Tor Bruce

Design engineer

My face

Hi, I like to design and code user interfaces. That’s “and” as in the middle piece of a Venn diagram. Too much code and no design and I lose motivation. Too much design and no code and I get impatient.

As a designer, I try to tackle problems through systems. I’ll look for underlying concepts or patterns of rules that can get me 80% of the way from the start, rather than treat everything as a mystery box of unrelated edge cases to handle one at a time. You could say that I prefer “simple” over “easy”.

Work

2025–

Planhat

I’ve joined Planhat as their first design engineer, pushing a design system overhaul, prototyping new features, and shipping UX fixes.

2020–’24

Elsa

Elsa helped people with RA (rheumatoid arthritis) understand their condition and influence their care. The app was beloved by its users, rated 4.8/5 on App Store.

While at Ocean, I worked on some of the first concepts for what would eventually become Elsa. I later contributed user research, design, usability testing, production code for React Native, and much more.

2018–’23

Rheumatic?

In collaboration with rheumatologists from leading European medical universities, we made a tool to find people in the early stages of rheumatic disease, where the worst health effects can be reduced.

I worked on UX and interaction design, and built the first version for the web, including the algorithms for risk calculation, later refined and evaluated through several research papers.

2020

Branding for TLA

I drew the logotype, built the website, and art directed the scientific illustrations and diagrams.

2016–’17

Hurmårdu.nu

Letting troubled young people seek help on their own terms, and build courage for a first mental health counseling meeting. Made at Ocean, in collaboration with Första Linjen, Experio Lab, and local kids and teenagers. Won Dagens Medicin’s Guldskalpellen and others, nominated for Svensk Form’s Design S.

2016

Dollar Street

I helped Hans Rosling’s Gapminder with design for Dollar Street, which documents scenes and objects from homes around the world through over 50 000 photos and videos.

I improved search and navigation UX, to make it easier to browse the huge catalog of images. Together with colleagues from Ocean I interviewed users, made an onboarding, revised the graphic design, and designed improvements to the photographers’ admin interface. Bill Gates wrote about being “obsessed” with the project.

2014–’20

Projects at Ocean

Clients and project partners I worked with at this pioneering Swedish design agency included Gapminder, Karolinska Institute, Shire, Sanofi, Thermo Fisher, Aisin, Kry, Axfoundation, 1177 Vårdguiden, Elsa, Coupa, Mödra­hälso­vårds­enheten Stockholm, and Ung Cancer (Swedish young cancer association). My role included interaction design, client workshops, front-end code and more.

2013–’14

Lexicon Interactive

Interaction design and code for digital learning platforms.

2011–’14

Bachelor’s programme in Interaction design at Stockholm University

2011–’13

Freelance designer

Interaction design and front-end web development projects.

2008–’10

Studio magazine

Interviews, reviews, and tutorials for Sweden’s largest musicians’ magazine.

2007–’09

Music production at Linnaeus University

2004–’08

Music producer

Songwriting, production and performing. Björk once put a track I made on a record.