reimagining the way users perceive the passage of time
Not every task requires precise timing. This timer doesn’t yell or startle. Instead, users set the time and a pleasant continuous motion is played before coming to a quiet end.
For this project, I wanted to remove the stresseful connotations from time. Most timers display the amount of time that’s left, which creates a feeling that time is a resource that can be lost and spent. I wanted users to be free of that pressure and get to just enjoy the time that they’ve set out for themselves.
conveying an abstract concept in a new way
The first challenge was deciding on a motion that could depict time passing while not constraining it to something measurable. I looked to ways time had been portrayed before.
Flipping cards do not show past progress (unlike clocks) but do show that time is moving in one direction (unlike pendulums.) There is no way to determine how much time has passed, but a viewer can feel that it is moving forward.
Underlying the design is a binary system where cards methodically flipped to count “big” and “little” amounts of time, as indicated by their relative thicknesses. I wanted the user to enjoy the soft rhythmic clicking of a clock without feeling stressed about their time running out. By only having two sides of each card, it would be difficult for the user to try to keep track of how much time had passed.
building visual relationships to inform users
I needed the user to understand that one of the fins would turn with “long” time and the other with “short” time. This relationship is well known in clocks with the “second” and “minute” hands. I realized that the fins needed to share an axis and that making them concentric demonstrated that they depended on each other.
From there I developed the form with the support extending behind the fins as opposed to creating a frame around them. This gave me a place for the button/dial that is also rotating on the same axis as the fins. I wanted the fins to be rotating vertically to give the impression of moving forward, rather than up or down.
final fabrication
final rendering
