Kimchi Timer

Public academic project | Cultural UX | HCI research | Mobile / sensing | Independent project

A thesis project exploring how cultural food practices can be supported through sensing and visualization.

  • Role: Researcher, designer, and developer
  • Platform: Master's thesis project
  • Public visibility: Public project. Expand only with thesis-approved details and visuals.
  • Scope: Concept, research, interaction design, sensing/visualization prototype, academic documentation.

  • Introdution

    Kimchi Timer was my master’s thesis project: an end-to-end research and design exploration of how a traditional food practice could be supported through sensing, timing, and visual feedback. It was one of my first fully authored systems, where I independently shaped the concept, design, and prototype under academic supervision.

  • The challenge

    Kimchi fermentation is cultural, sensory, and time-based. The design challenge was not simply to digitize a traditional practice, but to explore how technology could make an invisible biological process easier to understand without removing the cultural meaning of the activity.

  • My contribution

    • Developed the project concept and research direction.
    • Explored how fermentation progress could be represented through time, sensing, and visual feedback.
    • Designed the user experience and interface language for a culturally rooted product.
    • Built and documented the prototype as part of my thesis process.

  • Outcome

    The project helped define a long-term interest that still appears in my work today: using design to make complex or invisible processes more understandable while respecting the human context around them.

  • Cultural UX with technical grounding

    This project reflects my interest in designing technology that respects existing practices instead of replacing them. It combines cultural understanding, interaction design, and sensing concepts to make a time-based, invisible process easier to follow without flattening its meaning.