Interview
"It\'s a terrifically inspiring and creative environment"
Name: Tommy Nilsson
Home Country and City: I was born in Sweden but spent most of my life in Prague, Czech Republic.
Programme of Study: Master\'s programme in Cross Media Interaction Design
Personal Interests: Reading, video games, anything relevant to interaction design
Favourite thing about Umeå University: our computer lab
Favourite Swedish word or custom: hockey
Three words to summarise your time in Umeå: Winter is coming
What is your educational and professional background?
I got a B.A. degree in humanities from the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. It was a pretty broad bachelor programme with most of the courses falling under the social sciences, history or philosophy disciplines. I found it to be an exceptionally interesting field to study, albeit perhaps not terrifically useful professionally due to very little practical application beyond the academia. As a result I went through a significant part of the programme with very vague ideas about what to do for living once done with my studies. I can\'t deny it was often somewhat frustrating.
A bit of a turning point came during my third year at the programme, when I got the opportunity to spend one semester as an exchange student in Germany at the University of Konstanz. The education there was more project based. During one of the courses students from different departments were tasked to collaborate on building an information presentation for a public space. A group of interaction design students developed an interactive touch screen while me and other students from the humanities created the media content presented on this device. This process of building digital artefacts, that people then actually interacted with, got me quite hooked. Once I returned to Czech Republic, I ended up majoring in media studies with my degree thesis focusing on human navigation in interactive virtual environments.
Why did you choose to enrol in your degree programme at Umeå University?
When I was approaching the end of my bachelor program and tried to figure out how to continue my studies, I wasn\'t looking for any particular institution. In this industry, I believe it\'s not that important where you have studied, rather employers tend to care about what you actually can do, they want to see the projects you have been working on and know about your overall experience.
The master\'s programme in Cross Media Interaction Design, or CMID as we like to call it, was established by the Umeå University in collaboration with a group of relevant companies, particularly with the help of North Kingdom, which is one of the world\'s most renowned web advertising agencies. Through these companies, the students are getting real work experience and the opportunity to participate on sharp projects even before graduating. The extent to which the CMID master is involved with the industry is something quite unique and it was the main reason why I picked it as my first hand choice. The fact that it happens to be taught on an internationally recognized and well established university certainly didn\'t hurt but it wasn\'t the main factor in my decision.
What do you like most about your programme?
I really appreciate the down to earth approach of the education. Through practically oriented courses and collaboration with the companies, we get pretty good idea of what to expect in the industry.
This would of course never be possible if it wasn\'t for the people. And I think that\'s the best part of the master. No matter whether you talk to a regular employee or the CEO of a company, everyone will always have a few minutes to spare to sit down with you and share their experiences and thoughts or give you feedback on your current work. Everyone is open minded and enthusiastic. It\'s a terrifically inspiring and creative environment.
What is the most interesting thing you learned in your programme or courses so far?
In one of our courses we were collaborating with a local museum on an exhibition displaying information about different locations in the city. I was working in a team with Daniel Red, who is an exceptionally talented designer from Spain and our task was to develop a system that would make this exhibition work. As part of this effort, we recreated the city center in 3D virtual reality in order to allow the museum visitors to interact and experience the different city locations from within the exhibition. It was a sharp project, meaning we had to deal with tight deadlines and all kinds of other challenges stemming from this fact. Eventually though we managed to pull it of.
During the opening ceremony of the exhibition, a small boy grabbed the controller of the virtual city center and begun walking around in the 3D space. Quite soon other kids flocked behind him demanding him to let them try it out too. To watch this after spending months of work on the system felt simply amazing. All the experience and skills we learn during these projects are certainly great, but in the end it\'s the little things like this that you really remember and that will keep you motivated into future projects.
What do you do when you are not studying?
Eating, sleeping, reading stuff or playing video games. Sometimes all of these things at the same time.
What is your impression of Umeå and the surrounding areas?
The master\'s programme is seated at Campus Skellefteå, which is a relatively small city located about 130 km north of Umeå. I think the small size of the city should however be seen as an advantage. It\'s always quiet and there are not many distracting elements that would keep one from studying. On the downside, the winters here are really dark and cold. To people not used to this, it might come as a bit of a shock. At the same time I have to say that watching the northern lights for the first time made the harsh winter feel totally worth it.
What do you find as the biggest cultural difference, both socially and educationally, from your country with Sweden?
Well, I was actually born in Sweden so by the time I moved to Skellefteå to pursue the master\'s degree, I was already familiar with the country and knew what to expect. Compared to the Czech Republic, I would not say there are any significant cultural differences nowadays. People in both of the countries are watching the same movies, listening to the same music, eating roughly the same food and are obsessed with ice hockey. Moving to Sweden was a perfectly smooth transition for me.
What you would say or what advice would you give to another international student thinking of attending Umeå University?
Don\'t overthink it. If you like a degree programme that happens to be taught in a different country, don\'t let that become an issue stopping you from applying. Moving abroad for studying is not socially, nor economically as big challenge as one might think. Particularly within the EU. Just focus on your studies and everything else will be taken care of. Also, don\'t be shy to contact anyone if you need to ask any relevant question. As long as you\'re polite, people are actually often surprisingly friendly and willing to help.
What are your career aspirations?
As of today, I\'m still in my first year of the master and trying to take one step at a time. My priority right now is to finish the courses for the spring semester and to find an external partner for my degree thesis. The thing about interaction design is that it gives you lots of interesting opportunities not just as a practitioner but also in the research field. It\'s a bit overwhelming and I will have to make some tough decisions about which direction to go. All the people here are however very supportive and I\'m confident that with their help it will work out well.
