Who are you, and what do you do? What do you like to do outside of work?

I’m Alexander Thulin, a software engineer from Sweden. I work at IKEA, where I’m part of the team building a 3D room configurator—a tool that helps people design and explore their spaces in a more interactive and visual way.

Outside of work, I’m usually deep into some hobby project or game. I love 3D printing and model making, which often overlap with my fascination for creating functional, tangible things. I’m also a big fan of board games, gaming, and reading (I’m currently enjoying Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson). And whenever I get the chance, I like to dive into something completely new, just for the joy of learning.

What hardware do you use?

My daily driver is a MacBook Pro. At work, I connect it to a single external monitor, and at home I usually run a dual-monitor setup.

Beyond that, I use an Apple trackpad (which I’ve grown surprisingly attached to) and a Stream Deck for shortcuts—it’s great for saving time on repetitive actions and feels like having a customizable control panel on my desk.

And what software?

VSCode is my main editor, and Git sits at the heart of my workflow. I like to keep my toolset fairly simple and reliable.

One piece of software that deserves a shoutout, though, is OctoKeys. It’s fantastic when you’re switching between languages on different keyboards and systems—for example, I can have English mapped on my Voyager and Swedish on my laptop without any friction.

What’s your keyboard setup like? Do you use a custom layout or custom keycaps?

At work, I use the ZSA Voyager, and on my gaming PC at home I switch to the ZSA Moonlander. Both are fitted with Kailh Brown switches—definitely my favorite, with just the right amount of tactile feedback.

My layout is a fairly standard home-row mod setup, with a few tweaks to make writing in Swedish more natural.

I’ve also mixed in some DIY: I designed and 3D-printed a wrist support and tenting stand for the Voyager, which has been a big ergonomic upgrade.

Overall, my setup philosophy is simple: ergonomics first. I want my keyboards to support me in working (and gaming) comfortably, not fight against me.

What would be your dream setup?

I’m actually very happy with the setup I have today. If anything, the one upgrade I really need is better cable management—that’s the missing piece to make everything feel as clean as it works.

If I could dream up the perfect desk, though, it would still be rooted in ergonomics. A setup that looks good is nice, but one that feels effortless to use—that’s the dream.