Mobile app · Web planner · GIS · AI automation
Trail Sherpa
Offline trail navigation and trip planning for backpackers in the Pennsylvania Wilds. Designed, built and launched on iOS, Android and the web in five months.
Read the case studyOpen to full-time roles: remote, hybrid, or Central PA
Design + Ship
I'm Zach Lyon, a design engineer and product designer. For 25 years I've turned complex problems into apps, dashboards and systems people actually use, from research and brand through interface design to shipped product.
Williamsport, PA · Design Engineer · Product Designer · Design Technologist
Selected work
All workLegacy modernization · WordPress → SvelteKit
EvAAL Tools
A WordPress site and a cobbled-together PHP app rebuilt in 48 hours as one fast, accessible app, then handed to the client to run with AI agents.
Read the case studyCitizen science · Mobile apps · Survey platform
Hive Science
Geolocated survey apps for Lake Tahoe and NASA-funded snowpack research. About 25,000 volunteer observations, and the foundation for our next platform.
Read the case studyTourism · Bluetooth beacons · Real-time CMS
Joinify
A real-time content platform for destination apps: beacon-triggered walking tours, merchant deals and visitor guides, updated without app store releases.
Read the case study
How I work
Define
Understand the people, the problem and the constraints before anything gets drawn.
- Research & discovery
- Stakeholder workshops
- Requirements & strategy
- AI agents & Claude Code
Design
Shape the experience and the brand, and test it with real users early.
- Product & UX design
- UI & design systems
- Prototyping & usability testing
- Brand & Adobe Creative Suite
Develop
Direct the build with AI agents, designing in the browser as the product takes shape.
- TypeScript, HTML & CSS
- Svelte / SvelteKit, React, Vue
- Ionic & Capacitor (iOS/Android)
- MapLibre, PostGIS & GIS data
Deploy
Ship it, measure it, automate the busywork and keep it fast and accessible.
- Cloudflare, Supabase, Firebase
- Turborepo, Git, GitHub Actions
- Performance, SEO & WCAG
- Automation & LLM pipelines
Experience
Full résumé- 2025–Present
Amoeba Media, LLC
Founder & Design Engineer · Product design and AI-automation studio for mobile apps and business systems.
- 2003–Present
Zach Lyon Creative, Inc.
Owner & Design Engineer · Brand, web and digital product studio for travel, tourism, entertainment and enterprise clients.
- 2017–2024
Hive Science
Founder & Product Designer · Citizen-science platform: geolocated survey apps, kiosks and research dashboards.
- 2014–2020
Joinify Visitor Guides
Founder & Product Designer · Real-time content platform for destination and visitor-guide apps.
- 2007–2014
Minute7, Inc.
Co-Founder & Product Designer · Time and expense tracking SaaS that syncs with QuickBooks.
I started working on the web when the web wasn't working.
I hand-coded my first live HTML website at an ad agency in 1998, made GIF animations and vanilla JavaScript rollovers, and freelanced on the side after college. Along the way I picked up PHP, MySQL, Flash and XML, then opened my own studio in 2003.
Since then I've ridden every wave of the JavaScript framework era, from Angular through React to Svelte, and built hybrid mobile apps with Ionic and Capacitor. In between, I founded and sold a SaaS company, built citizen-science apps for NASA-funded research, and shipped an offline trail app for the Pennsylvania Wilds.
The tools keep evolving, and so do I. Today I direct AI agents to build what I design, and I started Amoeba Media to bring that way of working to organizations. Off the clock I'm out hiking with a camera.
More about meHiring a design engineer?
I'm looking for a hands-on, senior individual-contributor role in product design or design technology. I'd love to hear what you're building.
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