My Sörmland

In 2024, I collaborated with a multidisciplinary team at Hyper Island on a project aimed at boosting tourism and community engagement in Västra Sörmland, in Sweden. Our challenge was to drive digital innovation, strengthen collaboration between local businesses, and support the region in becoming more connected, discoverable, and engaging.

Our concept, MySörmland, proposed a dual-platform solution (B2B & B2C) that enables both seamless business partnerships and personalised activity discovery for visitors and locals.

Client: +Katrineholm

Role: Researcher & Designer

Year: 2024

Team Members: Andreas, Stavrakis, Ann-Kristin Friedrich, Nehalika Jethwani, Vicram V. & Vinícius Alves

Overview

Västra Sörmland is full of hidden gems, but many residents feel there's “nothing to do,” and visitors often struggle to find or combine activities that match their interests. Businesses in the region are eager to collaborate, yet they lack tools to turn ideas into joint offerings.

Our challenge was to connect the dots. How could we help people explore more and help businesses thrive together?

Shaping the Concept

  • People needed an easier, more fun way to find activities, plan visits, and feel engaged locally.

  • Businesses needed tools for collaboration, joint promotions, and shared experiences.

Our response: MySörmland, a concept combining gamified exploration with a smart backend to support real partnerships, with the core features being:

  • AI-powered swiping to recommend events and activities

  • Business dashboard for joint campaigns and product bundles

  • Seamless itinerary planning for visitors and locals alike

  • Data support to help businesses better meet demand

To build something relevant, we hit the road.

We visited Katrineholm, interviewed residents, business-owners, tourists, public representatives, and fellow students. Our insights shaped two clear needs:

The Strategy

01

Discover

We mapped out regional platforms (e.g. visitsormland.se, matkluster.se), highlighted their limitations, and designed an integrated experience for both B2B and B2C flows.

02

Co-Create

We prototyped MySörmland in Figma and iterated based on user feedback, refining both design and value proposition through testing and reflection.

03

Empower

Our final concept focused on empowering both residents/visitors (B2C) and local businesses (B2B) to take ownership of their Sörmland experience.

  • For B2C, we created a user-friendly, swipe-based platform that helps people discover hidden gems based on their interests. Whether you're planning a day out with friends or looking for something spontaneous nearby, MySörmland makes exploring the region easy and fun.

  • For B2B, we introduced a digital dashboard where local businesses can co-create offers, bundle experiences (e.g. a fika + bike rental), and share visibility through joint campaigns — turning one-time visits into collaborative opportunities.