HAAM&

About

Hello. My name is Kris.

I try to understand.

That is the starting point for interaction design for me. Before structure, screens, or systems, I try to understand the people, the tension, the context, and what is actually getting in the way.

How HAAM works

HAAM begins with fragmented reality.

Information is scattered across institutions, databases, people, rules, interfaces, physical places, and decisions made long ago. Most organisations experience this fragmentation as friction: unclear services, disconnected systems, inaccessible information, duplicated work, and products that are difficult to trust or maintain.

HAAM studies the whole system before deciding what to make. We identify how its parts relate, where responsibility sits, what people need to understand, and what must remain reliable over time. Then we turn that complexity into products, services, and digital infrastructure that are clear, useful, and built to keep working.

We work where design, technology, research, and organisational change meet. The goal is not simply to create better interfaces, but to make the underlying system more understandable, trustworthy, and capable of supporting real life.

What is interaction design?

It is the design of how things meet people.

Interaction design is not only about interface. It is about shaping how a system behaves, how a person understands what to do next, and how an experience feels in motion. When it works, complexity becomes clearer, decisions become easier, and the product feels more natural to use.

A quick example

  1. HAAM

    Hi, I’m Kris. How can I help you?

  2. Client

    Our product has become confusing. Adoption is falling, and nobody agrees on what to fix.

  3. HAAM

    I’ll find where the experience breaks and turn it into a product people can actually use.

  4. Milo joined the chat · HAAM team member
  5. Milo

    HAAM specializes in data-driven design and development.

    Products that keep working, with accessibility, security, and speed built in.

    Welcome to Summer Season ’26, now with more sunshinemoonlight

  6. Chat with HAAMSee the work

Meaningful work

Build what culture keeps.

Culturally significant work shapes how people remember, participate, learn, gather, and imagine what comes next. It deserves digital products as rigorous as the best-funded commercial systems.

Meaningful work is rarely the easy brief.

More than one audience

Visitors, staff, artists, funders, researchers, volunteers, and future custodians may all need the same system to work differently.

Value is not only revenue

Success may mean access, trust, participation, preservation, continuity, or a stronger public institution.

The story cannot be flattened

Clarity matters, but so do history, language, place, authorship, and the productive complexity that gives the work meaning.

The product must outlive the project

Campaigns end. Grants close. Teams change. The digital system still has to remain understandable, maintainable, and useful.

Treat meaning as a product requirement.

The mission is not decoration added after the interface works. It changes the information architecture, research, governance, measurement, and technical decisions from the beginning.

  1. Start with the public value

    Define what the work protects, enables, or changes before choosing features or formats.

  2. Make complexity navigable

    Organize deep material without turning it into generic marketing copy or an archive no one can enter.

  3. Design participation, not just attention

    Create clear ways to visit, join, contribute, book, learn, volunteer, or return.

  4. Measure the right outcomes

    Pair analytics with qualitative evidence and institution-specific signals instead of treating conversion as the only truth.

  5. Build for stewardship

    Leave systems, content models, and operating decisions that future teams can understand and continue.

MemoryWhat remains findable
AccessWho can take part
ParticipationWhat people can do
ContinuityWhat still works later

Who am I?

Kris Haamer. Designer, researcher, builder.

I run HAAM& as an independent interaction design practice. My work sits between product thinking, research, design systems, and implementation. I like messy problems, clear language, and products that feel thoughtful instead of generic.

Design convictions

Good design is opinionated.

A product should have a spine. HAAM& is not neutral about speed, clarity, accessibility, or the way a system should behave when people rely on it.

01 Speed

Be obsessed with speed.

A good product doesn't make you wait. Saving a few seconds from the experience is crucial because every delay breaks trust, focus, and momentum.

02 Product

UX is the product.

Use whatever tools are needed to make the product great: research, writing, interface design, code, automation, analytics, accessibility, operations, and support.

03 Clarity

Clarity beats decoration.

Visual taste matters, but the interface has to explain itself first. People should know where they are, what is possible, and what happens next.

04 Accessibility

Accessibility is quality control.

If the product excludes people, breaks on assistive technology, or depends on perfect conditions, it is unfinished. Accessibility raises the standard for everyone.

05 Systems

Design the messy middle.

Most product value lives between departments, edge cases, content, data, calendars, support, and release decisions. Good design makes that operational reality usable.

06 Taste

Make choices.

Generic products happen when nobody takes responsibility for the experience. A strong product has priorities, constraints, and a clear sense of what it refuses to become.

Help improve this website?

Optional analytics. Google Analytics and Clarity load only if allowed; form, email, and chat content are excluded.