Tomato-TimeOut-o

Homepage picture

Inspiration

Tomatoes...and the theme of the hackathon.

What it does

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed in the 1980s by Fracesco Cirillo based on a tomato-shaped kitched timer he used. The technique uses a timer to break down work into 25-minute intervals followed by short 5-minute breaks. Each interval is known as a pomodoro (Italian for "tomato"). At the end of four intervals, an extra long break is awarded to the user.

How we built it

We built a tomato purely using html and css. Then, using JS, we animated the tomato to open up and reveal a timer. The timer would then count down notifying the user with alerts when they were on a "work" or "break" period. Additionally, a progress bar beneath the tomato keeps track of which pomodoro the user is currently on. Finally, we included a table below that the user can update with the tasks that they are working on, much like a to-do list.

Challenges we ran into

Time, ironically. A lot of things we wanted to implement turned out to be beyond our reach. Additionally, getting the pieces of the tomato to fit perfectly into position and move the way we wanted them to was really complicated.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Making the tomato with pure html/css was pretty cool. Rather than just chopping up a picture of a tomato, we made it ourselves. The timer was also a bit complicated to get perfectly right, especially when it had to be tied in with the progress bar.

What we learned

Version management is really important. And having everyone be up to date on how to use github as well.

What's next for Tomato-TimeOut-o

We originally wanted to include several other components such as API integration with random trivia APIs so that the user could have fun on their break or APIs that gave health and relaxation tips, such as meditative activities. However, these features didn't end up fitting our timetable for the hackathon and we chose to instead focus on refining the components we had in place.

Built With

Submitted to

BeaverHacks Summer 2019

Created by

It was my first hackathon and I am glad to say it was a great learning experience especially for someone who has little dev experience. I decided to contribute more from a project management role given it's an area I have experience in. I helped designed the initial website structure and design. I also researched and leveraged some open source codes for the task table. It was great to see everyone contributed in different parts of the project despite the limited time we have. Good job everyone! :)

Serena T
I am new to CS, so with the help of the team I learned how to use Github, VSCode and got a little more familiar with Javascript. It was great to see the development process and get practical experience with programming.

Travis Moret
I bounced around and had my hands in nearly everything at some point. I would generally let others begin something, I'd review it, correct anything that might need correcting, and merge it. Specific pieces that I worked on were the tomato itself, the animations, the countdown clock, and the progress bar.

Greg Healy
Andrew Ryan