UX Engineering

I've been coding my own designs for years, but it started with curiosity about how things actually work in the browser. Why does one app feel instant while another lags? Why do some interactions feel smooth while others feel janky?

I got interested in more than just designing interfaces. I wanted to understand how they behave. How focus management works across nested menus. Why accessible components are harder to build than they look. What makes a combobox feel responsive when you're filtering through hundreds of options versus one that stutters.

That curiosity led me to building the UIs I design. Not just for speed, but because I care about the details that only surface when you're actually using something. Keyboard navigation through complex forms. How a dialog handles focus when it opens and closes. Whether a select component gracefully handles edge cases like empty states or async data loading.

I started reaching for tools like unstyled component libraries. Pre-built primitives that handle accessibility, keyboard interactions, and focus management out of the box. They let me focus on the design while getting the behavior right. No reinventing ARIA patterns or debugging focus traps at 2am.

Now with Cursor, Windsurf, and Claude Code, I move faster. I sketch ideas in code, ask questions about data models in plain English, understand what recent commits changed and why. The tools improved, but the motivation stayed the same: I want the things I design to work the way they should, not just look the way they should.

When I handle frontend implementation, things move faster. No translation layer between design and code. The implementation matches my design because I built it. Engineers don't waste time interpreting intent or matching mockups. They focus on backend, performance, architecture. Communication is clearer because I understand what's hard on their side.

I'm not replacing engineers. Frontend development is complex and getting more complex. But design doesn't end at a Figma file. It ends in production.

Less friction. Faster shipping. Better products.