Hi, I’m Matthias – an independent web design engineer based in Stuttgart, Germany.
I help companies and agencies design and build scalable, accessible, and performant digital products for the Web. I also teach Interface Prototyping at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design and run workshops with teams worldwide.
I work at the intersection of design and engineering with product teams ranging from early-stage startups to established SaaS and industrial companies, turning complex requirements into resilient, user-centered interfaces, websites, and design systems.
My work is rooted in a prototyping mindset. I believe the browser and modern CSS are the most powerful design tools we have. By combining design and code from the start, I help teams validate ideas early, reduce friction between disciplines, and ship better products faster.
The tools we build with are getting more capable by the month. What they don’t replace is judgment – knowing whether what just got built will hold, scale, or feel genuinely considered rather than generated. That comes from nearly 20 years of working at the intersection of design and engineering.
If your project is too important to leave the design-engineering gap to chance, let’s talk.
Here’s a bit more about what I can do for you and your team:
I work where design meets code.
Teams come to me when they need someone who understands design well enough to work with designers and engineering well enough to work with developers. Sometimes that means stepping in when the two have drifted apart, costing them in sprint velocity, fragile interfaces, and a design system nobody quite owns. Sometimes it just means building something well from the start, with someone who moves fluidly between design and code. No handoff. No translation loss. Just a faster path from idea to working product.
As a web design engineer, or: a designer and developer, I translate interaction concepts and visual designs into robust, responsive, accessible, and performant interfaces using semantic HTML, modern CSS, and resilient JavaScript. My approach embraces the grain of the Web: progressive enhancement, declarative design, and native platform features. CSS is where I go deepest – from architecture to typography, layout, animation, and CSS features that modern design tools often can’t fully represent.
I prototype directly in the browser. Not to skip the thinking, but because a working prototype is the thinking. It’s the fastest way to validate a direction, align a team, and close the gap between what something should feel like and what it actually does. Whether that means staying close to engineers as they build or stepping back to prototype a vision that points everyone toward something worth building – the work happens in code as much as in any design tool, because that’s where the real decisions get made.
The result: scalable systems that perform well, age well, and feel effortless to use, and that your team can maintain and build on without fighting the codebase.
Your team is losing time to the gap between design and engineering? Let’s talk about how I can help.
Good UX design isn’t about polished screens. It’s about understanding what your users actually need – and what your product needs to do to earn their trust and time.
Through research, rapid prototyping, and iterative validation, I align business goals, technical constraints, and user needs. My background in both design and engineering means I can move between strategy and implementation without losing the thread, ensuring ideas are not only desirable but feasible and built to last.
Shaping a new product or feature and want to validate ideas early, before committing engineering resources? Get in touch.
Web Accessibility isn’t an optional layer – it’s a foundation.
Accessible products are better products: easier to use, more robust across devices and contexts, and less costly to maintain over time. I support teams in building inclusive digital products that meet WCAG, BITV, and BFSG standards – not as a compliance exercise, but as a way to raise overall product quality and reduce technical debt.
Whether through audits, hands-on implementation, or workshops, I help teams turn accessibility requirements into practical, scalable solutions that work for everyone.
If accessibility has been on your backlog for too long, let’s change that. Get in touch.
I offer online workshops and on-site training for product and design teams worldwide, focusing on:
My goal is not only to teach tools, but to instill a mindset that helps teams design and build confidently for today’s heterogeneous Web – and collaborate more effectively across disciplines.
If your team is looking to strengthen collaboration between design and engineering or adopt a more hands-on prototyping mindset, I’d be happy to support you with a tailored workshop.
Learn more about my workshops.
I have spoken at meetups, corporate events, and conferences like beyond tellerrand, CSS Day, and Smashing Conference sharing insights on modern web design engineering, prototyping, and building resilient user interfaces for the Web.
Planning an event? Say hello.
Here are some videos of my latest talks:
Painting With the Web, beyond Tellerrand 2025
Web Design Engineering With the New CSS, CSS Day 2024
Forging Links – Web Design Engineering and CSS, CSS Café
Since 2012, I teach Interface Prototyping at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel, Germany. The seminar, which is part of the Interface Design program, teaches the basics of prototyping interactive user experiences for digital interfaces. It’s a great honor to help the next generation of designers get prepared for the challenges of the “Experience Age”.
