Primary Research: Surveys and Interviews

In order to better understand user needs and behaviors for goal setting and task management, I designed and conducted surveys and interviews, and recruited PMs who had experience setting tasks and managing teams to participate.

The surveys and interviews revealed a few core user needs in task management. Overall, PMs reported the desire for a product that would not only help them stay organized and keep track of tasks and teams, but to be able to clearly see the progress they are making towards accomplishing the tasks as well.

In order to further hone in on a user’s experience in setting and managing tasks, I developed a customer journey map. The journey map reiterated the pains, gains, and thoughts featured in empathy maps, and provided a visual representation of the emotions that a person might feel while setting out to accomplish a goal.

Through the process of designing a journey map, I distinguished five overarching phases of a person’s journey towards setting a task and managing it: Defining it, Planning it, Delegating the task, Reflecting on the execution, and Completing the task. Developing a journey map was particularly crucial for identifying the pain points someone might feel — and the emotional “roadblocks” or “barriers” that one might face — in the process of accomplishing setting tasks and managing them.

Information Architecture: Application Map

Informed by both the primary and secondary research findings, I drafted an application map to organize content and features. I considered the priorities that research participants indicated as important — such as creating tasks and managing teams, having a calendar, and having reminders — and mapped how they might relate to one another within the information architecture of the product.

Sketches, Wireframing and Prototyping

The application map informed the key screens that I developed in the first set of low-fidelity sketches. These became the basis of the prototypes I used for the first round of usability testing. Based on the application map I had designed earlier, the prototype included the key screens needed to allow people to sign up for the first time, create a task, and assign the person responsible.

After outlining low-fidelity sketches, I designed mid-fidelity wireframes, which became the basis of the prototypes I used for the first round of usability testing. Based on the user flows I had designed earlier, the prototype included the key screens needed to allow people to sign up for the first time, create a goal, and create a task associated with the goal. I used InVision to make the wireframes dynamic, so that I’d be able to evaluate how people engage with the proposed screens and identify sources of user error and frustration early in the design process.

First Round of Testing

I conducted live and remote usability testing with people within the target audiences. As I moved into usability testing, I wanted to know the following:

• Would PMs be able to create an account, create a task, and assign to a teammate?
• Where might people struggle with managing teammates?
• What suggestions might people have for improving the interaction design of the prototype in order to make it easier to navigate and understand, and to make the experience of setting goals and managing tasks more enjoyable?

The usability tests highlighted a number of priority areas of improvement, including the following:

• Users wanted a way to clearly see active and inactive tasks
• Users were confused by the term “Trends” to represent the Analytics screen, and wanted the screen to provide some contextual information about the overall progress on tasks.
• Users wanted to be able to add reminders to a task when creating it, not as a separate activity afterwards.

Iteration and more testing

I iterated on the low-fidelity wireframes based on suggestions that had emerged from the first round of usability testing. I updated form fields within the screens for adding goals and tasks, and added contextual information about progress towards tasks goals to the now Dashboard screen. With a round of iterations in place, I set out to conduct a second round of usability tests.

In the second round of usability testing, participants shared positive feedback about the additional contextual information provided in key screens, and successfully navigated through the core tasks.

At the same time, the tests revealed a few additional key areas of improvement for the prototype that had not emerged in the first round of testing. One area of improvement was to replace some text with icons; people reported that doing so could ease their navigation through screens and improve their navigation speed.

Color palette

After reviewing my findings from the initial research phase, I observed that many of the competitor products have predominantly blue color palettes and evoked a sense of simplicity, informality, and friendliness. I experimented with color palettes and typography that would convey some of the same values and characteristics as competitor products, but would also convey reliability, productivity, efficiency, and organization — all of which, according to initial user survey participants, are key for tools that support task management.

In order to narrow down the choices of possible color palettes, I went back to PMs to gather their input and found that they had the strongest preference for the palette that incorporates green, yellow, and red. From there, I further refined the specific hues of the chosen palette in order to better reflect a sense of vibrancy and affirmative energy.

UI Design

After several rounds of usability testing and iteration, I designed the high-fidelity screens.

Key takeaway

It would be important to consider the design of Taskify desktop-based app. Although this project was scoped to mobile app design, the majority of user research participants sought products that can be synced across devices and work fluidly on both desktop and mobile devices. In order for Taskify to meet a core user priority, it would be necessary to design a desktop version in the future as well.