Inspiration can come from anywhere

I originally got the idea for SimpleTimer by looking at the design on a hair product and thinking I could adapt those circles into something completely different.

Quick sketches and concepts

I challenged myself to come up with as many different concepts and variations within 10 minutes. From there I refined a few and chose the design I thought had the most potential to push further.

From idea to execution

When I first had the idea to use elements from the hair product design I had no idea how it would turn out. By timeboxing yourself to 30 minutes to test an idea, you can explore different directions without wasting too much time.

Design with the absolute minimum

I was looking through the App Store for a simple timer but couldn’t find anything that did exactly what I wanted, so I decided to design one myself. On this screen you rotate the hour and minute sliders to where you want them and press start. Simple.

Remove all unnecessary elements

When the timer is running, the hour and minute sliders disappear as they are no longer needed and to prevent accidental interaction. Minimal design is challenging — you have to keep asking yourself “Is this element really needed?”

Simple landing page

I created a landing page to help promote the app and hopefully increase downloads. No logo, no navigation, no footer. Just the app.

Final design

Here’s a quick mockup of how the final design looks on an Apple watch and iPhone. I find by providing clients photorealistic mockups in context it helps them to visualize with how the finished product will look.