Orvar Halldorsson

Orvar is with the Xbox team at Microsoft designing the next generation of Xbox consoles and is also an adjunct Instructor at DigiPen Institute of Technology.

Prior to joining Microsoft he was the UX Director at Bungie for 5 years where he managed the UX Org on development of the Destiny franchise. Orvar led the growth of the UX Org at Bungie and directly managed Design Leads and Feature Leads and skip managed all designers within the Org and acted as hiring manager for all design hires in the field of UI & UX. Orvar joined Bungie in 2015 and helped them ship the well-received title Destiny: The Taken King and led the UI-UX development of all Destiny 1 & 2 releases since then up until the most recent release Destiny 2: Shadowkeep.

Orvar was at CCP Games for 5 years where he was the Game Design Director and later UX Director working on the critically acclaimed MMO game EVE Online. Orvar was accountable for the Player Experience of EVE Online; the game client, web, desktop applications and other touchpoints. In his role he shaped the overall UX strategy and vision for EVE in collaboration with other senior leaders while inspiring, guiding and directing UX, UI and Visual Design work on all cross-disciplinary teams within EVE development as well as being an active member of a feature team.

Before joining the gaming industry, Orvar held various creative roles within Web/Mobile, Movie, TV, and Post-Production industries where he worked in the field of UI-UX, Creative Direction, Design Management, Visual Design, Visual Effects, Digital Media and Graphic Design. Orvar graduated from Full Sail University where he received the Advanced Achievement & Salutatorian Award.