With GumGun I managed to encapsulate complicated mechanics in to a very easy to pick up and use product. This is very transferable to other types of UX challenges because what it comes down to is to make complicated tasks easy to understand.

Using an app can also be fun like a game. Games are about understanding and mastering a system, which is also the case with apps. Mastering a system is fun because you have control of what options you have, and how to achieve your goals. You can just navigate smoothly, focusing on your task and be guided by the UI.

The most important thing for me as a UX designer is that I can design solutions that are easy to understand and fun to interact with for all ages and skill level.

By the way, GumGun is a super frantic and insanely rewarding 2D shoot ‘em up game for iOS and Android. It has super easy controls and is easy to pick up for every age and skill level! There is also a deep score system with multiplier!

We made the app BITWaves for iPad and mobile with a very clean user interface. By limiting the possibilities to their own recordings, the app "forces" the children to think creatively. We avoided making a childish look to not make it look like the children weren't smart enough. The client was very pleased and the children thought it was a cool way to learn.

BITWaves allows you to record sound and play audio by moving your fingers across the screen. With the new version, you can also play polyphonic sound by using several fingers at once. Moving your fingers across the screen, you can make the sounds become lower and slower. What does the clinking of a wine glass sound like when it transforms into something deep and slow? In this version, it is now possible to create compositions, play them and save them.

BITWaves adds to the world of personal composing and playback, because the software offers you an intuitive interface that is responsive to touch, rather than being controlled by a grid. Even if you cannot read music or play an instrument, this music app lets you create music with sound that you make yourself and that is found in our everyday surroundings.

The client wanted an easy way for the users to share their compositions with BIT20 and everyone else. You only click the button "Share with BIT20", and the file is uploaded. On the back-end the user is automatically logged in to BIT20's Google Drive account with no hassle.

Read more about the app here:

BIT20 har brukt appen til å bygge lyden av Bergen.

BITWaves as part of Ekko Festival in Bergen

Launching of the music app BITWaves version 2

BIT20's BITWaves information

Supported by Art Council Norway, Hordaland Fylkeskommune, Bergen Kommune, BEK and BIT20 Ensemble.

iOS / Android

Tools: C++, Cocos2D-X and fmod

Source code

The archive is a new section that gives you the possibility to dive into BEK's 20 year long history within the fields of art and new technology. Since the archive is part of the original website, we designed it in the same style. But at the same time we wanted to separate the archive from the rest of the website. That is why we gave it dark backgrounds with individual colors for each section; Projects, Features and Artists.

To make it easier, clearer and more fun to navigate the archive, all internal links gives you a popup box with short and concise text and a photo. And if you want to read more, you can click and navigate to the projectpage, or you can close the popup and continue where you left of.

Check out the BEK Archive here!

We made the app Bergen Go that uses geolocation (GPS) and a map to show where you are. The map contains points that you must seek out physically before you can click them. That "forces" the user to use their legs and they will experience the city in a new way.

Each point contains a fun fact about the building or sculpture you have found. At the same time you get "cobblestone", which is a currency you can use to buy products and services in the real world.

Tools: C# and Unity

We made an installation with a very simple interface consisting of one button. There was also a screen with instructions and a teleprompter in front of a camera showing the text the users read in to a microphone. All the users had to do was pressing the big red button. The button started glowing red indicating a recording was taking place, and the text started scrolling on the teleprompter after a countdown. When the user was finished reading, they pressed the button to stop recording. Then in the background the video was stored and uploaded to a server and ready to see on a website.

The problem was that there was no accurate digital map available that could show the paths in the forest, and on satallite photos you could only see the top of trees. The solution was to draw the map myself by including a draw function in the app and just start walking the paths in the forest. The draw functionality would of course be removed on release. With this approach I could get a detailed map of the paths, and it would accurately show your GPS location.

The app has not been released.

Espen Sommer Eide (1972) is a composer and artist based in Bergen. Using music and sound as both method and medium, his artistic practice involves long term engagement with specific landscapes, archives, languages and rhythms, with an experimental approach to local and embodied knowledge. In addition to installations and performances, he has been a prominent representative of experimental electronic music in Norway, with main projects Alog and Phonophani, and a string of releases on the labels such as Rune Grammofon, FatCat and Hubro.