Introduction
Provider of Things is an in-house app created by Brave New Design for people who care for more than one thing over time. It turns recurring care into a calm, understandable loop: see what needs attention, do the physical task, and mark it done.
The app is designed first for macOS, with a shared SwiftUI experience for iPhone and iPad. A Provider can be a plant, ferment, filter, appliance, instrument, aquarium, piece of gear, or anything else that needs care from time to time.
Project Overview
Provider of Things was designed around a simple distinction: the Provider is the thing, and a Care Task is the action. A single Provider can have independent tasks such as Water, Fertilize, Clean, Replace, or Check, each with its own schedule and completion history.
The result is a personal care system that feels lighter than a general task manager. It focuses on the next useful action instead of adding projects, streaks, scores, or productivity pressure.
Objectives
- Make recurring care easy to remember
- Put the most useful answer first: what needs attention today or soon.
- Use friendly timing such as Due today, Coming up, and Last done.
- Keep care tasks independent
- Let one Provider hold multiple actions without combining their schedules.
- Preserve every completion as history so the user can understand what was done and when.
- Build a native Apple experience
- Use SwiftUI, SwiftData, NavigationSplitView, native forms, sheets, menus, and system controls across macOS, iOS, and iPadOS.
- Offer a personal visual identity through an emoji, SF Symbol, selected photo, or Apple Image Playground when available.
- Respect personal data
- Keep the product account-free, local-first, and free of advertising, tracking, or a custom data server.
Design & Development Highlights
- Needs Attention: The default destination surfaces Care Tasks that are due, coming up, or past due, with the Provider, action, timing, and completion control together.
- Simple scheduling: Users can choose days, weeks, months, years, or no schedule for manual tracking. The schedule remains understandable instead of becoming a complex calendar rule system.
- Completion history: Every completion is retained as an event. Completing Water does not change Fertilize, and Undo can target the exact completion that was just created.
- Personal identity: Each Provider can use a native symbol, emoji, photo, or Image Playground illustration, so a list of plants, gear, and home items is easy to scan at a glance.
- Local-first Apple architecture: SwiftData provides the local model and the app is prepared for private Apple ecosystem sync where the build and iCloud configuration support it. No separate Provider account is required.
Reflection & Takeaways
Provider of Things shows how a small utility can feel personal without becoming complicated. By centering the experience on care rather than task management, Brave New Design created room for a gentler interface, clearer language, and a more useful sense of time.
Provider of Things is an in-house Brave New Design project for Apple platforms. Explore the Provider of Things app page, review the support resources, or contact us to discuss a focused software product of your own.