In this interview of the Profiles in Design series, Elina Papanaoum talks with Robert Friberg, an expert interaction designer who has been designing the shift at R&D for the last 25 years.

Elina Papanaoum: Can you briefly take us through your design journey at Scania?

Robert Friberg: Well, I would say that it was almost by chance that I came to Scania and started working with interaction design in the truck. I asked a former classmate in 1998 if there were any openings to do my master’s thesis at Scania, and he directed me to what is now the Product and Interaction Design (RCD) section. I made the interaction design of the rear wall remote (CTS) that lets the user control the auxiliary heater, media and alarm from the bed. By the time I was done with my master’s thesis, the PGRT series started to take off and I asked if I could stay on. Then I worked with Scania’s first instrument cluster with a display for a couple of years, and I have worked with interaction design ever since.