NotePoint is an efficient utility app that comes packed with an intuitive note-taking and to-do list feature to help users stay organized and productive.
Team
3 Designers
Duration
Jan - May 2023
Role
Design Lead
UX Research
UI Design
Tools
Figma
Figjam
Qualtrics
User research and analysis, understanding our user demographic's thoughts.
Context
College students develop a habit of prioritizing their academics above balancing goals, personal aspirations, and physical health. They frequently encounter difficulties in organizing their academic workload, personal goals, and physical health, which hinders their overall well-being and academic success.
The pressures of coursework, extracurricular activities, and the transition to independent living exacerbate these challenges, thus necessitating effective strategies for work organization to address these issues.
Findings
We conducted interviews with 6 college students and conducted a survey that reached 32 college students to gain insight their management of stress, time, and academics. The survey and interview results showed:
Many students felt moderate amounts of stress
Students had trouble managing their time when related to academics, social media usage, and health goals
Many college students find organizing tasks, goals, and coursework alongside their current activities outside of school challenging while also keeping up a good work-life balance.
Application of user behaviors analysis from previous research into high-level scenarios. Analysis of existing popular tracking platforms and platforms our user demographic utilize.
Allow users to use the app while adapting to various contexts, such as work, education, or personal growth, providing users with versatile tools that cater to different aspects of their lives?
Integrate innovative tools or techniques that encourage users to develop a consistent habit of note-taking and journaling for both productivity and personal reflection?
Incorporate motivational elements within the app to inspire users to set and achieve personal goals through their note-taking and journaling activities?
Analysis of existing popular tracking platforms and platforms our user demographic utilize.
Notion
Strengths
Includes many features and templates for multi-purpose functions
Available as both phone and desktop applications
Organized content style
Weaknesses
Learning curve due to the vast amount of visible and hidden features
Lack of guidance on how to use the program
Paper Agenda
Strengths
Traditional and pre-organized into sections
Tangible and quickly accessible if the user has it on hand
Not as distracting as a phone application
Weaknesses
Must be carried around and cannot be accessed digitally if forgotten
Must purchase another if it gets full
Does not send reminders or notifications
Google Calendar
Strengths
Good presentation of schedule with boxes for events
Allows for notifications and reminders
Separates additions into general tasks and events
Weaknesses
Not very flexible with what kind of information you can add
Apple Notes App
Strengths
Quick and efficient to jot down notes
Flexible and intuitive due to its simplicity
Picture and checklist options
Weaknesses
Limited amount of features
No category sorting
To better understand our user demographic, we created three personas reflecting the insights gathered during our research stage.
We also created high-level test scenarios and illustrated them into storyboards to outline possible user paths or activities.
Using the personas and the high level scenarios we developed, we completed a task analysis to organize how our stakeholders currently accomplish their tasks to better understand their workflow.
Because we felt like we needed more information before defining our design requirements, we sent out a second survey during this milestone that was specifically about organization tools. These were our findings:
Yes, this is a good idea.
Many students find organizing their tasks using various methods, such as planners, digital tools, or simple checklists, to be an effective strategy for staying on top of their schoolwork and extracurricular activities.
The importance of self organization
Users valued maintaining control over their task management. This translates to a need for tools that empower users to manage their own journeys without feeling restricted or dictated by rigid structures.
Simplicity and accessibility is key
When asked what people like from their digital or analog forms of organization, people responded with a diverse array of answers. However, many of them had one sentiment in common:
A simple and quick product that can be accessed easily.
After analysis of the results from the second round of surveys, we narrowed down our goals into the following:
Allow for easy and intuitive note-taking and task tracking
Promote usage through simple interface and easy interactions
Allow for an organized experience
After extensive research and analysis, we decided upon an app that follows the goals of our users and feature priorities made during the task analysis and usability planning.
Ideation sketches were created using the insights and issues gained during the research process, along with the feature priorities made during the task analysis and usability planning.
We came up with 8 prototypes, settling on the following 2 to implement into the final version.
We focused on cool colors to give a more relaxing feel while also choosing a dark theme to match the preferred color schemes our user demographic enjoy.
Final Design
User Testing
Limitations
Severely limited prototyping features.
Figma limitations (no video or text field input support).
Focused on gathering feedback to see if the user understands how to navigate between screens.
Found the product to be intuitive and reflective of their needs.
Would prefer this product over what they currently use (Notion, system default phone app, physical agenda).
Did not have difficulty navigating between screens using the Figma prototype.
Reflection
What I learned
How to do a case study: Being my first official full length UX design project, I had the opportunity to build the fundamental skills through this project. Using double diamond design model for the design process helped us organize our design process and focus our efforts collaboratively.
Collaborating with a team in a UX context: Everyone has their own working style. Working with a team taught me to cooperate with everyone's different research and ideation styles, allowing me to grow as a designer. It also taught me how to effectively communicate ideas to my team in a way that they could all understand.
Figma features: This was my very first full length Figma-based product that I designed. I watched a large number of tutorials on how to best use Figma's features that contributed to the overall success of the product's design and functionalities.
Areas for Improvement
Usability Testing: If I had more time I would've liked to do more usability tests to confirm if our user's needs are truly being met. While we have conducted user testing after the final prototype was created, I feel that we could improve upon the design by gathering a variety of users as well.
More Interactivity: I would also have liked to incorporate more efficient interactions in the Figma. Currently our prototype allows for users to click most buttons and navigate around the prototype, but due to our inexperience in Figma at the time, the prototype itself is not very efficient.
Final thoughts
Reflection
What I learned
How to do a case study: Being my first official full length UX design project, I had the opportunity to build the fundamental skills through this project. Using double diamond design model for the design process helped us organize our design process and focus our efforts collaboratively.
Collaborating with a team in a UX context: Everyone has their own working style. Working with a team taught me to cooperate with everyone's different research and ideation styles, allowing me to grow as a designer. It also taught me how to effectively communicate ideas to my team in a way that they could all understand.
Figma features: This was my very first full length Figma-based product that I designed. I watched a large number of tutorials on how to best use Figma's features that contributed to the overall success of the product's design and functionalities.
Areas for Improvement
Usability Testing: If I had more time I would've liked to do more usability tests to confirm if our user's needs are truly being met. While we have conducted user testing after the final prototype was created, I feel that we could improve upon the design by gathering a variety of users as well.
More Interactivity: I would also have liked to incorporate more efficient interactions in the Figma. Currently our prototype allows for users to click most buttons and navigate around the prototype, but due to our inexperience in Figma at the time, the prototype itself is not very efficient.
