INTRO
Orbit is a time and task management app for students, featuring a clean interface and innovative AI-driven features to streamline task management.
TIME
8/2024 – 12/2024
PLATFORM
Mobile App
ROLE
Week View, Task Creation Feature Design
TEAM
5 UX/UI Designer, Researcher
Team Composition
Yu-Ting Chang
UX/UI Designer,
UX Researcher
Ming Han Cheng
UX/UI Designer,
UX Researcher
Xiaohan Yan
UX/UI Designer,
UX Researcher
Jonathan He
UX/UI Designer,
UX Researcher
Kanika Agrawal
UX/UI Designer,
UX Researcher
Led week view page design
Led day view page design
Led home page design
Home page design
Home page design
How did I proceed?
Impact
INITIAL CONCEPT
Productivity enhancement
At the start of the project, I used a moodboard to align the team on shared interests and identify a common goal: enhancing productivity. This approach guided me in designing an app aimed at improving organization and efficiency
RESEARCH
STEP 1: COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
10+
productivity Apps surveyed
Key categories, features, and business strategies
- Defined 6 key categories of productivity Apps to guide survey
- Identified unique features for feature brainstorming
- Analyzed payment models and target audiences to inform business strategy
STEP 2: ONLINE SURVEY
Building on the main categories and key features of current productivity apps, I conducted surveys to identify our target audience and refine key product features.
80
participants
Students twice as likely to pay for productivity apps
The proportion of students who have paid for productivity tools reached 40%, twice the rate of employees.
Have ever paid for productivity app?
Given their high usage and willingness to pay, we focused on student groups.
Four main categories of productivity apps used by students
- Time management
- Communication
- Note-taking
- Task management
Users prioritize paying for customization and AI features
Providing customization features and AI functionalities are the top two features that most users are willing to pay for.
We focused on time and task management apps due to their high demand among students.
STEP 3: USER INTERVIEW
Due to the lack of context in the survey results, I participated in interviewing 10 students to understand the specific situations, pain points, and needs during actual use.
10
participants
Simple interfaces and tailored features
- A simple interface and minimizing distractions are common needs
- Student groups had significantly different needs based on their usage habits
Based on the interview results, I found that the student group can be further segmented into two categories, based on the depth of their product usage.
Casual Users
Advanced Users
Personality
Avoid learning advanced features
Personality
Actively learn advanced features
Pain Points
Difficult learning curve and processes
Pain Points
Lack of specific customization settings
We focused on casual users, aiming to ease pain points and simplify advanced features to boost premium subscriptions.
Persona
GOAL
Create a time and task management app providing casual student users easy-to-use premium features to help enhance their productivity.
IDEATION
Use Kano model to prioritize features
I named the app "Orbit" and brainstormed its core and innovative features with my teammates. Due to the time constraint, I conducted Kano model survey with 20 participants to prioritize the features.
20
participants
Optimizing task generation and personalized services
Automating task generation and offering personalized services based on habits are directions that can add value to the product for users
Features for Beta Version
Manual task creation
Image conversion into tasks
Task breakdown assistance
Task prioritizing and scheduling
DESIGN
Design System
Home Page
Diverse views tailored to various use scenarios
I set the task-view page as the homepage for its clarity, while including day and week-view pages in the navigation menu for daily focus and availability checking.
Quick task overviews with predefined tags
I enabled users to add predefined tags to tasks for a quick overview.
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
Manual Task Creation
Clear access to task creation workflow
Users appreciated the new task button for its simplicity.
Flexible task creation with quick and customizable options
The dual task creation mode offers users flexibility to quickly create tasks without time assignments or customize tasks with reminders, routine settings, or attachments.
Streamlined layout with key inputs and ample text areas
I balanced simplicity and flexibility in task creation by combining key input fields with ample text areas in the layout.
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
Image Conversion into Tasks
Automatic image-to-task conversion
This feature converts images into tasks, with Orbit extracting essential information from the uploads.
Highly findable AI-driven features
I grouped these AI-driven task creation features with a shortcut separated with other task settings to enhance its accessibility.
Adjustable AI suggestions for user control
Participants appreciated the convenience of AI features but didn’t fully rely on AI-generated results. Thus, I added an edit option for flexibility in adjusting tasks.
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
Task Breakdown Assistance
Automatic schedule planning with AI-powered interactive support
This feature helps users tailor schedules to their needs by interacting with our AI assistant through the chat box for planning assistance.
Enhanced AI features clarity with first-time user tutorial
Usability testing showed users struggled to grasp features from button names alone, so we added a brief tutorial to clarify AI functionality for first-time users.
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
Week View Page
Efficient and personalized scheduling with AI-powered task sorting
I introduced an AI sorting feature that assigns specific time slots to unassigned tasks based on users' availability and work habits.
Enhanced task clarity with AI-generated title
To improve task identification, I added AI-generated summaries as task titles to the week view page, balancing clarity with layout aesthetics.
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
Day View Page
Day view tailored to user preference for broad time periods in scheduling
Concept testing showed our audience prefers broad time periods for tasks, so we designed the daily view with three sections (morning, afternoon, and evening), including one for unclassified tasks.
Intuitive task adjustment with drag-and-drop and hint icon
Users can drag and adjust tasks, but to improve discoverability, we added an icon after clicking to indicate the interaction method.
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
Pre-AI Sorting Habit Survey
Personalized AI scheduling with streamlined survey
I added a streamlined 3-question work habit survey with checkbox inputs to offer personalized AI scheduling and minimize survey abandonment.
Explainable AI feature with pre-activity survey placement
I moved the activity survey before AI Sorting to clarify its purpose and strengthen the connection with the sorting process.
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
High-Fi
Mid-Fi
Low-Fi
TESTING
3 rounds of user testing
I conducted six concept tests for initial brainstormed features, followed by two rounds of unmoderated usability testing on mid-fi and high-fi prototypes using the UserTesting platform.
User feedback
52.8
SUS score
in 2nd usability testing
→
80.3
SUS score
in 3rd usability testing
0
%↑
Praised for AI Features Enhancing Efficiency and Practical Usability
REFLECTION
Research-driven prioritization for effective design
The research revealed diverse user habits and feature preferences. Prioritizing user groups and needs before design helped set clear goals and craft effective solutions.
Balance pros and cons for comprehensive design
Throughout the design process, I faced numerous trade-offs, teaching me how to analyze the pros and cons of each solution and make balanced final decisions.
Clear instructions and prototypes drive successful usability testing
I faced challenges with unmoderated user testing initially. However, we learned to develop comprehensive test cases to ensure a seamless testing process.