When audiences experience the world through a tiny smartphone screen, it presents new challenges for desingers and artists. Is portability worth the sacrifice? Image: Jon Jørgensen

Globalization is bringing more and more people to travel. Far-away destinations now are just a few hours away by plane and what seemed unreachable now can be visited after just a few clicks of bookings. A growing number of people are turning into tourism-enthusiasts and are starting to travel more than ever before to experience what until a few years ago was thought to be no more than beautiful pictures on Google Images. Everything seems amazing, is it really so, though, or is tourism actually harming the Earth?

Developer and digital designer Jon thinks the topic is actually way more complex than it seems. “We have to look at it from a broader perspective and realize the human footprint we leave behind when we do things in extreme ways that are causing harm to the earth.
There are so many examples but the budget airlines made tourism go from a lot to extreme tourism in a very short timespan. The flights of today are no longer planes in the sky – they are no more than busses with wings! Going forth and back non-stop as much as possible.

I do however see light at the end of the tunnel. Personally I can’t wait for technology to finally invent “teleportism” so we can, in best Star Trek fashion, “beam us up” to the destination we want without burning fossil fuels into our earth atmosphere to the extreme that it is today. I hope it happens in our lifetime and before our earth’s lifetime.“

Image: Jon Jørgensen

Jon works in the digital world with technologies people interact with every day. From gathering insights to mapping out customer journeys, prototyping, and doing experiments, an essential part of Jon’s work is allowing people to have greater experiences with the devices they carry with themselves in today’s world. “One of the challenges I always face is what if your audience only has a mobile device, the size of your palm – how can you transcend the same feeling and experience with a web design compared to a big desktop screen that is the size of a regular size painting? Imagine if Van Gogh was asked to only use a canvas the size of 6 inches. How would his work have turned out to be?

People need to narrow things down to the essentials. Think about what is the most important thing people need to feel, to realize, or to see? Maximize your effort into 6 inches instead and you might just be off to creating a great experience no matter what size your audience has.”

Jon likes to think of himself as a very normal guy with a geeky flair for anything that has to do with technology and design. He loves developing an idea with a design approach. This starts right with the idea process, where it is about outlining possible solutions in collaboration with the customer and the team, to ultimately get programmed functionality and build an inviting design that the customer will be happy with.

Zen Jon. Image: Jon Jørgensen

• Visit Copenhagen and find out what REALLY good fish tastes like, bike in the pouring rain to feel like a true Dane and enjoy yourself in one of the many indie design shops spread around the city.

• Stay at Jon’s danish home, located a few minutes away from Nyhavn and equipped with a brand-new Nespresso Coffee machine ready for when you wake up.