Carrie Robinson
Experiments Prototypes Curiosity

Things I made
just because.

Not every tangent gets deployed.

See the projects
Independent projectsBuilt for the web

01 / Side projects

An interesting idea is usually
enough to get me started.

Small projects where research, information design, and product thinking get to play a little.

A commercial real estate career simulator Deal FlowNew Orleans Build a pipeline. Negotiate deals. Try to survive year one.
01Domain modeling / Game experiment

Trying to make a complex field more accessible through play

Commercial real estate is a very complex field. What started as a question about how to make commercial real estate more accessible to practitioners just getting started turned into a career simulator. Choose an asset class, build a pipeline, negotiate deals, manage cash, pursue education, and see whether your business survives its first year.

The idea & the build

What I built

A browser-based Intro to Commercial Real Estate simulator that integrates association-related benefits and resources with beginner CRE terminology.

What I was exploring

Can you make a really complex topic fun, accessible and educational while also communicating a value proposition, in this case the tangible value of professional association membership?

What I learned

Well, it turns out game design is its own thing entirely. The concept was interesting, but the actual product turned out not to be all that fun or valuable. Building it gave me a much better appreciation for the difference between modeling a system accurately and designing an experience people actually want to play.

React · JavaScript · Game systems · Domain modeling · Interaction design · Testing · Claude Code · Codex

Play the game View the code
A scavenger hunt for brave humans Talking toStrangers 30 cards. Find a stranger. Talk, observe, keep going.
02Research translation / Web experiment

From behavioral study to interactive tool

I found a study about a week-long interpersonal scavenger hunt designed to reduce people's anxiety about talking to strangers. I thought the intervention sounded interesting, so I built my own lightweight web version.

The idea & the build

The spark

Researchers Gillian Sandstrom, Erica Boothby, and Gus Cooney tested a scavenger-hunt intervention in which participants repeatedly found, approached, and talked to strangers. The repeated experience made participants less pessimistic about rejection and more confident in their conversational ability.

My version

I translated the basic premise into a mobile-first React app with 30 stranger-finding cards. Each card includes optional conversation starters, and players can mark whether they talked to or simply observed the person they found.

What I added

The app tracks completion, saves progress locally on the user's device, lets players add notes about what stood out, and gives the experience enough structure to feel like a game without adding a competitive leaderboard or points system.

React · Vite · Interaction design · Local storage · Claude Code

Read the study that inspired it
Play the scavenger hunt

More eventually