UX Case Study: Keeping Up with...Your Time and Task Management
Overview
We held our breath, took the plunge, and nose dived into our first module assignment at bootcamp. Our project set the pace of what the rest of our 12 weeks would feel like — fast. What a coincidence that our project theme was to create a feature for time and task management. Solving the problem of managing other peoples time, while trying to manage your own time, personally put an interesting perspective on the subject.
With that in mind, by finding a solution to organize the way students prioritize their workflow, we went through the motions of gaining insight about how students felt and what real problems they faced, trying to meet expectations. We felt connected to the user more and more, as we got deeper into finding solutions, channeling a real empathy for what they were going through and what we were about to embark on.
Responsibilities
I collaborated with two of my classmates during the interview stage. Together, we prepared a discussion guide, recruited participants, and documented the results. After our interviews, we branched off separately, to synthesize and interpret our data.
Problem Space
We formally hypothesized the problem, making assumptions that it was difficult to manage time because students were busy with an array of tasks and deadlines that take up a lot of energy and time to accomplish, as well as outside commitments. Students want to feel successful and feel like they can hold the weight that is being asked of them. We formally thought, how might we provide students with an optimal method to manage time and tasks to accomplish their goals and meet deadlines?
Users
Our users were students, directly feeling the impact of the day to day grind. They all arrived on campus with their own set of unique experiences, demographics ranging from different ages, outside commitments/ responsibilities, and program focus. They all shared a common thread, that academia was their number one priority in this phase of life, pawing at the question of how they would balance their time and tasks.
Process
By going through the motions to help create a solution, we used the Double Diamond method to methodically collect, interpret, design, and deliver a feature that would be useful. Using it as a resource that could be easily integrated into their daily routine, our feature needed to provide a sense of relief when stumped with overwhelming situations. Technological advances and additions should equip our users with the right tool.
Research
We conducted 5 interviews, which gave us an in depth perspective into the students’ hectic daily agenda, mapping out what they already were using and their behaviors when managing tasks. Our questions asked students which platforms they already use to organize their tasks. One of them was an app called Wunderlist, which organizes tasks into folders and some used the Notes app to have lists. We also gathered that the Trello app was a valuable tool and unique, since you could directly share your events with others. During our interview, we asked intentional open ended questions, which got to the source of what students really utilize — time blocking. People also found the value of using google calendar, since it was universal throughout the scope of our audience and that the school was linked to it. There were some flaws from google calendar that were voiced, frustrations stemming from things like “too many steps!” or from fact that notifications were being lost or dismissed and then forgotten. We dug until we finally stuck gold. We couldn’t solve all of our users’ problems, but we did surface a solution which tied everything together. A few key takeaways were that:
- google calendar was “vital” and that all the students used it
- Time blocking was a management tool students consistently practiced
- People would fall behind and forget/dismiss their notifications and get lost
We were able to piece together these key insights and develop a persona, which focused our attention, pointing out who our target user was. We honed in on our problem statement, revising it by saying, How might we help our “PERSONA” manage their notifications from google calendar when they appear on their phone?
Design
It came time to start sketching and we came up with 3 scenarios where a potential feature could be accessed, asking 5 people to complete a different task based on those scenarios. We created a few labyrinths, trying to see how our feature could be integrated with google calendar.
Scenario 1 wanted to test out if the user wanted to access the app through setting, scenario 2 asked the user to go into the app through the home screen, and scenario 3 wanted to sift through an list of events, manage, and edit them through google calendar.
Based on my insights and my tested scenarios, we found out people thought the word “settings” did not sound natural, users enjoyed tapping instead of swiping, and toggle slides for guidance. One final user exclaimed that there should be a “snooze button” and there it was! Our answer. Users could find a solution right on their home screen ASAP and edit accordingly. Time management is all about efficiency and eliminating extra steps, effectively solving a problem in a timely manner.
Our prototype is quick and easy. It’s function is to remind the user that they received a notification. They can snooze the alert, which is pre-set, within 5 minute intervals, so users can effectively access and tap if they need to be reminded again, ensuring they won’t forget about their upcoming task
Prototype: https://invis.io/B8WA51SJYEC
A second round of usability tests were administered and people were excited. We gave another scenario where if you received a pop up on your phone from your google calendar, and you needed a little bit more time to work on something, you could simply edit the notification to remind you again.
Outcomes and Next Steps
User outcomes were deemed victorious with a success rate of 88%. People loved the fact that they could click and access it quickly. It felt useful, especially in this type of atmosphere.
There were recommendations to consider testing whether to swipe or tap on the notification and provide more snooze times. These pitfalls will be addressed and will be corrected in the future, as we strive to improve design. There could be a thousand ways to design a tool for someone and we might not be perfect, but at least one step closer to remembering that we have a meeting at 2:10PM!
