Frustrated by her own struggle to stay focused while studying, product design student Carrie Lee has developed a portable task timer that hopes to rival the addictiveness of smartphones.
Her prototype Immersion timer is about the size and shape of a Tamagotchi.
But instead of distracting themselves by feeding a virtual pet, users set themselves the challenge to focus for a certain amount of time – ranging from five minutes to two hours.
Unlike a traditional countdown timer, Immersion's interface resembles that of an hourglass, with grains of virtual sand slowly filling the circular display. The sand even responds to movement, tumbling around as users turn the timer to reset it.
Lee developed the concept and working prototype during her product design degree at Nottingham Trent University after growing fed up with how easily she was distracted by her phone while trying to complete coursework.
"At the end of the day, I'd be like: 'oh my god, I haven't done anything today' – and that frustrated me," she told Dezeen.
The student tried out several common focus tools that have proliferated in recent years as smartphones and social media have eroded our attention spans.
But most of these are apps, such as FocusFlight or Forest, meaning that while they visualise progress through playful graphics and games, they ultimately keep the user attached to their phone and exposed to their notifications.
When it comes to developing a focus tool, Lee argued, apps are inherently counterproductive, since studies suggest even the presence of a switched-off smartphone is enough to reduce our ability to focus.
That's why the designer set out to develop a calm device with intentionally minimal functionality. Instead of the countdowns found in conventional apps, which she found distracting in their own right, she used virtual sand to give users an intuitive sense of the passage of time.
"I was looking into visual cues, so you can't really physically count how much time you have left but you can still glance at it and you can see how much progress you've made," she explained.
Lee envisions Immersion being used both at home, paired with a charging stand designed to resemble stacking stones, or on-the-go in cafes or libraries. Much like a Tamagotchi, the timer could even be turned into a bag charm when paired with a small strap.
It's little touches like these, which she hopes will make the timer so satisfying to use that it can start to counter some of the addictiveness of smartphones.
Devices designed to wean people off of their other devices, from smart glasses to dumbphones, have become increasingly popular in recent years.
But Lee argues that Immersion, which was unveiled at graduate design show New Designers last week, offers a more realistic alternative than giving up smartphones altogether – minus the surveillance and privacy concerns.
All renders courtesy of Carrie Lee (hand in usage scenario generated via Vizcom AI).