In an announcement made just two days ago, the Wonder Global Design Awards named UX Designer Yijing Wang as a double honoree: a Gold Award for Palpa, her augmented reality–guided breast self-examination app, and a Bronze Award for Nutricipe, a projection-enabled smart kitchen scale system. The recognition places Wang among an international cohort of designers whose work demonstrates measurable social, behavioral, and technological impact.

The two award-winning projects operate in vastly different contexts—preventive healthcare and precision cooking—yet they reveal a consistent design philosophy. Across both, Wang reduces friction in complex systems and translates abstract information into intuitive, spatial interaction.

Palpa: Augmented Reality as a Tool for Breast Self-Awareness

Palpa, the Gold Award recipient, originated from Wang’s academic and research-driven exploration of how augmented reality (AR) could support breast self-examination (BSE). The project was previously presented at the International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare (Pervasive Health 2024), reflecting its foundation in rigorous user research and usability testing.

Breast self-examination remains one of the most accessible preventive health practices, yet adherence is inconsistent. Many women report uncertainty about proper technique, anxiety over misinterpretation, and difficulty translating static medical diagrams into real bodily awareness. Wang approached this gap not as a purely informational deficit, but as a design challenge rooted in confidence, clarity, and emotional comfort.

Through surveys of more than one hundred respondents and in-depth interviews, she identified recurring barriers: confusion about examination zones, difficulty recognizing abnormalities, and fear of “doing it wrong.” Palpa addresses these concerns by projecting guided touch patterns and examination areas directly onto the user’s body through a mobile device interface. By embedding instruction spatially, the app reduces cognitive load and guesswork.

Beyond the AR overlay, Palpa integrates menstrual cycle tracking, examination history logs, and post-session explanations. Each interaction reinforces understanding over time, transforming a single screening moment into an ongoing learning process. Usability testing participants reported increased confidence and stronger motivation to maintain regular breast health practices.

Wang led the full design lifecycle—from research synthesis and interaction mapping to high-fidelity prototyping in Figma and Unity. Importantly, she also documented sensitive considerations, including privacy perceptions and onboarding challenges for first-time AR users. In doing so, Palpa demonstrates that health technology must balance technical innovation with psychological safety.

Nutricipe: Precision Cooking Reimagined Through Projection

While Palpa operates in the intimate realm of preventive health, Nutricipe, the Bronze Award recipient, addresses a more everyday—but equally behavior-shaping—environment: the kitchen.

Nutricipe is a projection-enabled smart kitchen scale designed for meal preppers, bakers, and individuals managing strict nutritional goals. Traditional kitchen scales offer numerical precision but little contextual guidance. Recipe apps, meanwhile, demand constant screen interaction—impractical when hands are wet, floured, or occupied.

Wang reframed the kitchen scale not as a passive measurement tool, but as an interactive spatial interface. Ingredient weight appears as a projected circular indicator that gradually fills as weight increases. When the target amount is reached, the visual projection signals completion, reducing dependence on reading small numbers.

Recipes unfold directly through the scale. Instead of toggling between phone and countertop, users are guided step-by-step through ingredient preparation. Projected timers and visual progress indicators further consolidate weighing, timing, and instruction into a single, hands-free system.

A companion mobile app supports recipe browsing, nutritional tracking, and customization, but the physical scale leads the interaction during cooking. This division ensures that digital planning does not interrupt embodied activity. Nutricipe reflects Wang’s sensitivity to real-world workflows, where minimizing friction often matters more than adding features.

The core design challenge lay in integrating multiple functions without increasing complexity. Information hierarchy, projection readability, and unobtrusive interaction were carefully calibrated. The result is a system that feels minimal yet highly structured—an interface that respects both physical space and cognitive bandwidth.