Blossom UI concept. Updated! Thanks for all your feedback.
To compare: old ‘drawer’ Blossom UI (thanks dak for the idea of keeping old comps here):
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I’m getting really excited about data visualization as related to rendering the plant. The other day in the Blossom blog and forum comments ghutchis shared plant simulation links, where people are algorithmically “evolving” plants using L-systems and other methods.
“L-systems also make it easy to “evolve” the plant, since you can have mutants, and go forward/backward generations.” - ghutchis
Forum member dek pointed to sketchTree, an interactive plant with a sketch aesthetic. It’s very cool - I imagine Blossom operating a bit more subtle and slow, but do like the sketch look and feel. I imagine many render options, perhaps like the FX in Photo Booth affecting your plant display:
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Additional algorithmically generated 3D plants. Every plant can be unique:
From the comments - dek had more great ideas regarding plant behaviour:
“Some examples:
- If you set a lot of different applications, the plant will branch more often.
- If you handle a lot of files, the plant will grow lots of leaves/buds.
- If you concentrate on one application, the plant will bloom big flowers.
- If you are a nervous app-switcher, lots of small flowers/fruits grow.
- Petal colors could be inspired by the applications icon you’ve initially defined in the seed.”
In addition, lots of ideas coming up regarding Bonjour integration and sharing among coworkers for some friendly plant health competition, integration with Leopard’s systemwide Todo’s framework.
Below are more feature details influenced by all the great feedback. Big thanks to shadownight, dek, ghutchis, Pixel Sage, Jason Harris, cobrabyte, Stephen, CajunLuke, wph, Query, Cameron, aaike, Krock Camen, sveskemus, Brian Carter, pottedmeat, verbena, arcticmac, Wynlyndd, Ruahine, Mickey Wember, Jason, rolo_flex, Harald Echmuller, flonejek, Nathan Douglas, and all the others who’ve been supporting Blossom’s feature development.
Blossom feature details:
* Visualize productivity data by quickly glancing at a friendly lifeform (plant), providing an effective and immediate indicator of progress.
* Set specific apps and documents with health criteria to be worked on (or to avoid). Track usage stats of these documents/apps. Use default settings, or set optimal use of app or document per min/hour/day, influencing intensity of food/water or neglect (how quickly the plant grows or wilts based on criteria). Set to a specific User Time Profile, such at “Work 9-5pm”.
* Visual options for your plant - select type of plant from a library of ferns, vines, flowers, trees, etc. Select a planter or ‘ground area’ like rocks, grass, or mulch, Or, set plant type to AUTO and allow Blossom to choose a plant based on your productivity. Choose to display on the desktop (Large 3D, Medium, or Small corner), or reduced as an animated Dock icon.
* Generate tracking reports, tracking history of plant growth/health and associated document and application use data, and be able to ‘roll back’ history to see how plant growth has progressed over time.
Advanced features:
* Multiple plant instances — run additional plants on your desktop with different health settings. For example, one plant can visualize personal productivity, while another represents work productivity.
* Web update — Get new software updates, themes/plants, and productivity default profiles.
* Plug-in lifeform Themes framework — user community can create add-ons — 3D plants, Tamagotchi/Nintendogs-style pets, building of a bridge/city/other animated lifeform responding to health criteria.
Thanks for the helpful comments in this thread.
