Lapis
Wanting to find a way to integrate the various and extraneous aspects of organizing life as a working student, I set out to create an all-in-one tool that would allow users to simplify organizing and managing their schedules and streamline communication relevant to their daily tasks and events.
User Experience, User Research
Problem
How might we improve the experience of users with busy daily schedules with a variety of ranging responsibilities and commitments?
When I started this project, the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the proliferation of millions of workers and students transitioning many of their activities online — it’s understandable that such a drastic change would result in many obstacles that might occur with people working from home.Even after many facets of life returned to normal as the pandemic receded, there were many flaws (exacerbated by Covid-19) revealed within the existing structures in place for students to actively participate in their classes and activities.
User Research
To better understand how I could simplify schedule maintenance and communication for students, I interviewed several college students with a variety of commitments outside of school. I broke down my research goals into different categories to better inform my design approach:
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What do students want out of a scheduling tool? How are they using existing ones?
What do students want out of a scheduling tool? How are they using existing ones?
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How are students finding and communicating with other people in their classes and extracurriculars?
How are students finding and communicating with other people in their classes and extracurriculars?
Through conducting user interviews I found:
Transitioning into a hybrid world where life happens both online and in-person makes personal scheduling essential.
Most existing calendars are very rigid in their functionality; most of them are usually being used to schedule “important events” like academic and work commitments.
Not everyone is on the same platforms which complicates correspondence.
Process
With my primary user research findings, I set out to design a tool that would allow users to better organize their schedules and holistic daily routines and streamline communication between people among a variety of jobs, activities and classes.
My low fidelity design included the following features:
- Landing page showing user’s daily schedule
- Calendar for scheduling
- Message functionality
- Log page where users could jot down notes for classes and work
- Statistics base to track usage patterns
After testing my low-fidelity designs, I decided to pull the log and statistics functions to drive more interaction with the scheduling and communication facets of the tool. I also gave users the ability to check off tasks and see their visual progress to help drive productivity.
Results & Next Steps
In the end, the Lapis app ended up being a scheduling app where users could keep track of their tasks and events and communicate with the relevant parties involved.
Throughout the design process, I was really focused on making this a really cohesive and easy-to-use experience for students that are bombarded by the plethora of events they have to deal with in a post-Covid world both in-person and online. I’d like to further explore how I could better design this tool in a way that would allow people like course instructors/managers to make announcements to their students/workers.
I’d also like to take the opportunity to examine how we could more smoothly integrate data from multiple communication and education platforms into a centralized application to support a wider demographic of users.