FoxyFocus: Focus & Study Timer

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  HomeScreen of Foxy, Greeting the User.

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  Focus with foxy with a pinch of motivation. Run your pomodoro timer cycles with Foxy.

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  Achievements and rewards to help you stay on track and keep you motivated

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  Take a breather once you are done with a focus session

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  Foxy in the night (Dark Mode)

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  Insights to help you improve your productivity

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  Select ambient sound to help yourself have a deep focus session

Inspiration

The idea for FoxyFocus came from the desire to create a fun yet powerful tool that helps people stay productive and focused. I was inspired by the Pomodoro Technique and wanted to enhance the experience with playful elements, like Foxy the fox as a motivational companion. My goal was to make focusing easier and more engaging, while offering insights and tools to improve users' study or work habits.

What it does

FoxyFocus is a productivity app designed to help users manage their focus time using timers like Pomodoro. It features customizable focus and break durations, ambient sounds to reduce distractions, motivational quotes, and live activity updates. The app provides detailed insights on focus patterns, distractions, and achievements. Users can also block distracting apps during focus sessions and unlock fun achievements as they stay productive.

How we built it

I built FoxyFocus using SwiftUI. The app uses CoreData to persist user data and CloudKit to sync it to iCloud. Ambient sound support was handled using AVAudioPlayer, and I implemented Lottie animations to display fox animations. Achievements and insights are stored using Core Data, making the app's performance smooth even with extensive usage.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was the app's design. laying out app itself. Started with a total different design but the result I ended up having is greater than what I could imagine. One of the main challenges was ensuring that the app remained user-friendly while offering advanced features like app-blocking and focus insights. I also had to deal with technical issues like syncing Core Data with CloudKit, and managing live activities for ongoing sessions. Additionally, designing the fox-themed UI while keeping it intuitive and non-distracting was tricky but rewarding.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud of how well the app balances fun and productivity. Foxy, the app's mascot, brings an element of joy to the experience, making focusing less stressful. We also successfully integrated ambient soundscapes, motivational quotes, and focus insights, which were well-received during testing. The achievement system has been a highlight for users, motivating them to stay focused longer.

What we learned

Throughout the development of FoxyFocus, I learned how important it is to keep users engaged while ensuring they aren’t overwhelmed with features. I also gained a lot of experience working with SwiftUI. Moreover, adding gamification elements like achievements was fun.

What's next for FoxyFocus: Focus & Study Timer

First priority is to add more features to the app including adding support for iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and visionOS. After that I also aim to expand the goal-setting feature, allowing users to align their focus sessions with personal milestones.

Built With

• swift
• swiftui