Oscar Wang
UX + Creative Technology + Accessible
Hi , I am Oscar Wang,
a user experience designer, specializing in using creative technology along with physical devices to find design opportunities for underserved population.
© 2025 Oscar Wang
Type
Sensor Integration, UX Research,
Embedded Systems Programming
Date
2024.01
Participant
Personal Project
Dot
Dot
What is Dot?
A multi-modal Interactive desktop lamp designed for mitigating stress and burnout among designers.
How does Dot work?
The device is an interactive desk lamp for workbenches to detect designers' psychological states and provide timely reminders to take breaks and relax, using auditory and visual cues. Instead of a traditional alarm clock, this lamp will also offer a gentler way to wake up and support relaxation.
Rendering
Prototype Video
Design Process
INTRO
Burnout among Freelance Designers
With the rapid development of science and technology, more and more people devote a lot of time to their work for the sake of considerable income and better jobs, and have to sacrifice their own time and energy.
This phenomenon is particularly common among freelance designers, who often work for a long time without eating or sleeping . As a result, burnout is common in this group.
Stress & Burnout
Stress occurs when a person appraises that the perceived demands of their job exceeds their internal and external resources.
Burnout is a psychological condition that develops through the build-up of chronic, uncontrolled stress.
Frustration of Freelancers
Remote workers often face problems of loneliness due to isolation, lack of social interactions.
With the support of the gig economy, the pressure of freelancers often comes from their own economic status and high demands on work and insecurity, which leads to job burnout.
Root Causes of Burnout
Research shows that the majority of freelancers who are experiencing burnout are facing work life balance issues, which is often caused by overloaded working hours.
68.97% of Freelancers with burnout problems faced working more than 5 Hours of overtime per Week, and in the "Personal Hours per Week" data, 91.8% of designers spend an average of less than 2.14 personal hours per day. These data can clearly analyze the serious imbalance between working hours and personal hours. This is the main cause of burnout.
Frequency of Burnout
Burnout as a common designer symptom, occurs more frequently than conditions such as stress, often multiple times a week.
Burnout is prevalent, it’s affecting 83.53% of participants at least once a week, with most working over 40 hours and struggling with work-life balance. Limited personal time and high workload contribute to burnout, especially on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Symptoms like low motivation and anxiety highlight the need for improved work-life balance and mental health support.
RESEARCH
Survey on Burnout among Designers
I conducted a questionnaire survey on 100 designers of different professions, asking them whether they have the phenomenon of job burnout. What are the main reasons? And what they think about relaxation products.
Freelance designer burnout is often caused by work and personal stress.
Lack of inspiration is a fatal flaw for designers, especially freelance designers, which can make them less interesting to clients and means far fewer opportunities for future collaborations. In addition, competence, social and economic stress, and work-life balance are also strongly linked to creativity.
The most obvious signs are exhaustion, creative blocks, and difficulty focusing, which can be closely related to their high-intensity work environment and lack of stable support systems. This suggests that we need to pay more attention to the work-life balance and mental health of freelancers.
In another part of the survey, we also asked the burnout designers what they were doing to fix the problem. (Multiple choice）
Notably, 27.9 percent of designers said they did nothing to relieve or relax during burnout. Most of the reasons they gave were: "It's expensive", "there is no time to relax", "it doesn't work".
Interview
IDEATION
Support Freelance Designers to Mitigate Burnout
In our research and survey, we found that when users are experiencing burnout or are very tired after being busy, they are more inclined to visual and auditory elements to help them rest, such as lighting, music, white noise, etc. And Combine with many meditation features that many users find helpful.
Brainstorm
I want to create an interactive desk lamp for workbenches to detect designers' psychological states and provide timely reminders to take breaks, using auditory and visual cues. Instead of a traditional alarm clock, which can cause irritability and worsen burnout after short naps, this lamp will offer a gentler way to wake up and support relaxation.
Functional Proposition
Two Layers of Support Features
Regular Feature
Advanced Feature
Technology Diagram
The interactive burnout relief device will consist of three parts, a lamp product for output, a wearable device for Input, and an application for control or customization.
For wearables, this would be a device containing pursesensor, which detects the user's heart rate in real time and transmits the data to the device. The device performs calculations after receiving the data. If the user is experiencing burnout, the user will be alerted and can make their own choices for the next step. When the device is running, the device will help the user by controlling the light bulb and the speaker as an output.
Prototype
Prototype Design
Programming
I used micropython code to publish instructions and connect to external players. And I wrote multiple versions of the heart rate code. Also, since the user test is that the heart rate does not change immediately, I wrote a version of prototype code that uses an analog sensor instead of the purseSensor.
Prototype Product
After measuring the appropriate dimensions, I modeled it using Solidworks, and then 3D printed the model and sprayed it with paint.
I made two versions of the PurseSensor Unit to make sure which one worked better.
Interface Design
Functional Test
After measuring the appropriate dimensions, I modeled it using Solidworks, and then 3D printed the model and sprayed it with paint.
I made two versions of the PurseSensor Unit to make sure which one worked better.
Next Step
Type
Sensor Integration, UX Research,
Embedded Systems Programming
Date
2024.01
Participant
Personal Project
Dot
What is Dot?
A multi-modal Interactive desktop lamp designed for mitigating stress and burnout among designers.
How does Dot work?
The device is an interactive desk lamp for workbenches to detect designers' psychological states and provide timely reminders to take breaks and relax, using auditory and visual cues. Instead of a traditional alarm clock, this lamp will also offer a gentler way to wake up and support relaxation.
Rendering
Prototype Video
Design Process
INTRO
Burnout among Freelance Designers
With the rapid development of science and technology, more and more people devote a lot of time to their work for the sake of considerable income and better jobs, and have to sacrifice their own time and energy.
This phenomenon is particularly common among freelance designers, who often work for a long time without eating or sleeping . As a result, burnout is common in this group.
Stress & Burnout
Stress occurs when a person appraises that the perceived demands of their job exceeds their internal and external resources.
Burnout is a psychological condition that develops through the build-up of chronic, uncontrolled stress.
Frustration of Freelancers
Remote workers often face problems of loneliness due to isolation, lack of social interactions.
With the support of the gig economy, the pressure of freelancers often comes from their own economic status and high demands on work and insecurity, which leads to job burnout.
Root Causes of Burnout
Research shows that the majority of freelancers who are experiencing burnout are facing work life balance issues, which is often caused by overloaded working hours.
68.97% of Freelancers with burnout problems faced working more than 5 Hours of overtime per Week, and in the "Personal Hours per Week" data, 91.8% of designers spend an average of less than 2.14 personal hours per day. These data can clearly analyze the serious imbalance between working hours and personal hours. This is the main cause of burnout.
Frequency of Burnout
Burnout as a common designer symptom, occurs more frequently than conditions such as stress, often multiple times a week.
Burnout is prevalent, it’s affecting 83.53% of participants at least once a week, with most working over 40 hours and struggling with work-life balance. Limited personal time and high workload contribute to burnout, especially on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Symptoms like low motivation and anxiety highlight the need for improved work-life balance and mental health support.
RESEARCH
Survey on Burnout among Designers
I conducted a questionnaire survey on 100 designers of different professions, asking them whether they have the phenomenon of job burnout. What are the main reasons? And what they think about relaxation products.
Freelance designer burnout is often caused by work and personal stress.
Lack of inspiration is a fatal flaw for designers, especially freelance designers, which can make them less interesting to clients and means far fewer opportunities for future collaborations. In addition, competence, social and economic stress, and work-life balance are also strongly linked to creativity.
The most obvious signs are exhaustion, creative blocks, and difficulty focusing, which can be closely related to their high-intensity work environment and lack of stable support systems. This suggests that we need to pay more attention to the work-life balance and mental health of freelancers.
In another part of the survey, we also asked the burnout designers what they were doing to fix the problem. (Multiple choice）
Notably, 27.9 percent of designers said they did nothing to relieve or relax during burnout. Most of the reasons they gave were: "It's expensive", "there is no time to relax", "it doesn't work".
Interview
IDEATION
Support Freelance Designers to Mitigate Burnout
In our research and survey, we found that when users are experiencing burnout or are very tired after being busy, they are more inclined to visual and auditory elements to help them rest, such as lighting, music, white noise, etc. And Combine with many meditation features that many users find helpful.
Brainstorm
I want to create an interactive desk lamp for workbenches to detect designers' psychological states and provide timely reminders to take breaks, using auditory and visual cues. Instead of a traditional alarm clock, which can cause irritability and worsen burnout after short naps, this lamp will offer a gentler way to wake up and support relaxation.
Functional Proposition
Two Layers of Support Features
Regular Feature
Advanced Feature
Technology Diagram
The interactive burnout relief device will consist of three parts, a lamp product for output, a wearable device for Input, and an application for control or customization.
For wearables, this would be a device containing pursesensor, which detects the user's heart rate in real time and transmits the data to the device. The device performs calculations after receiving the data. If the user is experiencing burnout, the user will be alerted and can make their own choices for the next step. When the device is running, the device will help the user by controlling the light bulb and the speaker as an output.
Prototype
Prototype Design
Programming
I used micropython code to publish instructions and connect to external players. And I wrote multiple versions of the heart rate code. Also, since the user test is that the heart rate does not change immediately, I wrote a version of prototype code that uses an analog sensor instead of the purseSensor.
Prototype Product
After measuring the appropriate dimensions, I modeled it using Solidworks, and then 3D printed the model and sprayed it with paint.
I made two versions of the PurseSensor Unit to make sure which one worked better.
Interface Design
Functional Test
After measuring the appropriate dimensions, I modeled it using Solidworks, and then 3D printed the model and sprayed it with paint.
I made two versions of the PurseSensor Unit to make sure which one worked better.
Next Step