Case study

Blackout

Design / Development / Marketing, 2026

A screen-time app that doesn't ask nicely. Blackout locks distracting apps and sites behind a hard, scheduled shutdown.

Problem Statement

Most screen-time blockers put a switch in your hand and trust you not to flip it. That trust runs out by evening.

Project Goal

Replace the switch with one recurring schedule, enforced by iOS itself rather than willpower, configure it once, and blocking starts and ends on the system's clock, whether or not the app is even open.

My Role

End-to-end UI/UX and SwiftUI development, covering the visual system, interaction design, and the build itself.

From wireframe to a working build

The dashboard went through several rounds of wireframing before landing on its current shape: a near-monochrome interface where a single red accent is reserved for the active state, destructive actions, and the wordmark, so nothing else on screen competes with it. From there it moved into SwiftUI, built directly against Apple's Screen Time and Family Controls APIs instead of a custom-drawn lock screen, and tested against the edge cases most schedule apps skip, like saving a new schedule while the current time already falls inside its own window.

One state, computed live

The dashboard shows exactly one of three states at a time, recalculated from the schedule and the system clock every time it opens rather than from a cached value, closing the app, restarting the phone, or coming back a week later always shows the truth instantly.

Nothing happens by accident

A single accidental tap shouldn't undo a schedule set on purpose, so both exits are held rather than tapped, a 1.5-second hold for the one Quick Break a session allows, and a 5-second hold to end a session early, deliberately uncomfortable so it's never an idle reflex.

One recurring schedule

Setup is the most conventional-looking screen in the app on purpose, apps and categories, specific websites, a start and end time, and a weekday pattern, all editable right up until a window goes active, at which point the schedule locks along with everything else.

What I'd push further

• A shared/family mode, one schedule enforced across a household's devices
• Gentler onboarding for the first blackout, before the countdown feels earned
• An end-of-week summary that turns the block log into something worth reading