Development ideas and warding off 'Feature Creep'
Once a user sets up their preferences Blossom needs to know what app is running at the moment, what document/folder/project is open, and how much time is being put into it (perhaps by monitoring cursor/mouse movement to make ‘work’ count and ignore idle time).
Internals — I’m not a developer, but I’ve done a bit of research into how this can work — by spying into the title text of running apps (this usually reveals document being worked on, or email folder being read), and accessing the same data about running programs that “Activity Monitor” does, compare that data against user prefs, and decide how to animate the plant in response.
Visuals — Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and comments so far. I agree with the comment by rolo_flex who would prefer to keep the desktop fairly clear and clean with an unintrusive plant. Perhaps the plant could grow in a corner (like an “on desktop” dashboard widget, or maybe growing like a vine on the Apple menu bar. It needs to be subtle, but visible enough for a casual glance throughout the day.
One way to mediate the risk of ‘feature creep’ taking over is to create Blossom with a plug-in framework — let the user community create add-ons — plants and animations (For example, imagine even adding non-plant lifeforms or animations! watch a bridge get built as a result of your productivity… or see a pile of puzzle pieces assemble over time to form a photo… the user-generated add-on ideas are limitless).
Thanks again for your ideas and comments from both potential users and the developers.
