Ryan Stephen is a product designer and prototyper working at Runway. He builds experiments in digital and spatial interaction, including lil agents, animated desktop characters that open sessions with AI coding tools.[1][2]
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Education
Links
Portfolio
GitHub 
X · Ryan__Stephen Background
Stephen’s portfolio explores digital, spatial and fluid interfaces. His interaction-design work at the University of Washington included an AR storytelling experience, a shared journal for distant couples and concepts that give everyday objects personality. These projects use motion and spatial behavior as part of an interface’s meaning.[1][4]
Contributions
Lil agents puts animated characters above the macOS dock. Clicking one opens a terminal in a small themed window, and the menu bar lets the user switch between supported command-line agents such as Claude Code, Codex, Copilot and Gemini. Characters communicate activity while the terminal provides the underlying conversation. The application wraps those existing agents in a playful desktop interaction rather than training a separate language model.[2]
Ideas
The official demonstration presents walking, thinking and idle behavior as distinct states. Themes change the surrounding interface, while each companion has its own session. This gives a persistent visual presence to work that would otherwise live in a terminal window.[3]
Tools, writing & talks
Tools
Start here
lil agentslilagents.xyzAnimated macOS dock companions that open small terminal sessions with supported coding agents.
Watch the short character demonstration before installing. Trying the app requires a compatible Mac and an installed supported agent CLI; its README explains those prerequisites.
Creator[2][3]Original source
Writing, research & talks
- Interaction-design projects2022.uwdesignshow.com
Student projects exploring spatial communication, everyday objects and interactive storytelling.
Designer and project collaborator[4]
