Peter Sikking

portrait of Peter

Peter Sikking is a leading user interaction architect. He runs high‐profile interaction design projects for clients ranging from blue‐chip multi­nationals to startups.

A pioneer of methods emphasising product vision and value delivery, he is known for swiftly getting to the heart of the matter and focusing his team on solving the real problem.

He teaches and mentors a next generation of interaction architects. His contribution to the user interaction industry and open‐source projects form the basis for his publications and lectures.

get in touch: email ·  ·  ·  · linkedin · xing

man + machine interface works

Peter is principal interaction architect at m+mi works. After mastering his trade for nine years in user interaction research, design and development roles, he founded the firm at the start of 2003. He built its reputation by designing a series of mobile apps for Nokia. Today these can be found on more than half a billion phones.

During the early years, he formulated the methods that m+mi works uses to structure design processes and to base vital interaction design decisions on value creation and the concrete project goals of their clients.

Today, he consults on user interaction and directs the design of solutions for mobile, web and desktop.

mobile

Peter has been designing mobile user interaction since 1997. He considers the high point of this to be the Nokia dual‑SIM project, where he was the principal interaction architect for the complete phone. All models on the market are based on this work.

Everything about the dual‑SIM project was great: the hundreds of people working on it; the pressure to succeed where others had failed; the abstract complexity of infrastructure; the relevance to both Nokia and tens of millions of users; the collaboration and mentoring involved. Released in 2011, Nokia dual‑SIM phones achieved a turnover of a billion dollars in the first three months.

project libre

Due to their open, non‑proprietary nature, some of Peter’s most well‐known work is for open‐source projects. Having been involved with open‐source communities since 2005, he is a founding member of openUsability and currently serves as its vice‑president.

Peter leads the interaction architecture team at high‑end image manipulation application GIMP, redesigning the user interaction of this iconic—but also famously polarising—application, to realise its expert‐tool ambitions. This includes tackling major issues that have been overshadowed by dogma for a decade.

Besides this, Peter has also consulted on other projects, e.g. openPrinting, the KDE desktop environment, Krita and F‑Spot.

teaching

Since 2007, Peter teaches interaction design at the FH Vorarlberg, Austria. Titled interaction design for the real world, his course focusses on a structured, methodical approach to any kind of design problem. It also serves as an introduction to the demanding discipline of industrial‐grade interaction design.

Far from being an academic exercise, Peter structures the course as a project where students teams, under real time pressure, solve real interaction design problems of real, open‐source, software. Again, the open nature makes it easier for all involved to recount and publish the results of the course.

mentoring

Increasingly throughout the years, Peter has been mentoring fellow interaction architects. Within his own firm and on projects, he has been leading teams of junior colleagues, designing with them, sharing his experience and guiding on the rights and duties of designers.

publishing

Peter is a heavy contributor to the m+mi works blog, which according to google is the number one resource on the web on interaction architecture. There he writes about fundamental issues of his profession, e.g. the role of interaction architecture in development processes; its relationship to other design disciplines; the ‘laws of nature’ that govern it.

On the practical side, Peter simply shows what it’s like, to design; to teach; to analyse; to lecture; to consult; to cooperate. This serves both as documentation and as to further the understanding and embracing of interaction architecture.

lecturing

Peter lectures and presents at conferences, symposia, seminars, industry summits, non‐conferences, workshops and professional events. Whether speaking about his works, principles of interaction design or the state of UI in a certain industry, he pushes the boundaries, making his audience see user interaction and his profession in new ways.