Planning the final project concept and setting up the documentation workflow
Sleep has always been something I struggle with. Falling asleep rarely happens naturally for me, and most nights I find myself lying awake while my mind keeps racing. I've noticed how much my surroundings affect this — especially harsh lighting and the habit of using my phone late at night, both of which make it harder for my body to slow down.
Rather than treating sleep as a simple on/off switch, I became interested in designing a gradual transition that aligns more naturally with the body's rhythm. This personal frustration became the foundation for my final project: a Smart Circadian Nightstand Lamp that supports a healthier nighttime and morning routine through light, color temperature, and sound — without abrupt darkness or jarring alarms.
Sketching the lamp form, modeling in Fusion 360, and defining the enclosure geometry
Designing a custom PCB, selecting components (microcontroller, RGB LEDs, speaker), and milling the board
Developing firmware for light dimming, color temperature transitions, sound playback, and interaction logic
3D printing the lamp body, laser cutting structural elements, and assembling all components
Testing the sleep/wake cycles, refining transitions, and improving usability
Presenting the Smart Circadian Nightstand Lamp as a complete, integrated system
At this stage, the project is more about intention than execution. What feels important is that it comes from a real need rather than just a technical challenge — designing something that I would genuinely want to use.
Breaking the project into phases early made it feel far more manageable, especially knowing how many disciplines it will eventually involve. I also started to realize that the success of this project won't just depend on whether it works technically, but on how subtle and intuitive the overall experience feels to the person using it.
Signed and published in the repository
fabacademy.org/.../aisha-alshehri/student-agreement.htmlI followed the Fab Academy tutorial to set up my GitLab repository and install Git Bash. This step was essential for understanding how version control works and how to document progress continuously rather than all at once at the end.
The key insight was that Git isn't just a backup tool — it's a live record of how a project evolves over time, which is exactly what Fab Academy documentation requires.
To build my documentation website, I used Phoenix Code as my editor. The goal was to create a simple, clear structure that can grow week by week as assignments are added — prioritizing readability and ease of navigation over visual complexity.
Documentation for Fab Academy involves a large number of images and videos, which can quickly make a website slow and inaccessible. To keep things performant, I used two tools:
ImageMagick — for resizing, editing, and compressing images before uploading them to the repository.
FFmpeg — for resizing, compressing, and trimming video files to reduce file size without losing quality.
This part of the assignment made it clear that documentation is not a side task — it is part of the design process itself. Learning Git felt unfamiliar at first, but it began to make sense once I saw how it creates a traceable record of progress over time.
Managing file sizes was another unexpected but important challenge. It forced me to think about how my work is experienced by others, not just how it is produced. A heavy, slow website undermines the documentation no matter how good the content is.
Overall, this week established the foundation for how I'll work throughout the academy — not just making things, but documenting, organizing, and reflecting on them as part of the same practice.