Time Player – An Interactive Focus System

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Year
2026

Category
Product Design, Interaction Design

Context
MA Industrial Design — Final Project
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London

Materials
Wood, Sand, Aluminium, Electronics, 3D-printed Components

About
Time Player is an interactive focus system that translates working states into evolving patterns in sand. Designed as a subtle background companion, it encourages a more reflective relationship with time, attention, and creative work.

Moving away from conventional productivity tools that prioritise efficiency and performance tracking, Time Player explores a more mindful approach to managing focus. A rotating sand dish creates continuous patterns during work sessions, while sudden loud sounds trigger subtle disruptions, reflecting potential moments of stress or interruption. Through physical interaction and gentle visual feedback, the system invites users to become more aware of their working rhythms without relying on screens or constant notifications.

A tactile companion for the workspace, Time Player brings together natural materials, physical controls and a slowly changing sand surface. Its presence invites a moment of attention within everyday work, making the passage of time visible through movement and texture.

The interaction begins with the sand itself. Positioning the dish and adjusting the drawing arm creates a small ritual before work, connecting the user to the object through touch. The exposed surface and suspended drawing elements keep the process visible and easy to explore.

As the sand dish rotates clockwise, the suspended elements trace circular paths across its surface. The pattern gradually builds over the course of a session, turning elapsed time into a physical record that can be read at a glance.

The changing sand surface is the main visual feedback. Continuous traces are interrupted when sudden loud sounds activate the system, leaving a visible disturbance in the pattern. These marks offer a prompt to reflect on interruptions and working rhythms, without assigning a score to the session.

Electronic prototyping brought the movement, sound input and physical controls into one working system. Bench tests explored how sensing and motor-driven actions could translate an interruption into a change in the sand, before the components were integrated into the enclosure.

The wooden outer body was made using laser cutting and miter joints. Precisely cut panels join at clean, angled corners to form the enclosure around the mechanism and electronics.

The finished prototype brings the sand dish, drawing arm and controls together in a single wooden body. Warm timber, a pale circular rim and red accents give the object a distinct material character, while keeping the evolving pattern at the centre of the experience.

Time Player proposes a reflective relationship with productivity: a working session leaves a temporary trace that can be observed, considered and reset. The project uses material change to invite awareness of time and interruption, allowing space for individual interpretation.

Watch a short introduction to Time Player alongside highlights from the Central Saint Martins MA Industrial Design Show 2026

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Jun 2026