Gift Wrapping a Question
During my Thesis Development class, I started paying closer attention to my everyday life and asking myself a simple question: How do I actually spend my days?
As I reflected on my routines, I realized that my mood often seems closely connected to sunlight.
After moving to New York, I also began to notice something else. I had lived in Korea for about 30 years, and the way people relate to the sun here felt noticeably different.
In Korea, I was used to seeing sunlight and UV exposure discussed in relation to skin aging and skin damage. Sunscreen, hats, UV-protective sleeves, and even umbrellas are common ways of protecting the skin from the sun.
In New York, however, I often see people actively seeking out the sun. On a sunny day, parks and outdoor spaces quickly fill with people lying on the grass, eating outside, or simply sitting in the sunlight.
Seeing these different attitudes made me wonder:
Is sunlight something we should avoid, or something we should enjoy?
Of course, sunlight also comes with risks. UV exposure can lead to sunburn and skin damage, and concerns around skin cancer make sun protection important.
At the same time, sunlight is also part of many enjoyable everyday experiences. People spend time outside, feel warmth on their skin, meet friends in parks, and enjoy good weather.
Rather than deciding that people simply need more sun or less sun, I became interested in a different question:
What kind of relationship do people actually have with sunlight?
Looking at the Way We Understand Sunlight
Today, one of the most common ways we receive information about sunlight is through weather apps or UV-related apps.
Most of these interfaces communicate UV exposure through numbers or categories:
UV Index 3UV Index 7Very High
The information is there, but I often find it difficult to understand what those numbers actually mean in everyday life.
How should I behave if I am going outside right now?
Why does today’s sunlight feel different from yesterday’s?
How much do I normally seek out or avoid the sun?
A single number does not necessarily help me understand those questions.
I also noticed that many existing interfaces focus primarily on information and warnings. They tell us what the UV level is, but they rarely make our relationship with sunlight feel engaging, intuitive, or playful.
This made me wonder:
Could interacting with sunlight feel more intuitive, personal, and playful?
The Question
For this project, I began with a simple question:
How do you spend a sunny day?
Someone might immediately go outside when the weather is nice.
Someone else might reach for sunscreen first.
Some people enjoy tanning, while others look for shade because they do not want their skin to burn.
And some people may spend most of their day indoors and barely notice what the weather is like outside.
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I became curious about these different behaviors and experiences.
As I continued thinking about the question, I also began asking something slightly more specific:
When does the sun feel good — and when does it feel like too much?
In a brief, informal exploratory conversation, one person I spoke with described sunlight as enjoyable until it started to feel physically uncomfortable. They liked clear, sunny weather and said it could improve their mood, even when they were indoors looking out at the sunlight. At the same time, they mentioned concerns about uneven tanning and skin discomfort, as well as practical barriers to sun protection, such as carrying sunscreen or an umbrella feeling inconvenient.
What interested me was that their sense of when the sun became “too much” seemed to depend not on a number, but on a combination of bodily sensation, appearance, mood, and convenience.
The Gift: Exploring Everyday Sun-Responsive Objects
As a prototype for this question, I began by exploring how a sun-responsive object could fit naturally into everyday life.
Rather than starting with one fixed product, I sketched different objects people might already wear, carry, or use regularly.
Some ideas, such as an umbrella or picnic mat, made sense for planned outdoor activities like going to the beach or spending a long time outside. But I became more interested in objects that could stay with someone throughout an ordinary day without requiring extra effort.
This led me to explore smaller, more wearable or portable forms: a keychain, a hair clip, an acne-patch-like sticker, and a lip-balm-sized sunscreen case.
The keychain could use a changing color or facial expression to make sunlight noticeable. A hair clip or patch could turn the interaction into something worn directly on the body. The sunscreen case came from a small friction that emerged in an exploratory conversation: someone told me that they usually apply sunscreen before leaving home, but rarely carry it because it feels inconvenient and bulky.
Across these ideas, I kept returning to the same question: Could awareness of sunlight become part of something people already carry or wear, rather than another thing they have to remember?
When exposed to sunlight, the appearance of the object could gradually change, making an invisible environmental condition more tangible and noticeable.
At this stage, I am not trying to create another dashboard that constantly gives users exact numbers or tells them what the “correct” amount of sunlight should be. I am also not trying to decide on one final product yet.
Instead, I am using these sketches to explore whether a small, everyday physical interaction could help people notice their relationship with sunlight differently.
The object is not telling someone:
Go outside more.
orAvoid the sun.
Instead, it creates a small moment of reflection:
When does the sun feel good — and when does it feel like too much?
Process
At first, I thought I needed to define the thesis problem as quickly and clearly as possible.
Sunburn prevention?
Vitamin D deficiency?
Spending too much time indoors?
But while working through this exercise, I began to wonder whether choosing one of those problems now might be too early.
Maybe the first thing I need to understand is not simply how much sunlight people receive, but how people experience, enjoy, avoid, and protect themselves from sunlight in everyday life.
Thinking about the project as a gift also changed the way I approached the form of the interaction. Instead of immediately designing an app, I started asking what someone would actually feel comfortable carrying or wearing every day.
This led me to explore small, familiar objects such as keychains, hair clips, patches, and a portable sunscreen case. Larger objects like umbrellas or picnic mats seemed more appropriate for planned outdoor activities, while smaller objects could become part of an everyday routine with less effort.
This process shifted the concept away from simply creating another UV-related digital interface and toward exploring how sunlight awareness could become part of an ordinary physical experience.
Reflection
I initially thought I had to choose one clear problem: sunburn, vitamin D deficiency, or spending too much time indoors. But turning my research question into a gift made me approach the project differently.
When I started thinking about the object as something I would actually give to another person, I kept asking myself what would feel easy, comfortable, and natural for them to use. That question pushed me away from my first instinct to design another app and made me consider objects that could already fit into someone’s daily routine.
This also changed the way I thought about research. Asking someone a question is not only asking for an answer. It asks for their time, memories, attention, and embodied experiences. Thinking about reciprocity made me consider what I could offer back — not necessarily an answer or instruction, but perhaps a small, playful moment that helps someone notice their own relationship with sunlight.
What surprised me most was realizing that designing the project as a gift made me think more about the person receiving it than about the interface itself.
