Sebastian Schäder

Hi, I'm Sebastian,

freelance User Experience Architect

I am genuinely excited about the current developments around AI and consistently advocate for solutions that truly feel good to use.

👉 With the necessary instinct and pragmatism for the business.

Own Products

What I'm currently building myself alongside client projects.

live · own product

Life is a Binge

Movie and series discovery with AI recommendations, QuickRate swipes and shared watchlists: a reboot of the project I shelved in 2021 — back then abandoned for lack of funding and mobile-dev capacity, today built entirely solo.

It was actually meant to be just a test — to see how far you can get with Claude these days. It turned into a full-blown development project, with countless features I could previously only dream of as a UX person. Still all work in progress.

Style
life-is-a-binge.com →

live · own product

Solar-Check.io

Style

After renovating our house — first a heat pump, later PV retrofitted with friends — I noticed the same uncertainty in my circle of friends that I'd had myself: if you just want a first ballpark figure on whether a PV system or heat pump pays off, you quickly end up in the same aggressive lead funnels disguised as calculators. There's a better way.

Long-term: a platform for independent solar installers and renewable-energy creators who'd rather back their reach with honest tools.

solar-check.io →

internal

Growth Assistant

An example of a An application that solves exactly one concrete problem — e.g. for a single company rather than the mass market. that can be built bespoke today with modest resources: the application specifically finds cooperation partners for my products and helps draft the initial outreach.

Jobs

the peak lab.

Head of UX

At the peak lab. I led an interdisciplinary team and built applications for B2B and B2C markets — with a focus on renewable energy. I never treated business goals and usability as opposites, but as the foundation for an outstanding user experience.

2019 – 2021

Mobile AI business app

Bundles company data and turns it into clear insights.

Challenge app concept

Focused on interaction through playful micro-animations.

App for charging electric vehicles

Focused UX despite complex technical conditions.

Trading platform redesign

Better orientation through reworked market and price views.

Industrial battery-storage monitoring

Visualizing charge states, energy flows and yield metrics.

SolarCloud

PV monitoring app

Visualizes weather, yield and power flows in an easy-to-understand way.

Waydo Prediction

Web application for predicting the demand for charging infrastructure.

Ranger

App that simulates an electric car's range based on real driving behavior.

Poppins

App that supports patients through fertility treatment.

ENERCON

App for monitoring the performance of wind turbines or wind farms.

Covid Monitor

COVID-19 Monitor

Presents key case numbers and trends in real time.

Pumatrac

Performance optimization of the user onboarding.

Studio Ferdinand

Founder & Managing Director

At Studio Ferdinand my focus was initially on web design. A key question was always how a company or product should present itself online so that it generates leads or sales.

Over time our focus shifted increasingly toward UX/UI for digital products — among them analytics software and a smart-home startup.

2014 – 2018

B2B portal for grocery retail

A central marketplace for assortment, prices and orders in retail.

Web app for workforce organization

Bundles shift planning, leave requests and time tracking in one system.

Transparent food supply chains

App and platform that make the origin and delivery routes of products visible.

Web analytics platform

Turns traffic and usage data into structured reports.

Smart-home app

Connects devices from different manufacturers with a strong brand experience.

B2B portal for grocery retail

A central marketplace for assortment, prices and orders in retail.

Web app for workforce organization

Bundles shift planning, leave requests and time tracking in one system.

Transparent food supply chains

App and platform that make the origin and delivery routes of products visible.

Web analytics platform

Turns traffic and usage data into structured reports.

Smart-home app

Connects devices from different manufacturers with a strong brand experience.

Wechselwild

Founder

As founder of Wechselwild I generated €600,000 in revenue and built a community of more than 4,000 designers who published over 6,000 designs for belts, jewelry and caps with interchangeable designs on our platform.

Wechselwild
Wechselwild
Wechselwild
Wechselwild
Wechselwild Wechselwild
Wechselwild
Wechselwild
Wechselwild
Wechselwild Wechselwild

Beyond product development and the brand, I owned the entire ecosystem end-to-enddesign, marketing, shop/IT, production, logistics and customer service — on an extremely lean budget, straight out of our Hamburg office.

This period shaped how I think about products: user-centered, holistic, all the way to delivery (and beyond).

More context on the story on Medium.

2009 – 2015

Bureau Oberhaeuser

UI/UX & Information Designer

During my freelance time at Bureau Oberhaeuser I worked on the Media Economy Report for Magna Global — breaking down complex data and presenting it visually so it became clear and compelling.

I was also involved in UX projects for clients such as Volkswagen.

2013 – 2014

Media Economy Report
Media Economy Report
Media Economy Report
Media Economy Report
Media Economy Report
Media Economy Report
Media Economy Report
Media Economy Report
Side Projects

Life is a Binge

The idea for Life is a Binge grew out of a problem we all know: you just want to watch a good show — and end up lost forever in the catalogs of Netflix, Prime, Disney & co. The platforms naturally prefer to push their own titles; you have to research IMDb ratings and availability yourself — and you end up going to bed annoyed.

Brand promise: screen time for watching, not for searching.

Brand promise: screen time for watching, not for searching.

Social curation: instead of platform bias, friends and creators curate your evening.

Social curation: instead of platform bias, friends and creators curate your evening.

Match faster: people with similar tastes give the better recommendations — visible at a glance.

Match faster: people with similar tastes give the better recommendations — visible at a glance.

Signature look for quick recognition in feed, tab and thumbnail.

Signature look for quick recognition in feed, tab and thumbnail.

Decide quickly: a rating and basic info are enough to filter instantly.

Decide quickly: a rating and basic info are enough to filter instantly.

Release moment in the brand's look: consistent visuals that stand out instantly in the feed.

Release moment in the brand's look: consistent visuals that stand out instantly in the feed.

Curated network: you follow people with similar taste — not platforms.

Curated network: you follow people with similar taste — not platforms.

Curate fast: feedback flows straight back into the friends feed.

Curate fast: feedback flows straight back into the friends feed.

With "Life is a Binge" I wanted to change that: a platform where people recommend films and series to each other — honest, curated, personal. Plus trailers, ratings and availability info at a glance. A web prototype is online — but without funding or motivated partners for the mobile-app development, I put the work on hold. Reboot 2026 → see above under ‘Own Products’.

2020 – 2021

NICE

The approach: a platform for automatically monitoring the prices of Amazon products — with the goal of notifying users exactly when a purchase is really worth it. At the time, there were few convincing solutions in this space.

Brand hook: a name that sticks — and delivers the promise right along with it.

Brand hook: a name that sticks — and delivers the promise right along with it.

Reduced to the essentials: less UI, more decision support — watch, wait, buy.

Reduced to the essentials: less UI, more decision support — watch, wait, buy.

Discovery grid: tiles instantly show where it gets interesting — including a drop badge.

Discovery grid: tiles instantly show where it gets interesting — including a drop badge.

Fewer alerts, more relevance: only the most important hits land at the top — with real impact.

Fewer alerts, more relevance: only the most important hits land at the top — with real impact.

Purchase decision backed up: instead of just showing "cheaper", it shows how good the price is in context.

Purchase decision backed up: instead of just showing "cheaper", it shows how good the price is in context.

Buy-ready status: NICE detects the best price and makes the CTA unmistakable.

Buy-ready status: NICE detects the best price and makes the CTA unmistakable.

For every type of buyer: strike immediately or wait smartly — NICE guides both paths.

For every type of buyer: strike immediately or wait smartly — NICE guides both paths.

The app relied on smart alerts and simple operation to make data-driven buying accessible to everyone. After about a year I stopped working on the project, as my partner, who was responsible for the technical implementation, stepped away.

2019

tackl

On this project — a football prediction game — I was part of the core team and a co-shareholder from the very start.

My focus was on the strategic and conceptual level: I helped shape the product direction and guided UX-relevant decisions at a higher level. Less hands-on in design, but with a focus on the strategic development of the product — including feature definition, user guidance and entrepreneurial direction.

2016 – 2019

Education

Jung von Matt

Creative Internship

During my studies I landed one of the coveted internship spots at Jung von Matt, where I worked on campaigns for clients such as BMW, IWC, MINI and BILD.

2006 — 2007 in Hamburg

Würzburg-Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences

Communication Design

2005 – 2009