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BMI as a measurement of my health? Skandia you /almost/ lost me as a customer with that.

I signed up for health insurance with Skandia a week or so ago and was briefed that it most likely would include a health checkup which I was more than fine with. When I got the letter for the health checkout however they referred to my BMI and it made me very angry.
I have absolutely no issue with doing a physical checkup, in fact I welcome it and consider it to be a natural thing if you want to get an insurance for your health. I would consider it stupid and unprofessional NOT to ask for one when signing up new people for insurance even.
What I take great offense over is the fact that Skandia use one of the worst tools of measurement ever to support this request: Body Mass Index, or BMI for short. This offends me greatly because it takes no consideration to what body mass you actually have.
Now I am not a thin person and with my bodyweight ending up somewhere around 113-115kg I end up with a BMI at around 34.1-34.7. This is according to BMI the same as being Obese. The recommendation for my height is 62-82kg, which is fun since my body weight was 75 when I had so little sub dermal fat that you could actually see the veins in my face. On this picture I am around 80kg and that was 20 years ago...
Considering that BMI is such a terrible measuring tool I strongly consider changing insurance company just for this simple letter telling me that because of a BMI above 30 I am requested to do a health checkup. Had they just skipped that and asked me to do it I would have happily done so.
Now I am not sure if I feel that a company that even consider using BMI for health indicators and that apparently does not require people with no muscles to do a health check? In a country where many are quite tall and where fitness is a trend it makes zero sense to use a measuring tool that clearly misrepresent tall people as fat and short people as "healthy".
Skandia, you really did not do your homework on this one and considering the bad reputation BMI have and the fact that you basically just told me, and others in the same situation, that because you are fat you need to do a health check you should seriously consider how you address this issue with your potential clients.
Jimi Wikman
💫 Jimi Wikman

Fjord Stockholm - one of the greatest workplaces in the world.

I have been meaning to write this for a while now and as my energy start to come back I feel it's time to express my admiration for the amazing Fjord Stockholm office and the people working there.
I have had the pleasure of working not just with Fjord, but also sit with them in their Stockholm office for close to a year. In that time I have observed and learned a lot from how Fjord build their culture within the office and how it affect their work.
A workplace can be many things and how it is structured and decorated have a great impact on how the people working there feel. Not just about themselves and the workplace, but also how the company itself are perceived. So if you want to know what kind of company you are dealing with you can just take a stroll through their office.
As you probably know Fjord is a part of Accenture and for me that made things very interesting because Accenture is very strict as a company. A strict environment almost never fit a creative mind and Fjord is a melting pot of creativity, so how does that work for Fjord?
Well, Fjord have solved this by taking the best parts of Accentures high standards for security and their values and built it as a core of their work. This core is then surrounded by a setting for creativity that is just amazing! Every where you go you will find places to sit or interact with.
It can be a swing next to a window, a huge teddy bear that you can actually curl up in its lap. A VR set in the coffee area and kitchens that make for perfect work areas or places to chat for a while. Everything is carefully selected to be stylish and playful, but also as ways to trigger your minds creative processes even more.
There are always things to look at with an odd shape, creations made from strange materials and you can find places to sit and work all over the place and not just around the working areas. In short it is amazing!
On top of this very creative scenery you have people. People that are friendly, curious and oh so full of creativity and talent from all over the world. These people combined with the decoration of the office create an atmosphere that is very difficult to describe, but if you are a creative designer you probably just call it heaven.
I will miss the Fjord Stockholm office, but I will do my best to make sure the Claremont office I am just starting to get to know will be equally great, if not even more so! It is a challenge, but one well worth to take on because the work place is where most of us spend a majority of our time throughout life, so it should be amazing!
The Fjord Stockholm office have managed to create just such a working environment that truly make it one of the best working places in the world for creative creationists.
Well done Fjord Stockholm!
Jimi Wikman
💫 Jimi Wikman

When your new co-workers completely rock your socks.

Last Thursday I had my first meeting with the Claremont UX group that I am now a part of and it was one of those meetings where you just sit and go "wow" because your co-workers are just the greatest people you have ever met!
While the UX part of Claremont is fairly new the people are sharp and experienced wizards for sure. The exchange of knowledge was through the roof and the level of discussion was at the highest level! It's been a while since I was not the sharpest UX mind in the room so sitting with these great minds was just amazing.
I look forward to be a part of this group who truly is passionate about making the world a better place by making it as user friendly as possible. I see no limit to the amazing things that we can do together and my heart is just glowing with inspiration and passion right now. I can't wait to get to work on Monday!
...
My new co-workers completely rocked my socks and it was epic!
Jimi Wikman
💫 Jimi Wikman

Are we breaking down things to much for design and complicate the process or is it necessary in a more complex world?

UX design, visual design, interaction design, creative technologist, GUI designer, usability consultant, information architect. The titles are endless these days and as someone who work with all of these pretty much every day I am starting to wonder if we are breaking things down to much these days, or if it is actually necessary to get things done?
10 years ago most of these titles were pretty uncommon, at least compared to the way they are used today. They still existed, they just were not as clearly defined and separated as they are today. Most just called themselves "designer" and that was pretty much ok.
When I had my own design business there was no distinction between a visual designer or a UX designer for example because without the knowledge of one you can not do the job of another.
Without knowing the information structure and the technical limitation of the platform I am designing for, I can not set the interaction design. Without the interaction design I can not set the UX and without the UX I can not set the visual design. It's not quite that linear as they all blend on multiple levels, but you get the idea.
So for me these things are always connected and maybe that is why I never felt comfortable focusing on just one area. How can I best help a client if I do not understand the whole picture? How can I create a solution without understanding everything from psychology to visual principles to information architecture and interaction patterns in the different touch points in a customer journey?
As the fields expand rapidly, just as they do for front end development, the information flow becomes almost unmanageable. Is this perhaps the reason why we see people that proclaim to be UX designers, visual designers or interaction designers? Or is it just that they still are "designers", but just focus on one area of expertise more than the other fields?
Unfortunately I see a division, just like the division happening for the front end developers, where we have designers that put the creative power of the visual design as their only craft and others with the intellectual focus of interaction and psychology as a separate craft.
I have been in projects where this division have worked fine and I have been in projects where this does absolutely does not work at all. It all depends on the people and the methodology where communication is always the key.
As we dig deeper into the psychology of design and user behavior, for the web in general and e-commerce in particular, does this mean that it become to difficult to stay on top of the development in all these fields so a division of discipline is required?
The tools we use suggest the opposite however and the borders between visual deign, interaction/UX design and even code becomes more and more blurred. So from a technical point of view we move towards where I was 10-15 years ago where you are doing just "design". 
As of now I am not really sure what is the best way moving forward. Is it better to have very focused individuals that form teams to get the full width of the design process? Or is it better to have less focused individuals that can handle the full range of disciplines on their own? What does this mean for methodologies and work processes, does it matter at all?
What are your thoughts on this matter? What direction do you think we are headed and how do you feel about that?
Jimi Wikman
💫 Jimi Wikman

It's difficult to sit on the side when leaving a project

As I am leaving the current project, due to the fact that I am leaving for another company, other people are taking over my duties and I get less and less involvement in the work that I used to hold together as the spider in the web.
This is very difficult as I am used to be the one in the center of all things and now I am on the outside. The new team lead do things differently and the process of change always leave a residue of confusion and every fiber in my body just want to step in and "fix" things. 
The thing is that there is nothing to "fix", it's just change and the fact that I no longer sit in the center of the project any more. The new team lead have things well under control and the project is doing just fine without me. 
The realization that you really are not that important is both liberating an a bit sad. On one hand I am glad because it means that I have succeeded in making myself obsolete and the team no longer have need of my guidance. They work just fine without me following the processes and workflows we have built together.
On the other hand I feel a bit like a parent no longer being needed by their children and they move from home. Just in reverse as I am the one leaving. It's a bit sad to realize that you will no longer be the one they come for when they need help or the one they turn to for advice and comfort.
 
While this is a strange and sometime uncomfortable situation it is also a great opportunity to observe and learn from the new team lead and also to lift my gaze and look at things outside my part of the project.  It's quite interesting and it's a very good learning experience, especially when you can pick up on body language. I see so many things now that I have not yet had time to observe before and it give me a wealth of new insights.
So I am in a position right now that feels a bit weird, mostly because I am not just leaving the project, but the company as well. It's also sad as I have to much time to think about how much I will miss my team and my co-workers when I leave. 
Have you ever been in the same position and what did you learn from that?
Jimi Wikman
💫 Jimi Wikman