From the workshop.

Why TALLY has eyes

The first TALLY was just a number: the percentage of the five-hour session used, in big type. It worked, and it was easy to ignore. A number doesn't tell you how to feel about it.

So TALLY got a pair of eyes. They are calm when there's plenty left, a little worried past 85%, dizzy if you shake the desk, and asleep at night. Twenty-nine moods in all, drawn live on the AMOLED screen rather than played back from images, so they can blink, glance and react at any moment.

The eyes now come by every so often on the data pages, look around for a few seconds, then hand the screen back to the figures. It's the difference between a gauge and a companion.

The screens on this site are the real firmware

Every TALLY screen you see on this website is TALLY's own firmware, the same C++ that runs on the device, compiled to WebAssembly and running in your browser. Nothing is a video or a mock-up.

That keeps us honest: if a screen looks right here, it looks right on your desk. It also let us test every page, mood and gesture long before a new case came off the printer.