Project Brief/Research Goals

How to incorporate time to relax/step away from work into one’s daily schedule
How to avoid feeling overwhelmed by managing your work
Make a schedule/goals that can be realistically followed

Audience

Students (in different majors)
Students with jobs
High school students
Post-grads
Parents

Methodology

Survey
Interviews
Diary Studies

Biggest Contributors to Stress

Biggest contributors: academics, mental health

Tools used by participants

Digital tools were more popular because of: ease of use, convenience centralized, user interface, reminders

Interviews

I interviewed 4 people and all the members contributed to the interview guide
Guiding questions:
What do people use currently to organize their time?
How well does it work for them?
What are some reasons people have a hard time with procrastination/time management/self-care?
I synthesized the data from the interviews and survey into key insights

Reasons for
Paper Tools

• Writing down makes it
easier to remember

• Easier to visualize

Problems With
Paper Tools

• Organization is difficult

• Can misplace the planner

• Pressure to make it look good

Reasons for
Digital Tools

• More accessible on-the-go

• Faster to use paper tools don’t have enough space for all tasks

•Paper tools don’t have enough space for all tasks

Problems With
Digital Tools

• Huge learning curve with
certain tools

• Not centralized — plans can be scattered around

• Not always personalizable

Affinity Map

People use multiple tools for different purposes — because every platform has different functions to offer
Difficulty of use and organization were the main reasons people stopped using a certain tool
Biggest Challenges: distractions, allocating time, exhaustion, getting started, procrastination

User A

“It’s better to have multiple sources to remind me of assignments and dates because without that ease of accessibility, I easily forget the things I have to do.”

User B

“I use a planner for meal prep and prefer a digital version for easy changes. I use google calendar for blocking out my time. I use apple calendar for any events that I want kept on a shared family calendar.”

User Personas/ Journey Maps

We worked on the journey maps and personas together to create the most logical user base.
What do people use currently to organize their time? How well does it work for them? What are some reasons people have a hard time with procrastination/time management/self-care

Concept 1: Mobile App

This is the part I contributed the most independently, I created the concept with my team members, and I made all the wireframes.

Distraction-less

Mobile app that reduces distractions by locking selected applications and creating sessions

Positive Reinforcement

Increases motivation by offering personalizable rewards in tiers at the end of sessions.

Neg. Reinforcement

Increases motivation by giving the option for light-hearted competition between friends.

Creating a routine

Creating and saving types of sessions to avoid inputting the same applications each time

Wireframes

Concept 2: Website

Concept was developed as a team, wireframes made by Mia Goldberg.

Merge Calendars

A website that can merge scheduling information across different platforms into one master workspace. Many people use multiple platforms to schedule their time (Outlook, GCal, etc.)

Deliver instant answers

Users can upload calendars from different platforms and then see events and tasks together in one shared space Then, users can edit, share, download, and save the master calendar to the “saved calendars” page

Scheduling

Another feature is that two users can upload their calendars and check times when they are both available

Sync with others

Users can log in or upload their calendars and then view a synced calendar that displays availability matches. The synced calendar can be downloaded, shared, and savedIn addition, users can select one of the availability matches and send an invite directly from the website.

Key Takeaways

Interactive, fleshed out prototype

If we had more time, it would be great to create interactive wireframes and a design system to build out our concepts further.

Usability testing

We discovered aspects of our concepts that weren’t working for people that we hadn’t previously considered. See things from the user’s perspective with usability testing is very essential.

Iteration is key!

Our wireframes changed pretty significantly after user testing and we are sure if we had multiple rounds of usability testing they could have gotten even more robust.

Challenges

Narrowing down our ideas within the framework and timespan of the project: not everything we thought of could be completed realistically. Sorting through the large amounts of information we collected from interviews/surveys/testing in a clear and approachable way

Successes

We recruited lots of research participants with many different perspectives and things to say and then implemented them smoothly and efficiently. We often heard from our usability testing that people were really interested in our concepts and would definitely use them if they were fully realized and functioning.

More rounds in the future

Additional rounds of interviewing, surveying, testing, etc. would be very beneficial if time allowed for it.