Featured Community Plugin - Today: Beautiful Date & Countdown

This post is part of a series, featuring the incredible work of plugin authors who grow the TRMNL plugin ecosystem with every contribution. The TRMNL team has individually selected these plugins and authors to be featured.

Today: Beautiful Date & Countdown

Community member med created the Today: Beautiful Date & Countdown plugin; here are their words on how it was created.

Why did you want this plugin to exist?

installing a date plugin on a TRMNL is almost a rite of passage. it’s one of the first things people reach for when they set up the device. if you’re going to look at something every single day, it makes sense today's date should be there. on a more personal level, i build because i'm obsessed with UX. i can’t not refine things. so taking one of the most common, simplest plugins possible and rethinking it through a design-first lens felt great :) a date is a tiny problem, but it’s also a perfect opportunity for my obsession to bring value to the people.

Why were you the person to make it?

you have my obsession to thank (or blame) for that.i can't look at something every day and not want to have it just perfect, especially when it's simple. simplest things are the most dangerous sometimes; they're very easy to accept as good enough.

Were you inspired by any other recipes or plugin creators?

since this was my first plugin, i spent a lot of time looking at what was already out there. there are some really solid recipes and a lot of creative approaches. i didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, i just wanted to reinterpret it through my own design lens.after building it, i joined the discord and was honestly impressed by the level of talent and experimentation happening in the community. great job guys.

What was your process for creating the plugin?

my process for most things creative is to sit down and figure out in an extensive way what problem(s) am i trying to solve and what would be the ideal solution. real life then comes into play and you try to keep and minimize the delta between the ideal scenario and the actual implementation to a minimum. in this example, a big notion for me was context. more than seeing the date, i wanted to get a deeper level of understanding of the context with just one glance.

What, if any, challenges did you face while creating it?

it was honestly pretty straightforward thanks to the awesome trmnlp tool. having live preview during development and being able to quickly switch between device sizes and settings removed almost all the friction from the process.when you have a clear idea of what you’re trying to build, having tooling that stays out of the way makes all the difference. it made the whole experience super pleasant from start to finish.

Did you learn anything you want to apply to future recipes?

the most important thing i've taken from this plugin is the dark mode dotted-matrix aesthetic that i’ve already started incorporating into my other plugins. i now have a daily unix tip, weather glance, and a world map “been there” dashboard; all matching this same visual language. i think it fits the trmnl purpose incredibly well. the high contrast works beautifully on e-ink, the dotted grid feels native to the device, and the whole control-panel vibe matches the audience using it. it’s glanceable, structured, and low noise.and yes… i am absolutely crazed about it right now :)

What is your favorite plugin that someone else created and why?

paperboy is the prime example of a perfect plugin for me. super cool idea, extremely clear signal, zero fluff. it does one thing and does it properly. big props to the author. the design probably looks effortless now, but i’m sure it took serious iteration to get to that level of clarity.