List

Why am I working on this case study?

I've been giving some thought to calendar apps recently and made an interesting observation. There isn't much difference between a physical calendar and a digital calendar app. This realization underscores the potential for digital products to go beyond mere replication of physical tools.

The main issue with current calendar apps is that they only capture scheduled events, leaving out tasks that don't fit into specific time slots. This gap in functionality leads to ineffective time management and organization.

Some of the constraints I faced while working on this project include:

Time Constraints: I had a limited timeframe for both the research and design phases, which required prioritizing certain aspects over others and streamlining the process.

Resource Constraints: Access to diverse user groups for conducting interviews and user testing was limited, which necessitated relying on a smaller, less varied sample size for gathering insights and feedback.

Consider the Apple Calendar as an example. It essentially functions like a paper calendar, just in a digital format. This realization led me to find the main weaknesses in using a calendar for comprehensive time management. The primary shortcoming is that calendars only capture half the picture. Every person's life consists of events that are scheduled and can be placed on a calendar. However, there is also other items like tasks, that don't necessarily fit into scheduled time slots.

Todoist

This is why there is another category of app entirely for to-do list apps, like Todoist. They cater to the other half of our organizational needs.

I've realized I struggle with prioritizing tasks and sometimes forget to complete specific tasks for events. I want to understand the common issues and situations people face while trying to organize their lives better.

Insights from user research indicate that participants desire better organization and task management solutions that help them organize both their schedules and tasks effectively.

Imagine you’re organizing a team outing next week. You add the actual time of the event to your calendar, and also add a few related to-dos, like booking a restaurant, buying company t-shirts, etc. onto your to-do list app. Then, oh no! There’s a team emergency, the outing will have to be cancelled this quarter. After removing the outing from your calendar, you need to manually track down the related to-dos on a separate app and delete them.

Events and tasks are often connected, and need to be in sync! A good app should manage both.

This is a representation of the items that need to be done in the team outing example.

💖 They are all “items”

💖 Events are items that are scheduled, and can only be done during the scheduled time.

💖 Tasks are items that are unscheduled, and can be done at any time.

💖 Any task or event (item) can have sub-events or sub-tasks, meaning you need to finish the sub-item first in some case to be able to finish the main item

What am i doing at this time? Am I free or busy?

What things do I still need to do? If I have time, what should I do (in what order)?

To help answer the questions I’ve come up with two different views. The first one is calendar view that will answer the question “What am i doing at this time? Am I free or busy? “

Here's an example of the calendar view. The main event is a birthday party, which includes related tasks that need to be completed to attend this event, such as buying a cake and picking up a dress. Normally, subtasks like these might be added to the notes section of the calendar event, where they’re forgotten, or to a separate task manager, where they’re unconnected.

Additionally, there's a sub-event that must be attended as part of the preparations for the main event, which is going to the hair salon. Before heading to the hair salon, there's also a sub-task that needs to be completed, which is finding a hairstyle reference.

The second view which is the to-do list view answered the question “What things do I still need to do? If I have time, what should I do?”

In this example of the to-do list view, the list includes various tasks that need completion. Here, the main task is to finish the final essay. To complete this main task, there's a related event that must be attended, which involves interviewing Bob to gain some insights. Additionally, there's a sub-task that needs to be done, which is to read a research paper. This sub items are necessary in order to be able to complete the final essay.