.
From 2013 to 2017 I was the UX lead for Sweden's first national platform built for offering cognitive behavioral therapy to everyone across the country.
- I was a key contributor the pre-study outlining requirements and needs for the interaction design.
- Research/interviewing people with online therapy experience.
- Production of early prototype in Bootstrap.
- Continuous interaction design.
- User research (interviews and usability testing)
- UX Lead (daily communication with designers and developers, as well as meetings with stakeholders).
- Workshops with stakeholders and industry professionals.
- Evaluation of pilots with clinics and patients.
Side Projects
My Swedish podcast where I read a selection of my Swedish blog posts
A podcast that shares learnings about new technology and human rights. For everyone pursuing wellbeing in a modern society. You will hear informal thoughts, essays and observations on practicing digital care… fully.
A Swedish guide to digital accessibility.
Since 2011 I have hosted this tech-focused show together with James Royal-Lawson. We have interviewed some of the digital design industry's most interesting minds, released more than 300 episodes and surpassed 2.5 million downloads.
Speaking
Digital enablement, smart computing, AI and virtual realities are all praised for the problems they solve, while the problems they create are kept from view. Organisations are less willing to acknowledge any of their injurious contributions, instead choosing to argue that their intent is always benevolent. Harm is especially evident for the already vulnerable, overlooked, underserved and disenfranchised. Denial and avoidance will only exacerbate negative impact and Per is determined to raise general awareness and promote more balanced and honest conversations about possible, plausible and preferable human futures.
Democracy and human rights are facing direct threats, both at home and abroad. Our talks aim to bring renowned guests who can highlight timely issues. Among the topics that we will discuss: AI and Human Rights, climate refugees, academic freedom, poverty, and increasing inequality.
We have never been better at increasing efficiency and rushing to keep pace with run-away technical developments. But although we may be better at doing things the right way, how do we ensure that we are making the right things? How do we know what harm our designs contribute to? The demand for managing ethical queries, before we let technology make decisions for us, often clashes with the misconception that we are always one step behind technical advances.
In this workshop I want to show how you can incorporate ethics thinking into your current design process in a very practical way. The session will also assist understanding and awareness of the problem area and create an open environment where everyone can share their fears and experiences.
We have never been better att increasing efficiency and rushing to keep pace with run-away technical developments. But although we may be better at doing things the right way, how do we ensure that we are making the right things? How do we know what gremlins our designs create? The demand for managing ethical queries, before we let technology make decisions for us, often clashes with the idea that we are always one step behind technical advances.
Sixty years ago, in 1957, Vance Packard published The Hidden Persuaders, a classic examination of how our thoughts and feelings are manipulated by business, media and politicians, The Hidden Persuaders was the first book to expose the hidden world of “motivation research”.
Today many of the same techniques that Packard warned about are being used without hesitation to persuade users of digital products to subscribe, click, scroll, buy, invite and more. The same people who claim a user-centric mindset have no second thoughts when using learnings from psychology to obviously steer users towards desired behaviours.
Writing
All digital services have an impact on humans, society and nature. But rarely do we measure and act on how universal wellbeing changes as a result of what we create. Per Axbom wants to change this. Digital Compassion is a handbook that helps you rethink, providing you with practical tools you can start using immediately in your projects.
A chart to help guide moral considerations in the tech space.
An e-book based on a series of articles I wrote on my Swedish blog around the experience model AceAwe. I describe a process for managing experience-oriented design in a holistic and structured way. And by truly helping the people you want to reach.
Awards
STIMDI's big prize is a Swedish prize that has been awarded by STIMDI since 1997. It is an honorary award that is awarded to a person who "has contributed in a valuable way to the purpose of the association, i.e. to promote research and development within the interest area of interaction between human and computer based on an interdisciplinary research perspective, as well as promoting contacts between researchers and practitioners in Sweden."
Justification:
As a long-standing and valued UXer, lecturer and podcaster, Per has contributed to increasing awareness about good usability. He has also shared his experience by participating as a mentor in STIMDI's mentoring program. With his background in media and communication science, he has constantly found new ways to communicate UX, which is fully in line with STIMDI's ambitions.
Since 2010 SEB has annually awarded an idea that is linked to the financial sector and can be used to develop customer experience within SEB. Special note is taken to ideas that are entrepreneurial and creative in their approach.
Features
Swedish podcast where I was invited to talk about the AI hype
Swedish podcast where I was invited to talk about my new book, Digital omtanke (Digital Compassion)
Swedish podcast where I was invited to talk about the intersection of UX and ethics.
Being interviewed by Tech for Good Live and Rebecca Rae-Evans was delightful and uplifting. I have never felt more comfortable as a podcast guest. I also appreciate and love how I always discover things about myself when other people ask me questions and listen with real interest, and I allow myself to reveal what I’m thinking. New thoughts were certainly sparked in this episode.
An interview I did ahead of my talk at UX Copenhagen.
Swedish podcast where I get to talk about the dilemma of friction-free digital services.
I was interviewed by Scott Ryan-Hart and I really enjoyed the thoughtful process.
Work Experience
Core competence within the area of user experience, usability and accessibilty. Strategic advisor within portal and web development as well as web content management. Client support within web guidelines, training, evaluation of suppliers and anything else that falls into the laps of website owners.
Datormagazin is one of Sweden's premier computing magazines founded in 1986. I wrote monthly articles about implementing front-end techniques for interactive Web 2.0 and Ajax web technology. Included with each article were my tips for creating a better user experience with interactive solutions. Among the topics were:
- error handling in forms
- tabs generated from anchor links (advanced CSS at the time)
- autocomplete in forms
- using lightboxes
- hide/show using jQuery (now known as collapsible content)
- table highlighting and sorting
On a sidenote, as a kid back in the 1980s this magazine was my source for learning programming.
Part in building the business. Representative at User Interface East in Cambridge, October 2002. Seminar responsibilities, hosting seminars. Company profile responsibilities.
Responsible for Eriweb – web-based knowledge centre for web editors. Representantive at Ericsson's web conference in Dublin, 2000.
Key role in boosting profitability through new service processes. I was a representantive at the Builder.com conference in New Orleans, 1998.
- Marketing and PR Material (presentations, poster design...)
- Responsible for the sports catalog distributed to all college/university students in Stockholm (a circulation of 60, 000)
- Developed the organisation's first web site.
Set up new guidelines for distribution of information on campus.
Education
Media and Communication Science
Regular writer for the student magazine.
Spent one summer writing a novel.
Top grade for my dissertation on translation: "The impossible translation: adapting literary translation for a new culture."