Surface Time

Inspiration

There are many apps and features that can help you reduce your phone use. For instance, Screen Time. But there are two problems with tools like these. First, they require you to go-through an elaborate setup process, where you configure individual app limits, work-schedule to trigger focus modes, and more — this process acts as giant wall, and it becomes very easy to procrastinate and never do this difficult part. Second, they often rely on negative reinforcement, where it highlights the time spent on unproductive apps or interrupt and block the use of such apps.

Surface tries to solve these: It encourages you to intuitively put your phone down, by design. And, instead of focusing on unproductive time, it highlights the time you spent away from the phone, not using it.

The Core Design

Timers are usually always simple with few buttons, but Surface takes this simplicity to the next level. With no buttons, taps, or swipes, the timer just turns on and off with motion.

The elapsed time peek from a small circle, and as you move your iPhone across angles, the circle expands and contracts with subtle haptics. When the display gradually faces the floor, the circle expands enough and text fade in from beneath as well, nudging you to keep going and rest your phone on the surface facing down. You can see time ticking if you peek under the phone, but it uses proximity sensor to turn the display off and save battery the moment it approaches a surface.

Features, Gestures, and more on Design

There’s no setup required, you launch the app and you flip it down. The app starts to keep track of your phone’s surface time. But there’s A LOT under the surface (pun may or may not be intended ;). First, there’s a neat gesture if the timer is paused — shake to reset!

Second, there are a few quality of life features under the settings menu. You don’t see a button to get there, one of the two notch-like cuts along the bottom are actually hidden options. Tap on those and it momentarily reveals what’s underneath. Then, swipe inwards and expand those cuts to open. I’ve designed it like that because of a few reasons: I want users to discover those features on their own terms; I didn’t want any obvious buttons, icons, texts, etc. that would invite interaction and distract the user; And I didn’t want something that could be accidentally pressed when flipping phone down or picking it back up.

In the settings menu, you can configure things like periodic notifications with flash and/or calming sounds, like a hit of Himalayan Bowl or a Guitar Strum to have a sense of time elapsed or to take breaks, without flipping the phone up.

Finally, swiping along the other cut opens the Goals view. That’s where you can see your total surface time broken down by day. You can set a target goal with a beautiful analog-clock inspired infinitely adjustable duration picker — it highlights the time you spent away from your phone and the time you potentially spent more productively. You can fill up those bars and have long streaks of days. You can even create custom goals, color-code it with beautiful pastel colors and work towards it.

Built With

• revenuecat
• swift
• swiftdata
• swiftui