our.ly
A new timeboxing app that enables friends to help each other stick with their schedules
My role consisted of conducting user interviews and usability testing, design studio, wireframing, user flows, and specifications documentation.
Our team of four initially decided to create a timeboxing app, specifically for days off. We believed that a day off from work, from emails, from social media was essential to mental health, a work-life balance, as well as satisfaction in the workplace.
After three rounds of iterations, and two rounds of usability testing, we ultimately changed our app into a scheduling app, with a social accountability component. Here is our final design.
Why create this app?
First, we did some research.
We started the research by conducting some research on existing scheduling software, such as iCal and Google Calendar, as well as scheduling and list apps for iOS. We wanted to understand which platforms are successful, and why, as well as understand which platforms are not successful, and why. This research gave us the understanding of what features users would expect on a scheduling app.
Before interviewing, we created a screener survey. We interviewed 6 people, out of the 29 respondents. Our team needed to find people who would be interested in a new scheduling app - one that could help reduce procrastination and help people organize their schedules better.
We found that overall users who struggle to make a balance between social life and work life.
How to define user?
We started the research by conducting some research on existing scheduling software, such as iCal and Google Calendar, as well as scheduling and list apps for iOS. It is so important to understand which platforms are successful, and why - as well as understand which platforms are not successful, and why. This research gave us the understanding of what features users would expect on a scheduling app.
Before interviewing, we created a screener survey. We interviewed 6 people, out of the 29 respondents.
Our team needed to find people who would be interested in a new scheduling app - one that could help reduce procrastination and help people organize their schedules better. We found that overall users who struggle to make a balance between social life and work life.
Affinity Mapping
My team used affinity mapping to develop our insights from our user interviews to better understand our users and design for them. The insights from the sections above came from our affinity map below.
Design process
Before creating the wireframes, we conducted a design studio to develop the structure and core functionality of the app. We conducted feature prioritization and made the finalized hand sketches.
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First Iteration
We focused on creating key screens that include: homepage, social page, task creation, and calendar. The centerpiece of this iteration is the “garden” on the homepage and profile page, as well as the “Holistic Pie.” Our vision was to make a visual representation of the user’s and user’s friends’ accomplishments by growing a garden. Each of the elements: the flowers, bees, grass - represent some specific accomplishment. The Holistic Pie is a breakdown of all the activities from the previous week. The social page features an ongoing feed of friends’ accomplishments, as well as a feed of the user’s groups’ accomplishments.
Second Iteration
Participants had difficulty making the connections between the garden and accomplishments. They loved the holistic pie, but wanted more information. For this iteration, we decided to focus on elaborating on the social tab, change the labeling on the holistic pie (into hours), and add more details to the task creation page. We also came up with the concept of enabling every group member to have accessibility to the calendars of every other group member, to facilitate group accountability. Users can comment on each other’s event pages to communicate with one another.
Third Iteration
Users liked the idea of holding friends accountable, and wanted greater accessibility to group calendar from the Social page. We added more functionality to the event creation page, we created a separate calendar for group’s events. (Whereas in the previous iteration, group member’s events were accessible only by a side filter.)
Tech Specifications
Final Thoughts
The most challenging aspect of this project occurred between the first and second iteration: after finding that users could not relate to the "garden of accomplishments," we had to re-evaluate our goals for this project. I struggled to rethink how to enable the users to be held accountable to complete tasks. As a solution, we developed a more robust social aspect of the app: enable users to create "groups" of accountability buddies and enabling users to share their personal calendars with accountability buddies.
We overcame this challenge by reviewing the feature prioritization diagram and conducted another round of design studio. After some discussion, we moved forward and onward.