Sean Gordon Wittmeyer

Senior Product Designer | UX Researcher | Architect

Hi there, I’m Sean.

UI/UX and Product Design

I have been designing and developing platforms that build communities, share knowledge, and empower teams for almost 20 years. My open source projects include Pylos, Camper, and The Complexity Explorer - web apps designed to collect and help designers engage with a more connected and complex world.

As a product designer and UI/UX designer, I focus on impactful, accessible experiences that break down barriers and connect silos for organizations and users. I use my startup experiences to stay nimble and bring a novel and creative approach to design.

Architecture

I am a registered architect in Colorado and Oregon and previously focused on tool and workflow development and optimization, computational design, environmental performance, and connected and human-centric urbanism with Masters in both Urban Design and Architecture from Iowa State University.

I use my architecture background to support my approach to product design and the crafting the apps for tomorrow’s users and workflows.

Hobbies

In more ways than one, I would consider myself a professional hobbyist chasing curiosities. I love travel and exploring new cultures as a local rather than a tourist. I try to travel by foot through city or forest and seek out craft and the stories behind the sights. I believe seeing the world on the ground rather than traveling via air or subway opens up a unique perspective into the cultures we visit. I use photography to capture these cultures and stories having amassed over 200,000 well organized, tagged, and geolocated photos that serve as a history of my adventures and experiences I bring to my work and life. See some online here.

I enjoy designing homes and crafting environments for life experiences to be lived out in. I still take on residential projects depending on the scope and scale through my firm, Waterworks Architecture in Oregon and Colorado.

I am a passionate board game designer and publisher running Waterworks Games. Our first tabletop game is Alpenglow, the ski resort board game. Take on your fellow resort tycoons as you design a ski resort and build out the neighboring village to attract new skiers to hit the slopes. Available for purchase summer 2024. I have a series of other games that are in development exploring the nature of airport development, the life of airline gate agents, the unpredictable process of buying a car, and the challenges of sleeping with all of life’s distractions.

I am an outdoorsman and collect wilderness areas - a way of describing my passion to explore the natural resources in our backyard that are untouched by man. Backpacking, hiking, climbing, and camping all are ways I recharge my batteries after a week of staring at screens in the city. I’ve developed an appreciation for nature and sustainability having lived in tents for a significant portion of my summers.

I love being on the water and have taken up the restoration of a 16 foot Hobiecat catamaran. We enjoy taking it to the lakes around Portland and aspire to get it on the Columbia or take it to the Pacific at some point when ready.

Lastly, I am an early adopter and technologist at heart. Having always preferred hacking and tinkering on the computer over binging the latest TV show, I am lucky to have grown up in an era where the web was born. I love trying new tools, apps, and devices and am attracted to those that embody an inventive and innovative approach. I support those that are unapologetically dedicated to craft such as Panic for Mac apps or Teenage Engineering for their development of single use devices that define tools for creation, not consumption.