Promodoro

Creating the most conducive studying environments with your favourite backdrops, music and custom pomodoro-style timer.

Introduction

Promodoro was designed to help today's students improve their productivity. The travel-based mobile app employs the popular pomodoro technique, allowing users to set timers for their work and break intervals. To further enhance the user's focus, the app seeks to simulate the user's ideal working environment with custom backgrounds as well as music.

Motivation

We often hear students lamenting about being unproductive, especially during exam seasons. A shortened attention span, caused by frequent use of technology, could be a possible cause. Sustained lack of productivity may then in turn lead to stress and poorer concentration, creating a vicious cycle.

Promodoro was conceptualized to combat this. We believe that the pomodoro technique, which splits work into manageable intervals and breaks, would benefit many students as it allows them to maximize their attention whilst preventing burnout.

However, we also want to tap onto an aspect that is often overlooked when discussing productivity - one's surroundings. For instance, one may be distracted by the urban environment, and thrive in natural scenary. Thus, Promodoro looks to bring users their preferred working environment.

User stories

1. As a student with my own unique working style, I want the flexibility to schedule when I start my work, break, as well as their respective duration.
2. As a student who thrives under a certain environment, I want to be able to replicate that environment wherever I go.
3. As a student who prefers to study with music, I want to be able to access my music when using productivity apps.
4. As a study group that has trouble meeting up, we want to host study sessions virtually.
5. As a study group, we want to see each other’s progress and motivate each other.
6. As a student who intends to improve on my work ethic, I want to be able to see how much time I spend on work and breaks, as well as other measures of my productivity.
7. As an administrator, I want to be able to understand trends and patterns in the users’ pomodoro sessions, so as to customize rewards and features to attract more users.

Core features

1. The take flight feature displays a timer as well as a dedicated background to help users keep to their work intervals and breaks.
2. The music player connects to the users’ Spotify app and allows them to access their own music.
3. The flight itinerary allows users to plan their day, specify the duration they want to spend on each task, and conveniently start a pomodoro session by tapping on a task.
4. The group trip is a virtual conference room with a unique session ID that allows users to have recurring on-camera study sessions.
5. In-app rewards in the form of miles and group leaderboards encourage users to complete more tasks and unlock more destinations (backgrounds).

Design patterns

TBC

Development plan

Milestone 1

• Sign-up & log-in feature
• Basic pomodoro timer
• Basic to-do list

Milestone 2

• Pomodoro session with music and backdrop
• Music & backdrop repository
• Recurring virtual conference room

Milestone 3

• In-app rewards
• Group leaderboard
• User's dashboard with usage data
• Administrator's dashboard with usage data