My Journey into Swift, UI Design, Web, and AI Engineering
Updated October 2025 to reflect my current focus on Swift, web, and AI engineering.
I'm Stephen — an indie developer and designer building modern apps across Apple platforms, the web, and OpenAI’s ecosystem.
For years, my work has focused on Swift and UI design, but as the industry shifts toward AI-native products, I'm expanding into something bigger: the intersection of native development, web architecture, and AI engineering. Through this blog, I’ll be sharing everything I learn — from system design to model shaping — and reflecting on what it means to build software for the next era.
But first, a little context.
I started designing and building for the web in 1998 when I was just 11 years old. Back then, creating something interactive felt like magic — and I quickly became obsessed with learning every layer of the stack. Over the decades, I’ve worn many hats: designer, engineer, founder, product lead. That breadth still defines how I build today.
Now, my focus is sharper than ever:
Swift, UI design, web technologies, and building context-aware AI products.
From Objective-C to Swift
In 2014, after a year and a half of teaching myself Objective-C, Apple introduced Swift. It changed everything. Swift made building for iOS and macOS faster, safer, and more expressive — and it gave me a fresh sense of creative momentum.
Nearly a decade later, I'm still writing Swift every day.
The syntax has evolved. The ecosystem has matured. But the excitement hasn’t faded.
On stphndxn.com, I share practical insights into Swift development, app architecture, UI frameworks, and Apple’s latest technologies like SwiftData, Swift Concurrency, and Foundation Models.
Why UI Design Still Matters
Before I was an engineer, I was a designer. And in many ways, I still am.
Over the years, I’ve designed and contributed to products like Buffer, Strong, Glowing, and OpenGov — building systems that not only looked great but made people feel confident using them.
For me, UI design is about intentionality. It’s not just polish or spacing. It’s about shaping flow, reducing friction, and making apps feel alive.
That mindset now fuels my approach to AI UX — where the design isn’t just what’s on screen, but how your app thinks, remembers, and reacts behind the scenes.
Rediscovering the Web
Even though I’ve spent most of the last 8 years building native apps, my roots are in web development. That’s never left me. And with today’s modern toolchains — from React and Vite to serverless APIs and Next.js — I’ve found myself falling back in love with the web all over again.
The browser is still one of the most powerful platforms out there.
And when it’s paired with AI? It’s unstoppable.
AI as a Craft
The biggest shift in my thinking lately has come from working with OpenAI models and exploring what it means to design context — not just prompts.
I’ve written extensively about MCP (Model Context Protocol), and how treating context like a first-class design material transforms AI from a passive assistant into an active teammate.
This blog is where I experiment with that philosophy.
Where I shape context graphs.
Where I test prompts, evaluate outputs, and explore how AI fits into real products — like my nutrition app, AteIQ.
AI isn’t a feature. It’s a new layer of software engineering.
And I want to help others build with it — cleanly, thoughtfully, and with intent.
Building in Public
I'm committed to building transparently — sharing ideas before they’re polished and shipping before things feel ready. Why? Because I’ve seen how powerful open sharing can be.
Whether you're an iOS dev, web builder, or just starting to tinker with AI, I hope this blog gives you something useful to work with. Something honest. Something real.
This post kicked off my journey as an indie dev sharing openly — from Swift and UI design to AI engineering and OpenAI experiments. Whether you're just starting out or years deep, I hope what I share here adds something valuable to your own path.
If you’re exploring this space too, I’d genuinely love to connect or you can drop me a line.
And if you’re just getting started, I hope this blog becomes a place you can revisit and grow alongside.
Until next time — start where you are, and keep building.
