Mathias

www.flickr.com

I am a design manager at Bang & Olufsen with a background in user experience design. I am managing the creative team responsible for the interfaces of the future B&O products, both digital and physical.

B&O is an unique design/technology company with a long tradition in home entertainment products. The core competence in B&O is within the acoustic and mechanical craftsmanship as well as the treatment of certain materials like alluminium. Ever since the days of the founders (started 1925) the focus has been on merging the engineering qualities with innovative industrial design. The successful outcome of this is what we call "experience design", a reckognised goal for many companies today. One of the challenges for B&O in 2009 is to succesfully include interaction & service design into the experience design formular.

B&O is an amazing place to work. It is a very selfcontained company with a lot of pride in what it does. 40 years anniversaries are not uncommom and the solid knowledge and willingness to go far to meet ambitious designs are all part of the roots. Working in this environment is a great experience similar to the attitude in Hewlett-Packard Laboratories where I used to work. It has also an interesting contrast to working in purely internetbased companies like IMDb/Amazon where the pace is different and the products are virtual. The interesting thing is that the combination of the two types of companies clearly is some of the key to success in the future, creating increasing and substantial revenue from long lasting service offerings.