Icons for GNOME Break Timer

GNOME Break Timer reminds people to take regular breaks from using their computer. We want to add some strong visuals to the application, and to start with that we'd like to create a nice set of icons.

• A large icon for the application itself. This appears in the launcher with the name "Break Timer".
• Two icons representing types of breaks: one for micro breaks, and one for rest breaks. These will be used as notification icons.

Contact

This request was added by Dylan McCall. I am frequently available on IRC with the name dylan-m.

Here's a quick explanation of the application

GNOME Break Timer is a work in progress, started as a project for GSoC 2013.

• GNOME Wiki page on the GSoC project

• Related blog posts

• Code on github

• Daily packages for Ubuntu on Launchpad

Once you have turned on Break Timer and set up a break schedule, it works in the background. When it is time for a break, it shows a particular notification. We also show a notification when a break is finished, interrupted or overdue, just to be sure, but these notifications are intended to fit together very closely. There are two different types of breaks: micro breaks and rest breaks. By default, there is one 30 second micro break for every six minutes of (uninterrupted) activity, and one five minute rest break for every 40 minutes of activity. Micro breaks are not especially important and can be ignored quite easily - we just like to encourage that people frequently pause to stretch out and away from the screen. Rest breaks are more important, so when it's time for a rest break we're more aggressive about persuading the user to take a break as soon as possible.

Right now we're using the alarm-symbolic icon with our "time for a break" (and subsequent) notifications. This is problematic for several reasons. One is that using the same icon for both types of breaks means it is hard to tell the difference between a rest break and a micro break. Also, it's interesting to note that most timer icons are based on alarm clocks, while the kind of timer we use here is more like a countdown timer.

Other work

The settings panel could do with some more interesting visual design. Of course, it would be silly to add pretty pictures for pretty pictures' sake. Additional assets should look nice, but also serve to inform and inspire. This particular art request isn't about *that*, but if your ideas happen to relate, please feel free to share!