Hello. I'm Max Steenbergen,
and I'm all about
eyes forward
That means I:
design products that work,
keep the team grounded,
and help you innovate.
I lead the design efforts for marine automation, am the other half of 90East where we help teams work more efficiently with innovative tools and processes, and support clients with design, branding and development.
I aim for functional design, fresh ideas and a good dose of honesty. Sometimes, I write about my ideas.
Some of my work
Direction
Direction is my ongoing side project where I envision roadmaps of a different sort. No chronological planning, no set deadlines: they are not only never met, they are irrelevant. What matters is that everyone on the team knows what they are working toward and how they think to get there. Product development is like a trip around around the world: it's about the journey with numerous destinations, not about the end of the trip.
Rhythm
As part of a software development team, I noticed that the method we were following had a number of major inherent flaws that were hindering our progress. Pressure was mounting, productivity appeared to be lagging and quality was decreasing. After we finally realized what was causing these issues, I set to work to remedy this. The resulting process is a much better fit for the team and a far cry from the dictated, set-in-stone method we were doing before.
The entire story
Helideck Monitoring System
Helicopters that want to land on oil platforms or ships need absolute certainty and stability of their intended landing zone. Any deviation from the expected location of the landing zone can result in fatal accidents. To prevent this, several regulations are in place that determine when a helicopter can touch down. This involves meteorological data as well as positioning parameters. All this data is to be presented to operators in a clear, concise and standardized UI. I designed and partially developed this interface to adhere to the strict regulations, but also to bring a little innovation and modern standards to the often conservative maritime market. For instance, this project had a tablet-first approach from the very beginning, a unique differentiator compared to its competitors.
Project website
With 90East, we developed a central communications hub where transport providers and their customers share a common platform for offers, orders and information exchange. Using XDock, each party involved only needs a single interface instead of a separate connection to each individual partner company.
To monitor all the traffic across the XDock platform and to perform routine maintenance tasks, we designed and implemented a custom dashboard.