Hello! I’m Maggie Appleton, a designer-developer-anthropologist hybrid looking for my next role. Officially, I’m either a product designer or design engineer depending on how you define those roles within your company.
I specialise in designing and building interfaces for language models and AI systems, and I’m specifically interested in working on products that leverage these capabilities to solve serious problems in domains like biomedicine, scientific research, education, engineering, and sustainable energy.
I’m on maternity leave from March-August 2025, but I’m looking to start a new role at the beginning of September.
What I can do
Design engineering
- Prototyping possible design solutions in code, not just static mock-ups. I’m best at building zero-to-one prototypes for research and testing.
- Reducing technical risk by validating what’s possible and where we run up against the limitations of a medium.
- I work in modern web technologies – primarily React, Vue, and classic HTML/CSS/JS. Including all the classic add-ons to those like Next.js, Nuxt, Tailwind, and TypeScript.
- Basic backends where needed; Supabase, Firebase, or just a local IndexedDB instance usually works.
- Prompt engineering and working with foundation AI models. Into setting up prompt chains, RAG search, and experimenting with the latest techniques to augment experiences with LLMs.
- I can ship front-end production code if needed, but your actual engineers would do a better job of it. My code is fast, hacky, and designed to explore ideas.
Product design
- Identifying and prioritising user needs by talking to users and dipping into data analytics.
- Exploring a wide range of possible solutions in collaboration with PMs and engineers.
- Validating how well proposed solutions solve the problem through prototyping and user testing.
- Measuring how well design solutions perform after shipping them and iterating to perfect them.
What I’ve done before
I’ve been designing and building digital products for over ten years. I spent the first five years as an illustrator and visual UI designer and the last five in product design and front-end engineering. All my work has been focused on the web. I’ve primarily built and designed complex, knowledge-work oriented products. Here are my most recent roles:
What I’m looking for
A tight-knit team that cares about each other. One that is either based in London or has at least a few people here. Ideally I’d get to work in person with the team 1-2 days a week. If your team is fully remote, I’m open to hearing from you, but your team needs to be absolutely fantastic at remote communication and culture.
A flexible work culture that supports parents and doesn’t expect anyone to work evenings or weekends.
A company that is working on a very real, impactful problem. This industry has lots of companies trying to solve insignificant or imagined problems. Like improving click-through rates on marketing emails or helping crypto bros manage their investments.
Here are some things I consider real problems:
- Drug discovery and development is a complex, costly, and slow process
- Writing, publishing, and consuming new scientific research is inefficient
- Quality software engineering is too expensive and concentrated in the hands of the elite
- We can’t build enough affordable housing for everyone
- Industrial engineering projects are usually over budget and late
This is not an exhaustive list. I’m open to working on a wide range of real problems, including domains I’ve never even heard of. I’m also open to design agencies, consultancies, and investment firms who work with a range of companies, so long as most of them are “real problem” companies.
If it sounds like we might be a good match, please email hello at maggieappleton.com to arrange a chat.