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Timely: Productivity App
The Issue
As students in college we have first hand experience with issues surrounding productivity and motivation during the pandemic.
With an increased amount of work to keep track combined with one less avenue of communication, it became incredibly difficult to differentiate between our leisure and productivity times. We decided that we could help keep track of how to use our time & brain power efficiently. Taking inspiration from organizational tools such as Google Calendar & Notion, we decided to add a more interactive set of features to help with time management & productivity.
What
Timely is a tracker that helps organize your tasks from most important to least important in order to help you accomplish more throughout your day. The app has features allowing the user to block out their most distracting apps, as well as a pomodoro timer to help the user stay on track and complete their tasks faster.
Challenges & Learnings
The biggest challenge we ran into was trying to brainstorm & share ideas without being in person, while still getting used to each other's ways of working, as we met for the first time. Another challenge was achieving a cohesive look for the app as a group, given harder communication with not being in person.
In facing problems with displaying certain features, we were able to brainstorm more creative displays in different manners. Through that process, we learned many different ways a single attribute of a design can be presented, whether it is through a scroll, an overlay, or a simple switching of screens.
How
Within a team of 3 undergraduate students across the U.S. (whom I'd met for the first time virtually at the start of this project), we ideated, developed, and built out our app concept across the span of 2 days for BU FORGE's Catalyst 2021 design-a-thon. Our work flow consisted of:
• Brainstorming all of our ideas & sketches on a collaborative Google Doc to highlight the helpful features for users
• Organizing our project management work split with Trello
• Utilizing JamBoard to create our initial user flows
• Executing our designs in Adobe XD
The Inspiration
We decided that we could help keep track of how to use our time & brain power efficiently. Taking inspiration from organizational tools such as Google Calendar & Notion, we decided to add a more interactive set of features to help with time management & productivity.
What's Next?
We would've loved to explore providing a variety of timer options that users can use besides the Pomodoro method. We'd update the app to allow push notifications reminding the user to start working on an urgent task. For the timer screen, the addition of a checklist would be helpful so that the user can cross off tasks & view their progress while still running the timer in the middle of its break/work phases. We’d also provide users with the ability to view their monthly plans in a calendar view.
The Final Prototype
Click around to explore!
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