Stefan Malzner
Senior Product Designer & Frontend Developer at Sunshine in Interaction
Vienna, Austria
Summary
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RockstarStefan Malzner is an award-winning Vienna-based product designer and tech consultant with 11 years of experience building polished user experiences and shipping cross-platform desktop apps. As founder of Franz and a current senior product designer and frontend developer at Sunshine in Interaction, he blends product leadership with hands-on full-stack development. His open-source contributions include significant front-end and build-work on well-known projects like the Franz messaging app, WordPress.com Desktop (Automattic/wp-desktop) and the Daedalus cryptocurrency wallet, demonstrating strength across UI theming, build systems and native app update flows. Known for pragmatic problem-solving, he often operates at the intersection of design and engineering—improving spellcheckers, proxy support, and updater integrations that quietly elevate user experience. Outside work he’s a dad and burger enthusiast, a small but telling detail that reflects his focus on practical pleasures and attention to everyday details.
11 years of coding experience
English, German
Github Skills (21)
javascript10
electron10
css10
ui-design10
webpack10
uid10
front-end-development10
webpacker10
react10
user-interface9
graphical-user-interface9
sass9
html9
typescripts8
typescript-types8
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
meetfranz/franz
Oct 2017 - Mar 2025
Franz is a free messaging app for services like WhatsApp, Slack, Messenger and many more.
Role in this project:
Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:60 releases, 1 review, 285 PRs in 7 years 6 months
Contributions summary:Stefan contributed to the front-end development of the "Franz" messaging app, specifically modifying spellchecker functionality and adding proxy support features. The user made changes to settings screens, implemented UI components, and integrated browser controls. Their contributions involved modifying UI elements and implementing features that improve the user experience in the app.
electronfranzproductivitywhatsappchat
Automattic/wp-desktop
Jan 2018 - Dec 2018
WordPress.com for Desktop
Role in this project:Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:1 release, 160 commits, 59 PRs in 10 months
Contributions summary:Stefan primarily worked on the desktop application for WordPress.com, making changes to the build process, configuration, and user interface. They added development mode functionality, integrated electron-updater for automatic updates, and fixed several minor UI issues such as spellchecking and window behavior. Their contributions span front-end, back-end, and build processes, showing a broad understanding of the application's architecture.
wordpresselectrondesktop
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