Prfessional Indentity

I’m a practical and considerate designer. I have an engineering background and learned to create with technologies like Arduino, Unity etc. I have designed a digital wallet for the elderly to use in China, where cash is less and less used. I focus on technical innovations that can have an impact on the world. In my M21, I designed a board game to help players understand the crisis that wild lives are facing now in the city, and encourage them to take actions to care about the creatures and our world. Empathy is a very important part in my design, so I want to continue working on this.

I’m reliable and willing to collaborate with people from different fields. My undergraduate studies have exposed me to many aspects of design theory and skills such as interaction design, experience design, media design, sound installation, and so on. In my M11 project, I have also learned more skills, such as soldering, laser cutting, silicone casting etc. The knowledge and skills I've acquired have equipped me to capitalize on my strengths within a team. Through open communication, I can effectively connect and collaborate with various team members, and the M11 program experience has made me more able to communicate cross-culturally. During M21, although I was working on my own project, I often interacted with other students and gave each other advice and feedback, which kept my mind open.

I am an organized designer. I always make short-term and long-term goals for my designs. This keeps me on track and organized. Many projects in undergraducate required me to complete in 4 weeks, and I've participated in game jams that required us to make a game within 48 hours. In these tasks, I was always the one who did the planning to ensure that the task was completed on time and with high quality. These help me to be orgainized in my M12 and M21 projects, in which I started to plan really early and completed my tasks efficiently.

I’m also a designer who is willing to learn through exploration and creating. As a Master student, I still have many things to learn, therefore I maintain an open mind towards acquiring new competencies. When M11 first started, I was not familiar with TU/e, but with my active questioning and learning from others, I quickly got involved and was soon contributing to my team. When I met teammates from other department, I can now collaborate with them, build connections between each person and learn from others. In my M12, I learned more about Unity and XR development through making the game demo for the research. In my M21, I challenged myself with doing laser cutting and 3D modeling. In today's multidisciplinary environment, I believe a designer's responsibility lies in connecting processes, disciplines, and background together.

Vision

I believe that at the heart of human endeavor lies a pursuit of happiness. While design can solve problems, it can also bring complexity (Dan Demers, 2019). My aim is to find this balance: to create solutions that not only address needs but actively create joy and well-being. I strive for designs that cultivate eudaimonic happiness - experiences rich in meaning, engagement, and a sense of accomplishment. I draw inspiration from understanding the UX theories that I learned in course DDM150: User Experience Theory and Practice - intrinsic motivation, self-determination theory, and the state of flow, seeking to craft interactions that are inherently rewarding, foster positive behavioral change, and leave users feeling fulfilled.

I am critical of the concept "gamification", which I regard as a superficial motivator (Ian Bogost, 2011), often serving commercial ends rather than authentic human needs. Instead, I am committed to designing fundamentally joyful experiences – those that tap into core human drives for mastery, autonomy, relatedness, and discovery. In my M21, I found that there can be a balance between fun and knowledge. I was not aimed to teach, but the knowledge has been integrated into the game mechanics.

Through M11, I gradually realized that an outstanding designer not only needs to possess solid technical skills but must also be capable of conveying profound emotions and social significance through design. This experience has helped me clarify my future pursuit of multisensory design and interdisciplinary integration, infusing my design identity with a greater sense of humanistic care and social responsibility.

I also believe in the potential of the interaction of XR technologies. The immersion they create is fascinating to me and I see it as a way for me to create “joyful” designs. But their interactions and experiences are still lacking and deserve to be investigated, so in my opinion, improving the immersion and experience of using XR technologies is also exciting to me. My M12 research gave me the opportunity of discovering the potential of VR immersion and player experience. In the future I also want to dig deeper into the immersive experience of games and human computer interaction.