Hi, I’m Olivier.

/ˈɑ.lɪ.vɚ/English pronunciation

I like understanding people and making things. I bring design and engineering together to turn ideas into experiences people can use.

Olivier holding a blue marker toward the viewer

How I got here.

I first wanted to be a photographer, then a film director. I loved making things with other people and thinking about how an audience would experience a story. At 11, my uncle showed me his website. The idea that you could create something and put it out into the world got me into coding.

While studying economics, I built shareableurl.com. During my entrepreneurship minor at the University of Amsterdam, it became linkpage.bio and eventually reached 100,000 users. Seeing people use something I’d built made me want to keep going.

I became a UX designer at KLM. When ChatGPT came out, I spent days exploring this new way of talking to computers. That curiosity led me to leave my job and pursue a master’s in AI.

My research brought these interests together: designing conversations with voice assistants for older adults in healthcare and mental well-being. The thread through it all is designing how people experience and interact with technology. Voice is one way to do that. I’m interested in how visuals, text, and sound can work together, and how AI makes new kinds of interaction possible.

Conversations
worth having.

Olivier smiling at a microphone in a recording studio

I host the UserExperience.org podcast, where I talk with designers, researchers, and builders about UX, AI, and the people technology is for.

A place to start: Smit Desai on voice interfaces and trust

All episodes

Sharing what
I learn.

Selected talks

I like sharing what I’m learning and hearing what other people make of it.

Olivier speaking at UXPA beside a slide about end-user autonomy in AI interpreting
Talking about AI accessibility at UXPA Boston. May 9th, 2025.

Beyond
the work.

I speak English, Dutch, French, and Spanish, and I’m learning Arabic and American Sign Language. I’m fascinated by the different ways we find meaning in words, signs, and sounds.

I’m interested in education, health, and mental health. Health matters to me because it shapes how we experience everything else. I see mental health as part of that, and I’m curious about the connection between body and mind.

I enjoy spaces where people slow down and listen, like the men’s circles I go to or a Dialogue Night I joined at the Ikeda Center. In our circles, we practice “circling”: sharing what’s going on for us and listening to support each other, rather than jumping in with advice. I also enjoy reading, mostly nonfiction, though these days I’m usually listening to audiobooks. Nonviolent Communication is one I’ve enjoyed.

People talking in pairs during a Dialogue Night at the Ikeda Center
A Dialogue Night at the Ikeda Center.
Olivier playing electric guitar beside a rocky stream
A guitar and a little time outside.

I play guitar, listen to podcasts, and would usually rather call than text. That interest in sound and conversation also finds its way into my work.

What happens when we speak to AI?

I made an interactive walkthrough that follows a spoken request from your voice to the assistant’s reply. It brings together my interest in conversation, sound, and how technology works.

Explore how voice AI works