Erik is an independent designer, researcher, and strategist based in Grand Rapids, MI, USA. His background in anthropology, semiotics and human-computer interaction help him make sense of complex situations and create meaningful interactions and experiences for his clients and their customers.

Erik’s work has covered websites, applications, products, wearables, environments, and services across domains from personal electronics, military, financial, medical, industrial robotics, farming and agriculture, education, and cooking.Erik has particular interest in ethnographic research, information visualization, embodied interactions, emotions, and product strategy.

His clients have ranged from small startups to Fortune 500 companies, including companies like Yaskawa Robotics, Panasonic, General Dynamics, Case New Holland, Select Sires, Target, Extole and Bluebox among others. While Erik was at MAYA Design in Pittsburgh, he helped develop the initial Human Centered Design curriculum that became the core of what is now the Luma Institute.

Erik has spoken and run workshops around the world at Interaction, UX Week, MidwestUX, IA Summit, EuroIA, UX Lisbon, among others, on topics ranging from general theory and practice, ethnography, research, culture, embodied interactions, and Arduino.

In 2010, Erik co-founded the MidwestUX conference, an intimate, regional UX conference creating a space for distributed design practitioners to form connections at a human scale. I

n 2018, he finished serving a 2-year term as President of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), where he has previously served as a Board Member and Local Leader.