Kayhan Atamyildiz

Experiments

Things I make to think with — prototypes, tools and Figma plugins — plus the conversations and writing that come out of them.

Card art — a block of Manhattan waterfront cut down to the bedrock like a cake: red and gold oaks over a straw-coloured meadow, a corten-clad building by the esplanade, the FDR Drive on its viaduct behind and the East River in front, with rock layers showing on the cut sides

Stuyvesant Cove

The East River waterfront at Stuyvesant Cove Park, cut down to the bedrock like a cake. Call the ferry, launch the seaplane, raise a storm surge and turn the park through all four seasons.

Open experiment
Card art — a hydraulic gear pump with a see-through body, two meshing gears inside carrying blue oil in and pale green oil out, its bolts and port tubes around it

External Gear Pump

A real hydraulic gear pump to take apart in 3D. Cut it open, follow one tooth space carrying oil round the bore, and load it to 280 bar; every gauge runs on the pump's own geometry.

Open experiment
Card art — a five-layer pastel cake on a plate, drizzled with raspberry sauce

Layer Cake

A Figma plugin that explodes a frame into a stacked, dimensional view — the thinking behind a screen, not just the screen.

Open experiment
Abstract card art — dark panels toppling into a broken heap against a pale teal field

When Search Breaks

A real-estate search where the awkward moments got the design time: no results, a listing that goes under contract while you watch, a search saved weeks ago. Built keyboard and screen-reader first.

Open experiment
Card art — a smiling star of coloured glass glowing over a stained-glass landscape of domed houses, crystal rocks and a rainbow river

When the AI Says No

One AI image request followed through everything but the happy path: queued, slow, refused, failed, retried and finally approved by a person. Simulated, and announced to screen readers in words.

Open experiment
Abstract card art — magenta and cyan particle streams sweeping through a dark field

CSS Clamp Generator

Turns a min and max size into a fluid clamp() you can paste straight into a stylesheet. Defaults to the 390–1920px range this site is built on.

Open experiment
Screenshot — a split-screen video call: on the left, a person in rectangular glasses and earbuds beside a window and a tall plant; on the right, a person in round blue glasses and a red top, hands pressed together, in front of a wall of pinned prints

Product Design Defined

A conversation with Diane Gibbs about what product design is, what the role actually involves, and how I practice it.

Open experiment
Abstract card art — an open glowing book among crystals and golden geodesic spheres, in front of towering dark-green bookshelves

The Book Shelf

Built by directing AI, not just prompting it — a fluid, animated library of 63 classics that holds up from phone to desktop, by keyboard and screen reader.

Open experiment
Screenshot — a $17.21 median hourly wage beside a crimson line chart of aide pay rising from 2022 to 2025, with dashed projections to 2028

In-Home Caregiver Pay

What home health aides earn in every U.S. state, from real BLS data — rebuilt from an AI-generated prototype into a tested, accessible chart.

Open experiment
Ellis Island's main building split down the middle — a black-and-white photo from its immigration years on the left, the restored red-brick building behind green trees on the right

Ellis Island, Then and Now

Drag across archival and present-day photos of Ellis Island. A 2010 jQuery slider, rebuilt as a dependency-free web component that works by touch, keyboard and screen reader.

Open experiment
Abstract card art — interlocking glass hexagons and glowing golden circuitry on a deep green field

The Design System

The 184 tokens behind this site, parsed out of the stylesheet at build time, and published again as rules an AI coding agent can follow, with a build that grades what the agent makes.

Open experiment