Anti-intellectual tech
Halvor William Sanden
Senior developer, UI lead and writer
I develop websites and applications. I also write fiction, creative non-fiction and about the technical exercises and unified field of expertise required to make interfaces.
Brief history
- Product owner integration documentation at Posten Bring, 2026–
- UI Lead (fagsjef brukergrensesnitt) DPU at Posten Bring, 2025–
- Department Head of Mybring Experience at Posten Bring, 2022–2025
- Harvard’s CS50x, 2021
- Senior Developer and Agile Team Lead at Posten Bring, 2018–2022
- Designer and developer, Vanberg/Zoom Grafisk, 2008–2018
- Course in ad agency operations, Berghs/Westerdals, 2013
- Designer and developer, freelance, 2007–2008
- BA in graphic design and marketing, HiBu (USN), 2009
- BA in art and communication, NTNU, 2006
Selected articles
All articles
Anti-design software
Another piece of software claims to be able to generate web interfaces from graphics. It’s a lie. Such a thing is not possible. Not 25 years ago, not now, not 25 years from now. There are two reasons: Graphics software doesn’t come close to describing interfaces sufficiently. Operating on the …
Not the users I have in mind
If most users say that a flow is good, we should make it so; if most say that the contrast is good, we should not take their word for it.Testing isn’t as straightforward as that, but the point is that there are two approaches to making the web: The majority and the minority – the general and the …
Saying goodbye to chatbots
The typical chatbot experience is like a psychic cold-read session with C-3PO. The inaccuracy with which information is given is only surpassed by the frustration and uncertainty about what isn’t there. Is there more I should know? Why can’t I look at the complete documentation? Why do I have to …
The Implied Web
People don’t need call-to-action buttons. Interface elements made to get attention and herd people towards clicks increase cognitive effort because they obscure themselves and reduce interfaces to clickable surfaces. The implied web is based on the idea that people read interfaces through the …
Grasping CSS: The speed of proficiency
Getting fast at building frontend means going beyond trying to make something work as quickly as possible. Aiming for speed instead of efficiency makes learning CSS more difficult today than it was twenty years ago. It’s not because the language evolved but because the many shortcuts get us stuck in …
Grasping CSS: The concept of logic
The key to understanding CSS is to get past the notion that frontend development is about producing visuals. Visuals are one aspect, but we never make them directly. We make it easier for ourselves when we stop thinking about the interface as significantly related to the image. Two different …
How pointer coursor affects our usability decisions
Most interfaces, design systems and UI frameworks seem to be made by someone who has only heard stories of interfaces. It’s what we get when imitating each other. It’s what we get when bad practices become expectations. It’s what we get when making decisions without reasoning. We know what …
Other output
Music
I play drums + some keys and bass in several projects
Konversasjon.no
Podcast production and distribution.
Husbråk
A Norwegian comic strip I started in 2016.
Millasmat.com
One of the largest online cookbooks in Norway. Featuring recipes from all over the world. I had the pleasure of building, maintaining and photographing for 13 years; we even produced a handful of podcast episodes.
Firewood Logger
A web application that logs and calculates firewood usage. My final project in Harvard’s CS50x: CS50’s Introduction to Computer Science. Originally build using Python, Flask and Jinja and later converted to static and web components with a node backend.
Sysfonts
My contribution to Style Stage, a project showcasing different ways to style one page just by switching the CSS. Sysfonts is meant to demonstrate system fonts, which I see as the best option for applications.
Trykke.no
Norwegian site on how to prepare things for print. A way of keeping and sharing some of the things I learned from working in printing. Featuring web component calculators for image resolution and paper weight.