TerraSync.

Focus tools often create the same attention cost they promise to reduce.

Timers, dashboards, and alerts keep productivity visible, but they can also become another interruption. The opportunity was to keep progress visible without asking for constant attention.

Calmness and meaningful progress became two separate research questions.

The three week timeline limited formal research. Quick discovery shaped a few early questions, followed by a survey exploring the two most promising themes.

Competitive analysis

Existing products solve pieces of the problem, but not the full relationship.

Forest makes focus grow visually. TIMEFLIP2 makes tracking physical. Philips Hue makes light adaptive. Luxafor makes work status peripheral. TerraSync combines those strengths around one quieter behavior.

Opportunity space

Ambient adaptation + tangible progress + a deliberate physical interaction.

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Forest

Turns focus sessions into growing digital trees and a forest that builds over time.

Gap: progress feels meaningful, but the reward still lives on a screen.

Official product ↗

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TIMEFLIP2

Uses a physical object and simple gestures to start, pause, and sort tracked time.

Gap: the interaction is tangible, but progress is reviewed after the session.

Official product ↗

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Philips Hue

Creates responsive lighting scenes, routines, and a connected lighting ecosystem.

Gap: the room adapts, but the light does not show focus progress.

Official product ↗

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Luxafor

Uses a small status light to show availability and reduce workplace interruptions.

Gap: the light protects focus from others, but does not make personal progress visible.

Official product ↗

Product	Peripheral feedback	Tangible control	Visible progress	Environmental response
Forest	~	×	✓	×
TIMEFLIP2	~	✓	~	×
Philips Hue	✓	~	×	✓
Luxafor	✓	~	×	×
TerraSync	✓	✓	✓	✓

The solution needed to be understandable without becoming insistent.

Three principles connected the research tensions and market gap to the physical form, digital terrarium, and interaction model.

Technical risk came before refining the product form.

The build moved from isolated component tests to a synchronized system, then into a physical enclosure shaped by stability, diffusion, and usability.

Prototype 01

Verify each input independently

The photoresistor, LEDs, and push button were tested on a breadboard before connecting the system to Unity. This kept sensor debugging separate from the experience logic.

Prototype 02

Connect the physical and digital feedback

Arduino sends sensor data over serial communication while a C# script maps those values to Unity. Once the loop was stable, plant growth, pause states, and day and night changes were added.

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Prototype 03

Final 3D printed prototype

The final prototype uses a 3D printed base and white dome to bring the electronics together, soften the light, and feel at home on a desk.

Prototype 2.5

CAD model and mid fidelity prototype

Top button improved downward press stability.

White dome softened the light and hid wiring.

Clean shell made the object read more like a product than a circuit demo.

Circuit schematics, resistor calculations, and the bill of materials are documented on the technical project page.

The product works as one continuous loop, not a lamp plus an app.

Physical sensing, state logic, and digital feedback were designed together so each action has a visible consequence in both environments.

Tap any feature to inspect how it participates in the TerraSync state engine.

Terrarium Photoresistor Top button Diffused lamp

01

Terrarium

Displays slow plant growth and day/night changes so focused time feels visible without becoming distracting.

02

Photoresistor

Reads ambient brightness from the workspace and lets the physical lamp and digital scene react together.

03

Top button

Starts focus mode, requests a pause, and confirms the interruption so leaving a session stays intentional.

04

Diffused lamp

Uses softened light and color shifts to communicate state quietly in the room, instead of through alerts.

A soft system that reads as alive, not gamified.

The lamp, terrarium, and case study visuals share rounded forms, muted color, and slow organic motion. The system stays warm and clear without the urgency of a productivity dashboard.

One visual system across hardware and software

Desaturated colors communicate state without alarm. Rounded controls, organic silhouettes, and small moments of growth keep the system calm and cohesive.

Designed for peripheral viewing

Layered plants and gentle motion create enough visual change to communicate progress while remaining quiet at widget scale.

Physical inputs create visible, synchronized focus states.

The walkthrough demonstrates the full loop: start a session, grow the terrarium, request and confirm a pause, and adapt the lamp and scene to ambient light.

The terrarium stays small enough to remain visible without competing with the work itself.

The next iteration would give users more control while grounding the experience in a deeper understanding of focus.

The prototype showed that physical sensing and ambient feedback can work as one system. The next step is to understand how different people define deep work, what conditions help them enter and sustain focus, and how much personalization supports that process without creating more setup or distraction.