How Timbot, the Time Management App Prototype became a Reality
Here is a glimpse of my creative process during the designing period of a mobile app prototype, a requirement for the Capstone Project of the Interaction Design Specialization offered by the University of California, San Diego, on Coursera. Designing and bringing this prototype to life was equally challenging and intriguing. It was mostly interesting because designing an app is mainly to meet human needs and the perspectives of those human beings matter in producing a design that has real utility. We had two choices in our design undertaking; to provide a design that encouraged personal or social habitual change or present information geared towards user needs.
Being a pragmatist I picked the information presentation option because it could potentially help people in their daily organizing and give them some joy. Necessity is the mother of invention, and whenever I read the creative process of one great inventor after another I wonder when my own eureka moment will come. This is mainly because most of the frontiers have been exhausted but my design class encouraged me to find something to invent, something that real people need and this is how I came to this project. My intention was to design an efficient time management app, based on the needs of career travelers who must depend on effective planning to meet their respective schedules.
Conceiving the idea
Time is a phenomenon we all wish we could control. Sometimes our worry is that it goes by too quickly, and most often we do not accomplish our tasks within our estimated time limits. This can lead to frustration and depression most especially if we work real hard at attaining stipulated goals. Time management therefore becomes a factor that a lot of people wish they could master and fully comprehend. This is why there are lots of ideas about time management both virtual and otherwise and that is why we spend so much of our treasured time trying to manage time itself and mostly failing. Although we are in the digital age revolution, when it comes to managing time, many people, millennials inclusive still depend on (and love!) paper calendars and agendas along with virtual scheduling aids. These bulky physical notebooks and calendars are practical for the home or office but for people who are constantly on the move, this becomes impractical. As a time management freak myself, who has used some of these time saving organizing mediums with little satisfaction, I set out to design an organizer that can actually help users manage their time satisfactorily.
This innovation will be more portable and handy than the usual bulky agendas and notebooks people are often shackled with. It will also be time and cost efficient since we all agree that time is money. The design will enable users to manage time in a fun, efficient and flexible manner plus it will be fast and portable. What is not to like, right? This was all in my mind and to design something that has utility value, it is imperative to talk to the potential users and this was achieved through online forums, research on blogs and real life interactions. The questions included issues pertaining to time management, like the preferred time management medium of each individual, and the challenges each medium presented. Of course, a cross section of interviewees indicated that they used both paper and virtual agendas to varying degrees of fulfillment.
These interactions gave me a broader picture of the problem than I had envisaged as well as potential solutions since most interviewees had great ideas about issues that could enable time management to be truly efficient, as I had tried to visualize. People usually attempt to manage their schedules efficiently to have time for spontaneous or fun stuff which might not be easy to come by because of a busy calendar. But when time management becomes a time-consuming enterprise in itself, it is time to overhaul and bring in some innovation which is my optimistic vision in this time management app design prototype.
Ideation
After a more informative view about the need for a more efficient, fast, flexible, fun and portable app for time management from research surveys, it was time to bring the idea to live on the drawing board. My drive was therefore to ensure that organizing your life shouldn’t be so cumbersome! How might I help those who are constantly on the move, (since business is a global initiative today) to better manage their time and meet their daily schedules? Designing a time management app that will help users categorize, prioritize and visualize their daily or monthly schedules would be the answer. Making it efficient, fast, flexible, fun and portable would be a bonus. This design will stand out from other time management apps and parameters because it would have a virtual as well as print option. It suffices to use the design to enter your personal schedule and then print a copy if you so desire. This optimizes time, and gives a user the opportunity to have a print copy of a monthly schedule that is far less bulky than the numerous bulky notebook systems that is difficult to track (now we are saving time and protecting the environment). To achieve this ambitious objective, the app must have options that allow users to take notes, set daily limits for bookings by assessing the important and essential items and enabling them to have multiple ways of visualizing their schedules.
Considering that many other designers have breached the frontier of time management before our present initiative, it was important to also browse through some of the popular apps that are purported to manage time. Inspirations for this design came from apps like Siri’s audio note taking function, Asana Project Management, Google Calendar, monthly planners, and notepads. The intention was to evaluate the strong points of each of these time management apparatuses as well as their weaknesses which will help the current design to produce a more integrated, easy, fun to use and satisfying time management app prototype.
Iteration and prototypes
Trying out prototypes was the next step and the paper prototypes at the beginning were practical because it gave the possibility of visualizing the initial idea and also potential improvements. At this point, I was very much intrigued with Siri, and I thought of creating an app that was more like a robot assistant that will help users track their calendars, take notes and update reminders. I didn’t stop to consider that voice recognition software was a thousand times more complex than I had envisaged. This infatuation soon hit a roadblock when it became obvious that in terms of GUI, a voice recognition software does nothing further than write the feedback that is generated vocally. I would need to work out a means to design a User Interface for a Voice Assistant App before progressing further into this idealistic project. Also, peer review about the feasibility of this robot assistant indicated that all the screens were missing and I will need the Graphic User Interface of the App to attain this goal. This was a complication that I couldn’t afford to delve into because of time constrains.
The peer review feedback sent me to the drawing board again, since it was evident that I had to redesign the app and do test trials again. This second testing phase was broader, that is not limited only to peer opinions; and this was a great illumination period. I got to discover so many errors and glitches in the design before it could even be called a finished prototype. This was an incredible learning experience because even when the test was for specific tasks, feedback came from different directions that helped as reminder of some of the important things that were overlooked. In some cases though, the feedback was about the obvious and seemingly trivial issues; but all these ideas made me more thoughtful and determined to try to design an app that could actually help people manage their time successfully. This was the moment of epiphany, when I realized that designing and potentially creating an app was not about what I wanted but is about what people need. The voice recognition aspect that I had initially thought would be the central concept of my design was now relegated to just another feature which I could elaborate on in the future but I evolved to thinking that this design was more than just another voice app.
User testing, response and redesigning
After working on the clickable wireframes testing for a considerable amount of time, I also realized that I was neglecting another fundamental user need. This was the importance of having a Paper Version option for the app; this was when the idea of having a projection widget that could enable a user to see their calendar on a wall or big screen came to life. During the testing sessions, this was the most likeable feature of the app which is quite ironical since a print feature in a Digital Calendar is what will appeal to users most. It was intriguing to me, as I realized that, users were looking for a package, a portable, easy and fun to use app with options that offered virtual and physical copies of their schedules. An app with this feature is something less common since not so many apps have brought a collage of digital and print in one parcel to consumers yet.
This is the part of the design that I intend to give priority now, especially because it is the feature that resonates most with potential users. As already indicated, this finding was also shocking to me, as I had not thought of giving so much attention to the aspect. Incidentally, thanks to test group feedback and more research, I realized that this appropriation of the virtual and physical features in one app is absent in most time management apps that are currently on the market. The necessity for an app with such a feature was therefore made manifest by the fact that over ninety percent of the test subjects; a cross section of which were millennials indicated that they used notebook agendas alongside their digital apps. In fact one of the most enthusiastic test feedbacks came from a nineteen year old Australian male, who reiterated that he will use the app solely as a means of putting a monthly schedule efficiently digitally and then printing it out.
Most of the test group opined that they will utilize the app as mainly an efficient means of digitally putting up a calendar of activity and efficiently editing according to priority and then printing out a copy for the stipulated time frame which was usually a month. The app is more than that of course, but I am satisfied that potential users are enthusiastic about features already.
Another option that was a rage according to testing feedback was the Tagging System. This feature enables users to prioritize tasks from different categories; by this means, prioritizing becomes easier when you consider those options that are on the high and low sections of the activity spectrum. High priorities will be directly related to work, health and family while low will be auxiliary itinerary that do not really affect the outcome of the user’s input or expected output if negated. This prioritizing option, gives users the opportunity to create time in their schedule for spontaneous relaxation tasks and reduce stress.
Interestingly, one of the aspects of the design that I faced a lot of problems getting right was the Sign In/Sign Up screen. I attributed this difficulty to hubris since I had considered it the easiest part of the design and allocated limited time and energy to it. During the test period, many users had problems signing up or signing in before I redesigned to make it more efficient. I ended up creating an AB test just for the Sign Up and Sign In Screen to find out which design was more effective.
Eureka!
After putting in considerable time and effort into designing a finished prototype, I am not saying that Timbot is groundbreaking, but this is a prototype of a time management app that brings efficiency to time management. After conceptualizing, designing, testing and redesigning, I am confident that this prototype meets the needs of potential users; especially individuals like digital nomads, business globe trotters, those who work remotely and more who are always on the move and are pressed from time and space. The emphasis is therefore on efficiency, portability, fastness, easy and fun to use. Timbot as a prototype has met these needs to a degree especially the fact that it provides both the virtual and physical options in one package. There aren’t many apps in the market with a collage of these two features.
If you feel courious, here’s the final prototype
Acknowledgement and appreciation
This is the end of almost two year Interaction Design Specialization at Coursera and I am ultimately grateful for this opportunity. During these past two years, I have acquired invaluable knowledge. The opportunity to put theory into practice through these designs is just one of the many avenues of learning that I have been exposed to during this course period. I feel very lucky to be one of those opportune to take this course and whenever I hear my fellow course mates complaint about the technical difficulties we had with the course platform, schedules and money, I am astound because there is nowhere else that one can learn this much from real change makers at this affordable rate. I know for a fact that a day’s workshop with the Nielsen Norman Group can cost up to $1000. Ironically, our Coursera option is a third of the price and more than eight hours long.
My learning experience was a fruitful one, which would not have been possible were it not for the The University of California, San Diego and the creators of the Coursera Platform. The HCI Certification has made learning affordable as well as erased the barriers of geography and finances that had hitherto been an impediment for people like me. Scott Kleemer has been such a great mentor who worked hard to give us all the guidance we could ever need. I also acknowledge all the guest lecturers and invitees who brought their worldviews and perspectives to inspire us among whom was the remarkable Don Norman, one of the gurus of User Centered Design.
