Posted May 19, 2022 by Adams Immersive
I started my hobby of programming “weird clocks” in 2017. I have dozens available online as web apps, free to play with and use, with zillions of customizations and color schemes:
In particular I have experimented with something I call “low-state” clocks. Not exactly digital, nor analog, the fun challenge I face with them is to tell useful (sometimes approximate) time with the minimum amount of visual information—while also being reasonably easy to learn and read.
For example, my Hebdomad clock tells time to the nearest 5 minutes, quite readably, with only 7 “lights” (binary bits of info). With a small addition learning curve, Cardinal conveys the exact same thing with only 5 lights! And for approximate time useful for casual timekeeping, Ternion needs only 3 lights to tell time to the nearest quarter-hour. (Many low-state clocks use a “parity” bit for the hour, which works along with your own internal time sense.)
Some of these are coming soon to my Playdate app! Labyrinth is a colorful version of Playtime's Blocky Clock, for instance.