I design experiences and craft stories for groups like Verizon's 5G Lab, Sesame Street and A+E Networks. Currently based in New York City.
Fjord Lemonade Stand
Design study focused on determining consumer attitudes and actions relating to privacy. One experiment included offering lemonade in exchange for personal information.
Spicy Space
Educational children's narrative which focuses on alliteration. Narrative about stinky skunks in space looking for some spicy snacks.
NYTimes: History Headlines
Web application which displays the history of a given term through archived New York Times headlines.
Well, We Tried
Protocol design and implementation based on adaptive communication styles in human relationships.
Rest in Peace, Fivepointz
Media archive and event documentation of Fivepointz, a former graffiti mecca in Long Island City, New York.
Berry Martians
Interactive children's narrative which explores the limits of iconography and communication.


















sayhello@catschmitz.com
Project
Zone In
Concept
Zone In is an educational app for collegiate and semi-professional athletes who want to reach their peak performance objectives. Zone In offers meal optimization tools, fitness training techniques, and mental health coaching for almost every sports scenaio possible.
Role
Product experience and visual design, technical consulting and coaching
Design Process
A large part of the design process was dedicated to prioritizing the core features of the app so users don't get bogged down or overwhelmed with the sheer amount of content that's availables about sports wellbeing. After much iteration, we narrowed it down to meal planning and nutritional advice, training resources that guide better workouts, and mental wellness coaching that helps foster resiliency.
Project
Microsoft Global Game Jam: Deadline
Concept
Deadline is a game about being a designer in a fast-paced agency for crinimal activity. You must unscramble words so you can assemble ransom notes for your mastermind clients before the time runs out.
Appearances + Awards
Global Game Jam, First Place Unreal Award
Role
Concept Development, Creative Direction, Experience Design + Iteration, Narrative Development + Writing
Team Members
Javier Olazabal (Art Direction + 3D Environment Artist)
Pat King (Motion Graphics)
Cedric Diaz (Sound Engineering)
Ryan Carper (Programming)
Design Process
Deadline was created as an entry into Microsoft's Global Game Jam with Playcrafting. We had roughly 36 hours to come up with a concept, narrative design, and technical execution of the game. After our team fleshed out the concept, I developed the experience through multiple rounds of iteration and testing, constructed the narrative, and worked with the other team members to guide the creative execution. We are currently developing a version for public release.
Project
R/GA Jukebox
Concept
R/GA Jukebox is an interactive, collaborative music player and visualizer. R/GA employees can add music to the playlist and interact with the visualizers through touch.
Role
User research, front end development and design, interactive JavaScript
Design Challenge
The design challenge was to create an interactive experience for employees at R/GA which was collaborative and playful.
Additional Details
The music visuals are based on a stream of continuous frequency data. The color of the bubble is the frequency measured and the size of the bubble is the amplitude of that specific frequency.
Project
Sesame Street Healthy Habits Wearable
Concept
Wearable prototype for an experiment to determine whether or not wearables can promote healthier, habit-forming behaviors in children.
Role
Design, Technical prototyping (electrical engineering, HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
Design Process
Originally, the prototype was built using a LightBlueBean+ microcontroller with an RFID shield, an SD card to log data, and an amplifier/speaker setup. The child would be prompted via audio to brush their teeth or perform a healthy habit related task. The microcontroller's accelerometer was able to detect the child's momements, so we used that to track their progress throughout the task until completion.
Due to the instability of physical computing and the high demand that RFID, audio, and data logging puts on a microcontroller, we pivoted the prototype to be a JavaScript based web app. We re-wrote the prototype so it can be used with an Android phone. For testing and prototype purposes, it is exponentially more stable, easily editable, and is sufficient to validate a proof of concept stage prototype.
Project
History Channel Chatbot
Concept
RAICH, short for Robust AI Chat, is an artificially intelligent chatbot who like to chat about the history of artificial intelligence. RAICH was developed for Facebook Messenger and Google Home.
Role
Design, prototyping, content curation, development
Project Site
www.historychatbot.com
Platforms
RAICH was developed for Google Home and Facebook messenger using API.ai.
Design Challenges
Creating a conversational interface that was non-linear and content rich while not overwhelming was the biggest challenge of this project. I tested paper prototypes on users throughout the process to test different conversational structures and ways of delivering quality information without overwhelming the user.
Design Process
The process of creating the AI chatbot started with mapping out the knowledge domain of artificial intelligence. I developed a narrative structure and created flexible interaction patterns which allow for short term or long term engagement. I also attended an Actions on Google workshop where I learned about
Project
ST_NE
Concept
ST_NE is an interactive, participatory story building experience developed for the opening remarks at the first annual Storytelling Symposium in New York City. Users visit a link to get a crowd-sourced word about VR and storytelling. Groups in the audience put their phones together to form phrases.
Role
UX/UI, visual design, technical implementation
Partner
Pat King
Design Challenge
The challenge was that 600 people had to be able to interact with this at one time during the middle of an opening speech. The interaction had to be interesting and captivating, but short in duration.