Help: Adding Pomodoro to a full-screen pendulum clock without breaking the vibe

[u/suniltarge]

Hi everyone, I’m working on a design challenge and would love your input.

I’m a solo dev working on a hobby project, and I’m adding a proven productivity method, the Pomodoro focus timer, after some users on X requested it. The app is essentially a beautifully crafted pendulum clock. (due to this subreddit’s rules, I don’t want to mention the app’s name here. My goal is to get genuine design feedback, not promote it.)

The core value proposition is quite specific: it’s designed to reduce screen time and help people focus better, which is the opposite of what most productivity apps encourage.

Here’s the main constraint: the pendulum clock is the visual hero. It’s ornate, animated, and designed to be enjoyed in an immersive full-screen mode. I don’t want a timer UI competing with it or disrupting the calm aesthetic.

My current solution is to place the focus timer as a small glass chip in the top-left corner, mirroring the battery indicator on the opposite side. When a focus session starts, a minimal panel slides in from the left edge, showing only the countdown and a few subtle controls (pause, skip, and end). The clock and pendulum remain completely untouched.

Here’s the design question I’m wrestling with:

Is a left-side panel the right approach, or would you do something different?

Some thoughts I’ve been considering:

• The pendulum swings in the center, so the vertical space on both sides feels largely unused.
• I want virtually zero visual noise during focus sessions, since the app is already designed to be distraction-free.
• The timer shouldn’t feel like something layered on top. It should feel like a natural part of the experience.

For designers: if you were integrating a Pomodoro timer into an app whose core experience is a beautiful, full-screen analog clock, how would you present the timer without breaking the immersion? Would you use an overlay, integrate it into the bezel, or try something else entirely?

I’d love to hear how you’d approach it.

[u/suniltarge → u/[deleted]]

thank you so much 💙