Overview
Richard Hess — Principal UI/UX Architect — eswat2, April 2026
Identity
Principal UI/UX Architect with 40+ years building interfaces, toolkits, and platforms — from Xerox Lisp Machines and SGI to modern web components, MCP servers, and AI-assisted UI generation. Currently Principal Architect UI/UX at Shield Legal LLC.
Career Arc
Started in 1985 at Teknowledge as an Apprentice Knowledge Engineer on expert systems — the first commercial AI wave — writing knowledge bases on Xerox Lisp Machines before the AI winter collapsed the entire sector. Pivoted into UI work at SGI and Netscape, contributing to X11 (libXpm stewardship, maze demo extensions, WINTERP), riding the browser wars, and building rich internet apps at Sapias. A decade at Demandbase tracked the full arc from Flex through AngularJS to React/Redux. Since 2019 at Cox Automotive: portfolio-scale web component architecture, then in 2025–2026 a complete declarative UI platform where a single YAML spec drives the entire stack.
Signature Work
- YAML-driven declarative UI platform — YAML is the single source of truth; five MCP servers (Juris, Tailwind, SVG, Lit, Stencil) turn it into a live, deterministic runtime with zero probabilistic behavior post-parse
- Action–State pattern — LLM-friendly interactivity model: declared actions, state transitions via event bus, no DOM knowledge required; validated across 4 apps × 7 frameworks
- X11 / open-source stewardship — libXpm maintenance through a funding gap, X11 contributions to the FreeBSD maze demo, WINTERP widget contributions, Quake 3 IRIX port for SGI
- This server (eswat2-mcp) — itself an instance of the dual-protocol pattern: full MCP for LLMs, clean REST for browsers, deterministic content resolution
Key Themes
- Inspectable, deterministic systems — observable state, no hidden side effects, same runtime for agents and humans
- Spec-first UIs — YAML as contract between human intent and machine execution; traces back to knowledge engineering in 1985
- AI winter calibration — was writing knowledge bases when expert systems collapsed; acutely sensitive to hype/reality gaps in current AI wave
- 40+ years continuity — the thread from Interlisp-D's live environment to today's YAML-driven MCP platform is unbroken
Where to Go Next
| URI |
What you'll find |
profile://biography |
Full narrative — formative influences, each career chapter, the complete thread |
profile://resume |
Structured work history, 1985–2026, with roles and outputs |
research://action-state-suite |
The Action–State Reference Suite in depth — pattern spec and validation |
research://yaml-platform |
YAML-driven platform architecture — how the five MCP servers work together |
profile://journey-ui |
40+ year UI framework and platform chronology |
profile://cox-automotive |
Cox Automotive chapter — micro frontends, event bus, composable UIs, design system influence |
profile://shield-legal |
Shield Legal LLC — current chapter; ADR authorship, AI-native UI mentorship, action-state introduction into React/shadcn/Tailwind/Zustand stack |
profile://podcast-qa |
First-person voice — opinions, career arc, and philosophy in Q&A format |
profile://toolchain |
Licensed tools, AI subscriptions, and environment management |
Items
- about — Short bio — who Richard Hess is, in a paragraph
- allison-transmission — R&D work on automatic transmissions and flywheel hybrid propulsion at Allison Transmission (GM Division)
- archetype — How Richard Hess compares to typical Principal Architect profiles — the Long-Haul Deterministic Builder archetype
- biography — Long-form career narrative
- colophon — How eswat2-mcp was built — stack, tools, and protocol
- cox-automotive — Cox Automotive chapter (2019–2026) — championing Web Components, Micro Frontends, Composable UIs, event bus architecture, and Enterprise Design System influence
- identity — Contact info, social links, and branding
- journey-programming — 40+ year programming language and project chronology
- journey-ui — 40+ year UI framework and platform journey
- patents — Issued patents from early career in factory automation and manufacturing systems
- podcast-qa — Interview Q&A — voice, opinions, and career arc in first person
- resume — Full work history, 1985–2026
- shield-legal — Shield Legal LLC chapter (2026–present) — Principal Architect UI/UX; ADR authorship, AI-native UI mentorship, and action-state pattern introduction into a React/shadcn/Tailwind/Zustand stack
- toolchain — Licensed tools, paid subscriptions, and environment management for Richard Hess (eswat2)