FocusDriver - Turn your focus timer into a city taxi ride

Apple Maps Flyover offers a unique way to experience cities, so I combined it with a focus timer. Instead of watching time count down, you take a virtual taxi ride through New York, San Francisco, Berlin, London, Tokyo, or Shanghai. Choose how long you want to focus, and the app finds a route for you. As time passes, you get closer to your destination —a simple metaphor: we focus because we want to get somewhere better.

The idea for this app came to me when I first saw Flyover. The development process actually went more smoothly than I expected, but there was one thing I found incredibly frustrating: as a developer in China, I couldn’t properly use Flyover myself. So during development, I had to ask friends overseas to try the app, test it, and send screenshots and feedback back to me. In a way, I built a product that I couldn’t fully experience myself. After launching the app, I discovered something else that was a little awkward: there were already quite a few similar products out there. Apparently, my idea wasn’t quite as original as I had imagined. Still, I have some confidence in my design. I spent a lot of time refining the overall experience, and I tried to keep the pricing reasonable. I also think Flyover is naturally visual and works well on social media, so I built sharing rewards into the app to encourage people to share their own city journeys. Will it actually go anywhere? I honestly don’t know. But the product is out there now, in the hands of the market. Let’s see how far it can drive.

FocusDriver - Turn your focus timer into a city taxi ride

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