Stu Pender

Product designer · Chicago

Building tools to support embodied presence.

In our increasingly digital world, I care about technology that is in service of embodiment in our daily activities. I design and build software for the moments that happen off the screen — a teacher mid-lesson, a musician mid-session — built to seamlessly support a process, and to fall away as we weave our way back into our work in the world.

Selected work 01–04

012025 – present · deployed

Fretboard Constellations

For a teacher, mid-lesson

What
An interactive theory instrument for guitar. Scales, chords and harmony render as colour-coded, playable shapes across the neck, with notation and TAB.
Decision
Design for an expert teaching live on a shared screen — a calm Lesson Mode, a full Studio Mode, and nothing locked behind skill level.
Role
Product design & build
Stack
TypeScript · React · Web Audio

Case study Live Source

022025 – present · v0.1 shipped

Archive

For a musician, mid-session

What
A local-first macOS app for re-discovering a large music library — random review, A–B looping at any speed, and up to five tracks layered at once.
Decision
One test for every control: does it pull you out of the music? Modals became inline inputs; transport went keyboard-first.
Role
Product design & build
Stack
TypeScript · Electron · Web Audio

Case study Source

032026 · Client · live

Yoga of the Voice

For a newcomer, meeting a thirty-year practice

What
A landing page for Silvia Nakkach's 108-hour Certificate — live in about 48 hours, now the school's front door for the programme — and the trust that opened a fifteen-page follow-on engagement.
Decision
Keep the client's AI-drafted structure; refine the voice line by line and fold the depth into accordions.
Role
Design & front-end build
Stack
HTML · CSS · JavaScript

Case study Live

042026 · Client · live

Joan Gutiérrez

For a visitor who arrives tender

What
A brand and marketing site for an intimacy, embodiment and nervous-system educator — calm enough to feel safe, clear enough to invite one small step.
Decision
Tone is the product: a dusty-rose ground, a literary serif, and “begin with a conversation” as the main action instead of a hard sell.
Role
Design & front-end build
Stack
HTML · CSS · JavaScript

Case study Live Source

Practice

Listen, design, build.

Every project starts with listening: to the problem, the people, and what's needed beyond the brief. Then I design it and build it, until it feels calm and coherent to use — off the screen as much as on it.

  1. 01

    Listen

    • User research & surveys
    • Personas, user stories & flows
    • Competitive analysis
    • Usability testing

  2. 02

    Design

    • Interaction & visual design
    • Wireframes & prototypes · Figma
    • Type, colour & brand identity
    • Design tokens & systems

  3. 03

    Build

    • HTML · CSS · JavaScript
    • TypeScript · React · Electron
    • Web Audio API
    • AI-assisted development · Claude Code

About

Stu Pender with a guitar

Stu Pender

I'm a product designer in Chicago. I design interfaces and build them — HTML and CSS, React and TypeScript — with Claude Code as a daily pair.

The other half is music: a jazz degree, fifteen years of teaching, and a decade of production work for clients. Teaching is where I learned to make hard things simple. Production is where I learned to finish.

This is the product and design side. The studio and sound side lives at Being Sound.

“The creative process is seamless: clear, collaborative, and so attuned. He listens to your vision, honors your preferences, and then elevates them with his own expertise.”

Maia Benaim, on the sound I composed for her podcast and membership

Contact

Say hello.

stu_pender@me.com

Elsewhere

Colophon

Set in Host Grotesk. Built by hand in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, with Claude Code. The sound behind the orbit icon is a generative piece after Eno's Music for Airports, running in Web Audio.