Blog 03- Talkng It Out
Conversation #1 — YunHao (my roommate)
Last Tuesday, after class, at home.
After returning home from class, I spoke with my roommate, Yunhao, about my thesis. She studies music management and has previous work and internship experience, including teaching children to play the piano. I wanted to hear her perspective because she had experienced entering working life and might relate to the difficulty of leaving work behind at the end of the day.
Yunhao explained that finishing her lessons did not necessarily mean her work was over. She still needed to respond to parents’ questions, and each parent had different needs and expectations. She found these exchanges frustrating and felt that the difficulty of switching off was connected to stress. After work, she often just wanted to go home. When we talked about how she relaxed, she mentioned watching short live-action dramas on her phone and playing simple games, such as tile-matching games, that did not require much thought.
Her choice of activities surprised me. I had been thinking about helping people reconnect with everyday life, but her way of unwinding involved spending time on her phone. At first, I thought of this as “killing time.” However, she described it as a way to relieve stress, which made me reconsider my own assumptions about what relaxation should look like. Our conversation did not establish whether these activities helped her feel restored, but it raised a question for my design: after a demanding day, would people want another activity that asks them to think or reflect? I began to consider how my project could respect the desire for something simple and undemanding, without turning relaxation into another responsibility.
Conversation #2 — Alex (my friend from Bachelor degree)
I spoke with Alex, a friend who also has a design background and now works in the AI industry. We just communicate through social media, and I shared my thesis topic and some of the accounts I had encountered in my literature research, including descriptions of young employees finding comfort in spending time with their pets. His immediate suggestion was to explore an AI companion or an AI pet. This introduced a possible design direction that I had not seriously considered.
What surprised me was my own reaction to his proposal. Having experienced a demanding internship at a large company, I could imagine coming home exhausted and wanting comfort. Yet imagining an AI pet waiting for me brought up an uncomfortable feeling. Rather than feeling reassured, I thought I might feel sorry for myself. For me, the appeal of spending time with a living animal did not automatically translate into wanting a digital companion. Although both could be described as companionship, I did not experience them as interchangeable.
This conversation revealed a strong assumption in my own approach: I tend to see AI as a tool for solving problems, and I am less comfortable imagining it as the main source of emotional support. At this stage, I would be more interested in using AI to support a wider experience than making it the central companion. However, my reaction does not tell me how other young employees would feel. Alex’s suggestion helped me recognise that I need to distinguish my personal preferences from the needs of the people I am designing for. It also left me with a more specific question: what kind of companionship or comfort are people looking for after work, and what makes that support feel meaningful to them?
Conversation #3 — Maya
During a voice call with Maya, I explained my thesis to Maya and introduced the term “psychological detachment from work.” She then asked whether I was trying to help people relieve stress or help them leave work behind after hours. Her question brought attention to a distinction that I had not made clear enough when describing my project.
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Looking back at this exchange, I can see why my explanation raised that question. I had been talking about stress relief and switching off after work almost interchangeably. Yet someone might feel calmer while still thinking about work, and an activity that offers a moment of relief might not necessarily help them move into their personal time. Using a psychological term had not, on its own, made the purpose of my project clearer.
This conversation gave me a question to carry into the next stage of my research: what change am I actually hoping to support? My current focus is on helping young employees mentally leave work behind and become available for their lives outside it. Stress relief may be part of that experience, but I need to explain how a proposed design relates to that transition. Maya’s question also reminded me to describe my topic in everyday language, so that both the people I interview and I can be clear about what I am exploring.
Conversation #4 — Claire
I spoke with Claire via voice call through WeChat, a friend who works at a large technology company. When I explained my thesis, she questioned whether the situation I wanted to address was necessarily a problem that people wanted solved. She finds her current work meaningful and pointed out that, despite the demanding conditions associated with these companies, many new graduates still compete intensely to join them. In her view, some enter with an awareness of the sacrifices involved and are willing to give up personal time in the hope of building a better future.
Her response challenged my assumption that young employees would share my desire to create a clearer separation between work and personal life. My own internship experience had led me to focus on exhaustion and the feeling that work was taking over. Claire brought a different perspective: demanding work could also be something a person valued and deliberately chose. She did not see sacrificing time as automatically making a situation something that needed to be fixed.
This conversation made me reconsider who my project is for. I cannot assume that everyone working long hours wants the same relationship with work, or that my own preferred boundaries would suit them. At the same time, being willing to make sacrifices does not tell me whether someone feels rested or supported. I need to understand how people feel about their choices and whether there are moments when they want help stepping away. Rather than treating all early-career employees as having the same need, I want to focus on those who want to switch off after work but find it difficult.
Conversation #5 — Nina
I spoke with Nina, a former undergraduate classmate who now works at an advertising agency. She described feeling under considerable pressure as she worked to meet campaign deadlines, generated images with ChatGPT, and edited them. Alongside the workload, she worried about being replaceable. She felt that image editing was something many people could do, and the number of new graduates competing for similar positions made her anxious about keeping her place.
Nina connected this insecurity to a need to work harder. From her account, her exhaustion was tied both to the tasks she had to complete and to the feeling that she needed to keep proving her value. She described feeling burned out and wondered whether a product could help her relieve some of that pressure.
Her response differed from Claire’s: Nina was actively interested in something that might help. However, her interest was specifically in stress relief, which brought me back to Maya’s question about the purpose of my project. Our conversation did not establish whether Nina struggled to mentally switch off after work, so I should not assume that this was the support she wanted. It also made me consider the limits of a product. Something that offers comfort or a pause might be welcome, but I cannot assume it would address her fear of being replaced. I want to understand more clearly what relief would mean to her and when she would want that support in her day.
