PlanPal App
Design a tool to help adults with ADHD manage their symptoms and improve their productivity
The product: PlanPal is an app for managing and planning and scheduling. The typical user is between adults between 25-65 years old. PlanPal 's goal is to improving time management skills and prioritizing tasks with a focus on ADHD needs.
Project duration: May 2023 to June 2023
I'm documenting the journey of my third UX project as part of the Google UX Certificate program on Coursera to provide a detailed exploration of my thought processes. Surprisingly, these articles have proven to be highly beneficial for fellow learners who are navigating a similar path and may find the workload daunting.
Problem
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lots of individuals with ADHD struggle with managing duties lists and productivity. Our tailored app addresses this challenge, providing customizable reminders, visual cues, and adaptive scheduling to enhance task management and productivity.
Role
UX designer leading the app and responsive website design from conception to delivery
Responsibilities
Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, iterating on designs, determining information architecture, and responsive design.
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Goal
Design an app that improves time management skills and prioritizing tasks with a focus on ADHD needs
Process: UCD
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
Empathy map
Persona
User story
Journey map
Problem
Pain points
How Might We
Competitors analysis
Ideation sketches
Wireframing
Low-fidelity prototyping
Usability study
Responsive Design
Iteration design
Empathize
To gain a better understanding of users, I conducted interviews with several individuals. By analyzing their responses, I was able to create empathy maps, personas, user journey maps, and user stories that helped me identify users' needs and desires. These tools enabled me to gain insights into the users' experiences and perspectives, which helped me design a more effective and user-friendly product.
Empathy maps
What user ?
Says
"I struggle to stay focused on tasks at work."
"I often feel overwhelmed by my responsibilities."
"I wish I had a better way to manage my time and tasks."
Thinks
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"I need help in organizing my thoughts and priorities."
"I worry about missing deadlines and disappointing my boss."
"Is there an app that can help me with my ADHD challenges?"
Does
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Uses sticky notes to organize her to-dos but often forgets about them.
Tries to implement time management techniques but struggles to maintain consistency.
Researches ADHD management tools and apps online.
Feels
Frustration due to constant distractions.
Anxiety about her ability to succeed at work.
Hopeful that the app can make a difference in her life
Persona
User Story
As a student working part-time and going to school(who), I want to to increase my productivity (what) so that improve time management skills, simplify complex tasks and stay focused on a task(why).
Define
Problem statement
Nila, a graphic design student with ADHD and a part-time job (type of user), needs to improve her time management skills and prioritize tasks (user need) to meet deadlines (inside).
Pain points
Struggles with time management and task prioritization.
Experiences constant overwhelm and stress.
distractions hinder her productivity.
Consistently misses project deadlines
Forgets important family events, like parent-teacher meetings and children's activities.
Ideate
How Might We
During the ideation phase, I used How Might We method to come up with ideas. for how to address gaps identified in the competitive audit. My focus was specifically on developing helps users prioritize tasks based on their energy levels, focus, importance, deadlines, urgency, and available time and capacity.
Competitive Audit
A competitive audit can provide valuable insights that can inform and improve the UX design of the product, leading to a more user-centered, competitive, and innovative product. I selected 3 direct/indirect competitors and rated their products in these areas:
1. First impressions experience
2. Interaction design through features, accessibility, navigation, and user flow.
3. Visual design and brand identity
4. Content through the tone and descriptiveness​​​​
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Prototype
Wireframing
Low-fidelity prototype
Test
Usability study
After designing digital wireframes, I conducted two rounds of usability studies. For the first round of testing, I built a low-fidelity prototype and had users test it to ensure that they could easily find and apply for opportunities while understanding the functions of the app. The feedback gathered from the first study was then used to guide the designs from wireframes to mockups before conducting the second round of testing.
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Usability study: : findings
These were the main findings uncovered by the usability study:
Tasks
People want easy access to tasks that specifically access to upcoming tasks.
Add tasks
Participants would like to add new task easily and also more clear indications of task's priority.
Extra options
People preferred to have a widget representing their upcoming tasks as on the home screen of their smartphones.
Mockups
Based on the insights from the usability studies, I applied design changes like adding a clear button from the home screen to add new task.
Mockups
Based on the insights from the usability studies, I changed icon of priority, so users can benefit from a visually interface that allows them to easily categorize tasks based on priority and deadlines.
High-fidelity prototype
The high-fidelity prototype followed the same user flow as the low-fidelity prototype, including design changes made after the usability study.
View the Plan Pal high-fidelity prototype
Accessibility considerations
Initial focus of the home screen on personalized categorizes help define the primary task or action for the user.
1
Clear labels for interactive elements that can be read by screen readers.
2
providing visual indicators, such as color-coded labels or badges, to highlight the urgency or importance of tasks within the to-do list view
3
Responsive Design
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With the app designs completed, I started work on designing the responsive website. I used the Plan Pal sitemap to guide the organizational structure of each screen’s design to ensure a cohesive and consistent experience across devices.
Mobile website
Tablet
Desktop
The designs for screen size variation included mobile, tablet, and desktop. I optimized the designs to fit specific user needs of each device and screen size.
Going forward
Takeaways
Impact
Users shared that the app made this app would assist users in managing their workload effectively, reducing decision fatigue, and increasing productivity by focusing on the most important tasks based on their unique circumstances and preferences.
What I learned
I learned that even though the problem I was trying to solve was a big one, diligently going through each step of the design process and aligning with specific user needs helped me come up with solutions that were both feasible and useful.
Next steps
Conduct research on how successful the app is in reaching the goal to improve users concentration and productivity
Add more educational resources for users to learn about managing their workload effectively.
Identify any additional areas of need and ideate on new features