Articles by Willem

Google Maps: Designing the Modern Atlas

It is often the case in interaction design that the best solutions simply get out of the way, allowing the user to achieve their goal and get on with their life. With Google Maps, this is certainly the desired outcome. Geographic navigation and search should be smooth, efficient, and ultimately straightforward. When this is successful and the product works as it should, the nuances and details behind these experiences can often go unnoticed, written off as algorithmically derived and invisible…

Why You Need to Read Fiction

Success in business today is often equated with hyper-efficiency, hustle, and an extreme busyness. Cut the fat, focus on your work, and all else must follow. And in this pursuit a lot of distractions are removed, some good, some bad: time-wasting iPhone games, evenings with friends, aimless internet browsing, Netflix binge-watching, and more often than not, reading books…

Offscreen Magazine – Founder Story

As the founders of a company all about reading, it’s unsurprising that the three of us are book lovers, yet from slightly different angles: our CEO Eric grew up in a house literally stacked full of books; Andrew, our CTO, was already a voracious reader in primary school before discovering the internet and technology; and I have always loved books as printed, designed objects — I hand-built books, typeset pages, and designed type at the Rhode Island School of Design…