Hi, I'm Zakaria. I design and build web and mobile products, and I like them calm, clear and useful, especially when the stakes are high.

I've been designing and building for the web and mobile for over twelve years, from agency work in Beijing to safety tools for humanitarian workers at INSO in The Hague.

My path runs through three cities. I studied computer science in Casablanca, then moved to China to learn Mandarin at Nankai University and stayed in Beijing for eight years, where I grew from web designer and developer into leading a web team. Since 2021 I've lived in the Netherlands, where I spent five years at INSO designing tools that help humanitarian workers stay safe.

Because I started out writing code, I still build a lot of what I design. That means fewer surprises between the mockup and the live product, and decisions made with real constraints in mind.

The work I'm proudest of happened when I stopped acting like a supplier and became part of the team, starting with users and data rather than opinions, keeping the loops short and shipping early so we could learn.