What Todoist Does Well and What Could Be Made Better: A UI/UX Critique
Todoist, has become widely popular for efficiently keeping track of tasks to accomplish. It’s best interface design choices are its plethora of affordances to guide new users to some of the most important features of any task tracker app.
1. Adding Tasks — The most important feature of any productivity app is the ability to add new tasks. Too often do we see ones that make is very difficult to add a tasks to the exact location desired. However, Todoist implements a copy affordance by having an addition sign, followed by a less opaque ‘Add Task’ text prompt to guide users to where they can or can’t add a task. Additionally, upon hovering over a button, a text box pops up providing more information and shortcuts. Adding
2. Editing Tasks — Editing tasks, in case of incorrect input or changing due dates, is also crucial. By adding the three dots next to each tasks created, the designer makes use of a pattern affordance to draw users to click. In many of the interfaces we use everyday, the three dots are used to get more information, thus it becomes intuitive to any level of user that editing the tasks would be done there. This supports the learnability and memorability of the app for both new and experienced users.
3. Prioritizing Tasks — Prioritizing commitments is often non-intuitive in many apps. However, the designer utilized multiple graphic affordances to make Todoist’s functionality clear to any user. By adding the 6 dots next to the tasks, it creates the illusion of a grippy surface, drawing the user to hover and drag. Furthermore, when the user hovers over to tasks, a 4 sided cross-arrow appears, further encouraging the user to drag and reorder.
4. Changing Task Lists/View panes — Another major feature of Todoist is the ability to have multiple projects and view panes (7 days, today, etc.). Designers have done a wonderful job advertising this feature using negative affordance, by changing the opacity when a user navigates to different pages.
Each visual cue is intuitive and obvious, making the interface very efficient and the workflow fluid. Through these affordances, it is clear what functionality the app has, enticing a new user to continue using the app. Thus, these features not only cater to new users, but also to experienced users to continue using Todoist for memorable and efficient interface.
However, there are a few design choices that I believe could be improved to make Todoist the best interface possible. The first is regarding how there isn’t an obvious affordance that suggests the ability to view multiple task lists. Only after using the app for more than half a year, I realized that I could hold down the command key and select multiple projects to display them simultaneously. With this feature, users could place projects that were perhaps related to one another side by side, and manage tasks in that way.
A possible redesign would be to add a copy affordance, similar to the ‘add task’ affordance, that prompts users to ‘add project’ to the current project list view, as seen below:
The second is regarding collaborative project functionality. A major selling point of Todoist is the team task management system, where different users can create tasks for a join project. However, the interface doesn’t advertise it largely, since it is hidden among several other buttons and menu selections. Thus, even if a person managed to ‘learn’ of this functionality, it isn’t very memorable nor efficient in the interface.
A possible redesign is to add a selection in the side pane, underneath a list of all the user’s projects, that is specific to shared projects. Thus, new users would immediately know of Todoist’s share project feature, and actively utilize it. However, I suspect that perhaps the sharing feature isn’t the most utilized feature statistically, since many people are more focused on personal tasks, instead of tasks that others have to accomplish for a project. Thus, not making the sharing feature one of the main focuses would be an appropriate design decision.
Though these improvements are what I believe would make Todoist better as an interface, I believe that these design decisions were made for an application that encourages productivity with few distractions. Founder Salihefendic wants to be able to “juggle many different responsibilities as founder and CEO without feeling overwhelmed”, which is reflected in his products. Thus, by not having the ability to see multiple project lists, it encourages the user to keep tasks prioritized and simple.
Overall, I really enjoy Todoist’s interface for its simplicity, which encourages prioritization and step by step tasks!
