-
Project Overview
Anythink is a fictional tech company I designed as part of Wilco’s interactive developer training platform. It’s not a real, early 90s startup, but it sure feels like one. The goal was to create a fully imagined product environment, complete with internal tools, dashboards, design systems, Slack bots, and office drama.
Anythink serves as the player’s “place of work” inside the Wilco universe, where they receive quests, fix bugs, and grow professionally in a safe but believable sandbox. The design was meant to balance corporate realism with a hint of absurdity, creating a game-like experience that still mirrors real-world engineering workflows. The project was based on real 90s operating systems - including windows 95 and Mac OS 9.
The inspiration - Windows 95 and Mac OS 9 Operating Systems
-
The Challenge
To create a developer training experience that felt realistic, we couldn’t just drop users into abstract coding problems. We needed a world - something more than a sandbox, but less than a full game. The challenge was to design a fictional workplace that resembled an actual (yet surreal) tech company, Create internal products and UI that simulate real engineering tasks (dashboards, logs, alerts, admin tools) and Allow Wilco’s narrative and AI-driven quests to unfold naturally within this setting.
We treated Anythink like a real company. I developed a complete brand identity and internal product ecosystem that included a "company portal" where players access their quests, tasks, and internal systems while sprinkling references to 90s and late 80s computing - including subliminal messaging in system "boot", Curated Radio by yours truly, fictional news - while keeping it absurd.
Upon entering for the first time, the user encounters a boot screen similar to old DOS operating systems.
-
The Results
- Helped thousands of developers onboard into Wilco’s platform with less friction
- Made learning fun: users repeatedly mentioned how much they enjoyed working at a fake company
- Provided a narrative wrapper that improved retention, engagement, and replayability for technical quests
The OS in all its glory. The Portal included randomly generated news from 1990's newspapers, a curated playlist by yours truly, usage of abandonware icons from windows 3.11 and sound effects.
-
Why This project matters
This project pushed me to design within narrative constraints - balancing UX clarity with character and tone
Build believable interface for a fake SaaS product from the ground up. It allowed me to work closely with narrative writers, engineers, and game designers to deliver interactive systems that feel alive - and create a design system flexible enough for quests, chaos, and character development.
Anythink is a love letter to the old computing world. It let me combine product thinking, narrative worldbuilding, and a strong eye for interface realism. Designing it was a bit like being the only designer at a scrappy tech company - except the CEO is an AI, and your coworkers are imaginary, And yet, developers felt at home here. That’s the magic.
More Portal designs - including a 404 page and a personal portal page. Instead of using stock photos, we had a special retro photoshootincluding Wilco's own employees as models.