Joakim Strandell
20+ years in UX/UI Design and Fullstack Engineering
From Soapbox Cars to Enterprise Products
I've always liked building things. As a kid it was boats, soapbox cars, and questionable DIY cigarettes. Later it became websites, apps, and digital products. The tools changed, but the curiosity stayed the same.
In my twenties I started my first company, built a few SaaS tools before "SaaS" was even a thing, and later co-founded a small digital studio that ended up working with brands like H&M, MTV, and BMW.
For the last decade working as a consultant, I've operated at the intersection of UX/UI Design and Fullstack Engineering.
Most recently, I spent 7 years with Stockholm Exergi, designing consistent user experiences and transitioning their platform to a modern, type-safe React architecture and API layer.
My Philosophy
Great products are built in the overlap.
For too long, design and engineering have lived in separate realities. Designers perfect static images that are impossible to maintain, and developers are left to interpret the intent. The result is "drift"—a gap between what was approved and what actually ships.
I believe the best work happens when we remove that friction. I treat Code as the Source of Truth. Instead of maintaining heavy, static design libraries, I architect systems where design tokens and variables map 1:1 to production code.
This "Code-First" approach eliminates the traditional "hand-off." We don't just hope for the best; we prototype in the browser to validate logic, physics, and accessibility immediately. This ensures a Zero-Loss process where the product you design is exactly the product you build—cohesive, scalable, and shipped on time.
My Work Stack
As both a designer and developer, I try to stick to what is considered the best practices in the design and development world. Even though the latest and greatest is always tempting, I like to focus on what delivers the best results for the project at hand.
Within all areas of my work I use AI where it makes sense to do so. I believe there is no substitute for human creativity and problem solving – but AI can help with many tasks, act as a second pair of eyes, and speed up the product development process.