Ambient Timer

A low-stress visual timer with a simple input mechanism: the URL.

The Project

There are occasions when you need a timer, but find that a ticking stopwatch is too stressful. Ambient Timer is a countdown without the stress. Set it, glance at it, and when the screen turns green, time’s up.

URL as input

One of the virtues of the Ambient Timer is its simplicity. There are no buttons, no text fields — all control happens through the URL. The path /1m20s sets a one-minute-twenty-second countdown; /2h20m17s sets two hours, twenty minutes, and seventeen seconds. That’s it.

Ambient Timer mid-countdown — the colored area receding diagonally

Ambient Timer further into the countdown

Ambient Timer near the end of the countdown

Ambient Timer complete — the screen has turned green

How It Works

Ambient Timer is a small web application. It uses SVG to draw a grill across the screen, and an SVG animation to move a large rectangle from the top-left to the bottom-right as the countdown elapses.

Source on GitHub under a dual MIT/GPL license.

Role. Designer. Developer.