Planaball

Team

Amanda Cheng

Circuit-connector and supplies manager, once broke a piece of plexiglass with her bare hands in a moment of need.
Nicole Lei

Organizational and product gluer, obsessed with work plans, usually found with superglue on her fingers.
Ananya Ganesh

Coder and multi-tasker, leaves a trail of deflated stress balls and Twix wrappers everywhere she goes.

Problem Statement

Screen-first planning

Modern productivity relies almost exclusively on digital planning tools. For example, Google Calendar presents time through screen-based, notification-driven interfaces that are easily ignored or overlooked, especially in high-distraction mobile environments. These systems rely on brief, disruptive alerts that tend to interrupt users during periods of deep focus, resulting in missed or delayed task transitions.

Abstraction & overload

Additionally, the very abstract, two-dimensional blocks displayed on Google Calendar are visually overwhelming, often displaying all tasks of the week that create stress and reduce users’ ability to focus on immediate priorities, and at the same time lacking any tactile and sensory engagement.

What we’re aiming for

We hope our users will be able to have time to break away from digital screens with more obvious physical elements to remind users the transition to the next task and with tactile tokens to engage with. Through these visual elements and tokens, planning becomes fun and tangible rather than stressful and abstract.

Conceptual Design

Planaball is a calendar-like desk tool that consists of a visual and a tactile component which collectively represent a concept of the user’s choosing, such as a particular task or a time block.

The visual chip gradually rises as the set alarm time arrives to serve as a slow reminder to the user that it will be time to switch contexts soon.

The tactile ball is released at the set alarm time to ease the transition by having the user play with it as a stress relief mechanism or absorber for fidgeting.

Planaball concept sketch: desk form with columns, visual tokens, tactile balls, and travel mode

Planaball exploded view: labeled parts including columns, compartments, and easel stand

Planaball mechanism diagrams: token motion, fluid and pump system, alarm controls

What makes it novel

A cohesive 3D and tactile way to represent plans
Creates an engaging break from screens
Integrates a playful experience into a productive activity

Design Process & Artifacts

Brainstorming

Discussing everything from thermochromic paint to spring-release pants.
Visualisations

Settling on Tholos (deprecated :)) as a productivity tool.
Initial Prototype

Made of cookie tins, cardboard, and Play-Doh.
Pivot: New Ideas

Focusing on compactness and an easy flow of interaction with more cohesive tangible representations (shout-out to Claire!).
Vertical and Horizontal Prototypes

The first somewhat working iterations!

Vertical Prototype

Horizontal Prototype
Mechanism Changes

Our design went through multiple iterations. We began with a water-oil system, then switched to a servo-driven pulley using fishing line. After that, we experimented with a servo and push-stick mechanism to lift and hide the blocks, before finally settling on a solenoid-based release system to drop the ball.
Final Prototype

Meet Planaball!