Hi! I'm Zeno.(You probably figured that out already)
I make experiences that make me smile, and help people be their best selves.
👨🏼💻
Creativity and code
My passion is organising information in a visually striking way, and bringing complex ideas to life with technology. I am naturally curious for the world, and love exploring big ideas while collaborating across disciplines.
🛠
Invisible tools
I love the concept of digital tools: Interfaces that help you create, work, discover, and grow in any way you find important – without being in your way.
✨
Polish every pixel
Call me a devil, cause I'm up in those details. Interfaces are so much more than just static screens: they have loading states, page transitions, edge cases and more. My favourite thing is enriching interfaces with animations and interactivity.
Previously empty (status code only) responses could not be clicked to expand. This was good behaviour, but prevented users from seeing the entire response code description. The only way to see the response description was to choose it from the examples on the right.
Now, each item is expandable, but if a response is empty it uses the same "no content" display that we use in the response example on the right.
Also made the active response font-medium so it stands out slightly more when open.
This is a worthwhile read for anyone exhausted from the endless tail-chasing of personal brand-building and marketing themselves constantly across social media:
"The next time you use something that works so well you barely notice it, remember that somewhere, a designer solved a problem so thoroughly that both the problem and its solution became invisible. That designer might not be famous ... but they’ve achieved something remarkable: greatness through invisibility."
Got to write a piece about what I’ve been working on as a #DesignEngineer at GitBook over the last months: a revamp of the customisation/theming system! Including a bunch of technical rabbit holes I went down 🐰💻
Show a client-side message (so it can be easily translated and show up even in poor network conditions) after the AI thinks for >5 seconds. A second message appears after 10 seconds.
Screen.Recording.2025-08-27.at.13.56.20.mov
Previously, we advertised the Mod+I keyboard combo to open the assistant. This works for the GitBook Assistant but wasn't configured correctly for custom assistants.
Move the listener to SearchContainer and have it open the first assistant in the list
Only show shortcut on the first assistant's button label.
The root cause for this was that we instantiated two search popovers on sites without a header, since these sites still have a mobile header with its own search popover in addition to the sidebar search popover.
Add a viewport check to only render the popover when appropriate.
Also cleans up the mobile sidebar to not repeat the logo & search button unncessarily.
Updated my #portfolio with a new, simpler Activity section. It aggregates blog posts and mastodon in one big carousel, with more sources to follow soon.
Tinkering with CSS grids and the #mastodon API made for a super fun holiday project! Really happy with how it turned out 😊
Add .close() and .dispose() methods on assistant registration
Clean up ?ask= URL query param on .close().
Add pageAction attributes to internal Assistant object, dictating if and how the page action displays. Only enabled for the GitBook Assistant.
Clean up useAIChat implementation to not rely on setting search state within its actions, but use a generic search state setter on all entry points instead (so that it works for all assistants equally).
This PR adds a check on the page cover to the TOC's height calculation script, which the pageaside also uses, to make sure the aside does not stretch beyond the screen when the page cover is present.
Before
After
Stop hacking the Tooltip implementation to work on mobile, which was causing issues elsewhere
Add HoverCard for inline link tooltips & AIChatInput context card
Fixes RND-7937
Adds an observer to scroll to the active item in the page outline
Makes the page actions sticky to the bottom
Improves bottom padding of pageaside
Screen.Recording.2025-08-20.at.15.38.12.mov
Signal the integration is ready by calling .ready() on it. This way it only gets called upon when initialised.
const assistant = window.GitBook!.registerAssistant({
label: 'My Assistant',
icon: 'sparkle',
open: (query?: string) => { /* ... */ },
});
// after init completes
assistant.ready();
// later, to unregister
assistant.dispose();
1. Nice to see aria-labels even on stuff as extraneous as the store's hype queue. 2. Fascinating to see Apple do alt text in the same voice as its marketing.
Render the first pending tool button in a bigger size, other buttons are displayed smaller secondary buttons.
Add a keyboard shortcut to trigger the first pending tool button without having to click it.
Introduce a new confirm state for the AI Chat Icon.
Screen.Recording.2025-08-19.at.15.42.35.mov
Move "Edit on Git" and "Export PDF" actions into page actions dropdown
This PR moves existing page actions to be a part of the newly introduced page actions menu. This standardises the contextual actions one can perform on a page, and has the added benefit of making these actions available on mobile and small screens where they weren't before.
My take on those trendy call-to-action buttons. You know the ones. So shiny. Big vibes. All CSS.
There are a few interesting parts to it, especially with the use of registered custom properties for smooth gradient rotations and hover transitions. Check out my latest post that gets into the details: https://ryanmulligan.dev/blog/css-property-new-style/
Fixes the overscroll issue that prevents the page outline from being scrolled
Standardises the buttons in PageFeedbackForm to have better corners, active & disabled styles
Improves the floating "On this page" menu on OpenAPI pages with circular corner support and better conditional padding
@LiftinApp Hey, my Ad-Hoc Routines carousel seems stuck, I’ve changed the routines inside that section but they’re not changing, even after I delete all of them I see the old routines there. Anything I can do?
Improve vertical alignment of site items and fix floating page aside
The vertical alignment of items on the site had grown inconsistent. This PR standardises the height again, and simplies the layout logic of the PageAside menu, especially in its floating mode (only used on OpenAPI pages).
Demo
Vertical alignment
Cleaned up the vertical alignment of the TOC, page header incl. page actions dropdown, and the page sidebar.
Before → After (ignore the header logo size, that's because of local vs prod image hosting)
PageAside menu
The page's aside menu has improved sticky behaviour and better scroll containers, along with better vertical alignment with the rest of the site.
Before → After (ignore the header logo size, that's because of local vs prod image hosting)
Floating PageAside
Gave slightly more horizontal room and improves the scrolling and layout of the floating menu.
Before → After (ignore the header logo size, that's because of local vs prod image hosting)
Floating PageAside offset bug
Fix a bug where the menu offset would not take into account the presence of an announcement banner
Before → After (ignore the header logo size, that's because of local vs prod image hosting)
Allow Button to have contents and a label. The label will be used in tooltips, the contents will only ever be shown inside the button itself.
Adapt AIChatButton to have content & label
Add :active effect to depth-subtle buttons for a nice "pressing down" effect
Add combinedShape prop to ButtonGroup to enable/disable the shape grouping of buttons within the group
Use Button and ButtonGroup more consistently across the codebase, particularly in PageFeedbackForm and ThemeToggler.
Switch to Cmd+I to open Assistant
AIChatButton now only ever opens the assistant
Clean up AIChatInput to better account for long translated strings and add prettier focus state
Improve some color inconsistencies in Button that were showing up in Assistant
Crisp is a grocery store app for locally sourced fresh food. Its mission is to improve the food system by effortlessly bringing better food to more people.
As Product Designer I help make the app look good and work smoothly, with involvement in the entire product chain: conducting user research, feature discovery, designing iterations in Figma, speccing tickets for developers, testing implementation, building and releasing to users, and monitoring adoption by writing SQL and dashboards.
My biggest achievement is the newly-launched Weekbox, our take on mealkits and a whole new paradigm for Crisp. I have designed every flow, from onboarding to cancellation, helped tailor the core proposition, and helped steer the rollout to production.
Beyond that I have contributed dozens of new features to the app, helped solve hundreds of bugs, set up the design system from scratch, regularly shipped the app to alpha / beta / production, led internal team meetings, and presented inspiration sessions to the whole company.
Created with code!Riverside
As the first Design Engineer at online recording platform Riverside, I bridged the gap between the design and development teams by designing new features and creating prototypes, animations and code examples that would enhance the product further. I also set up and maintained the Riverside Design System.
The feature I'm most proud of is the Media Board, which lets you upload, preview, and record audio and video in your online studio. Small details such as the design of the Preview/Live toggle and the Grid View inspired by Launchpads were a delight to work on.
From the moment he joined, Zeno played an important role in shaping Riverside’s UI and UX. He brought structure to our new design team by independently conducting user research, collaborating across teams, and setting up an extensive component library in Figma. He thinks like a developer when he needs to, which has made implementation a breeze and made our product shine.
Carried out in the scope of the MA Digital Experience Design at Hyper Island UK, my graduation thesis examines flow in digital tools, and aims to provide a new model to help digital designers create interfaces that cause (more) flow.
This is a very valuable piece of work with a clear deep understanding of the issue in the area and a realistic, understandable model delivered in a very professional and academically robust manner.
The flow funnel is giving me and the team a better understanding and a handle to talk about the difference in skill/experience levels of our users. It was a revelation to see this mapped.
Dutch Coding Company is a web & app studio based in Eindhoven. I have had the pleasure of working with them on multiple projects, from mobile apps to animation-enriched websites. As part of their website redesign, I got to add animations and page transitions in numerous places.
To accompany the beautiful videos they made, I created a number of 3D device components that would spin- or flip around as you scrolled the page. In places where a handmade video couldn't be made, the device frame could be filled with a screen recording, and it would mirror the 3D transforms made by the device. Another highlight is the website's main menu, which includes staggered animations and a smoothly rippling wave at the bottom.
Zeno works end-user focussed, with a critical, introspective attitude and tremendous work ethic. However, the secret sauce is his attention for detail - the little animations and micro interactions - that elevates everything to a blissful experience.
In 2015 I was approached by a group of authors to collaborate on a special project: a website about the serious side of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Everything about Eurostory is custom-built with attention to detail: a specialised block editor, a rich database of contest info, SEO optimisations, and a sleek design.
To top it off, during the Song Contest itself I get to make short vlogs about my experiences, finding my way as a videographer.
Zeno is the perfect example of a multifaceted designer. He is perfectly able to translate our wishes into a well functioning, beautiful interface, but he also comes up with ideas we didn't know we wanted to incorporate – but we do. It's been a constant joy to work with him.
Edward van de Vendel, author
DebaTable
DebaTable is a technologically enhanced meeting table that mediates discussions and stimulates time-efficient debates.
It works by measuring and then visualising each participant’s speaking time within the past minutes. Additionally, a slowly expanding circle in the middle shows the discussion time left per topic, as voted on by each participant.
In his Final Bachelor Project, Zeno clearly demonstrated his time at the University shaped him into a skilled designer with an eye for detail and one who is never afraid to learn new things. I very much appreciated his 'making approach’ in this project and have always been impressed with his professional attitude and his reflective stance.
I had the honour of being interviewed by Edward van de Vendel in a book about LGBTQ+ youth called "Gloei". After a successful book launch, we started an interview podcast with the same name: "Gloei, the podcast".
Edward interviews a member of the LGBTQ+ community about their life. Afterwards, he reads a poem inspired by that person. Each episode is accompanied by custom art work. I was in charge of the audio and hosting.
Hackathons
Every now and then I partake in a 48 hour coding challenges, for example at Junction. Past challengers included Spotify and BlackRock – both of whom awarded our projects with a prize.
I have detailed the various projects over on my Blog.
Board Year
Wervingsdagen is responsible for organising the largest career events of the Eindhoven University of Technology, helping 160 companies with 3700 students. I learned to collaborate with my fellow board members, work with 9 study associations, and maintain professional attitude towards client companies.
Light Art
Intermedia is an interactive light installation made for light art festival GLOW Eindhoven 2016. I programmed its 3 visualisations using a pretty complex technology stack (Kinect sensors, local networking, beamers, adaptive soundtrack). The result was a wonderful experience, with many strangers connecting with each other through a screen.
Get in touch
I'm @zenoachtig(It's funny in Dutch) pretty much everywhere.
