BusyBee
Busy Bee is a productivity application that helps people accomplish their daily tasks. Blocks out social media distractions and offers motivational breaks to refresh your mindset.
Role
Product Designer
UX Researcher
Tools
Figma
Adobe XD
Invision
Miro
Timeline
July - November 2021
PROJECT
Since the pandemic began, studies showed a decrease in students' academic performance during remote learning and the impact it had on their mental health.
GOAL
To create a platform to increase users’ productivity by managing their focus and offering meditation resources to better their mental health.
SOLUTION
Having Options & Choice - One Size Does Not Fit All
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Time Boxing Calendar view allows users to accomplish a single task at a specified duration of time
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Priority List sorts the tasks and maximizes productivity effectively by working on difficult tasks first
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Users will feel in control which is the biggest driver of motivation and self-discipline and helps overcome procrastination
Check-In On Your Headspace
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Manages user’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviors and reduces stress by allowing users to stay in tune with their mental health and wellbeing
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A stress management tool that helps users take a break and recharge their minds to keep going
Block Out Distractions
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Eliminates time spent on social media to allow users to be more productive
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Helps free up your brain to stay focused
Let There Be Fun!
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Adding a game to increase user engagement
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Incentivizes users to complete their tasks and rewards users by having fun
RESEARCH
To understand the context of the problem, I conducted secondary research, screeners surveys, 6 user interviews, and competitor analysis.
I began with secondary research to learn more about the users, I found studies showing that many students were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in remote learning classrooms worldwide. Students often found themselves distracted by their devices and their mental health declined due to limited social interactions.
As a result, students had a poor academic performance. Oftentimes, productivity applications allow users to add a task to their To-Do list, set a timer, and mark their completed task.
Screener surveys and user interviews of student feedback were collected to understand the user behavior and insights into their experiences as a student in a remote learning setting.
To continue my research, I did a competitor analysis to get a better picture of the productivity applications on the market. I found that these competitors only focus on one feature which is to create a To-Do list, it lacked the support of helping users stay focused.
The missing key factors were the user’s interaction with their devices and mental well-being when accomplishing their tasks.
DEFINE
Based on the research, I created personas using the key findings and insights using some of the pain points of students having trouble staying focused on their tasks due to distractions and/or mental health causing poor academic performance. Followed with user stories to help develop my product solution to address some of the important productivity features that were missing on the market.
IDEATE
Through defining the user stories and personas, I combined the user flow and low-fidelity wireframes to create a wire flow. I created the basic blueprints of the BusyBee application from onboarding, home, to-do list, distractions, and focus mobile screens.
PROTOTYPE
Guerilla testing was conducted on the mid-fidelity wireframes that I created from the webflow mobile screens to map out the information architecture designs. In this process, iterations were made to the wireframes to ensure the red routes were clearly identified and eliminated any usability obstacles in the user experience.
To-Do List Screen
Findings
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Cluttered and hard to digest
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Unclear UX to create a task
Iterations
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Simple UX path for To-Do List
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Offer 2 view options - Calendar & Priority List
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Clear floating action button
Create a Task
Findings
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Unfamiliar verbiage "Repeat"
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Not enough customization
Iterations
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Changed verbiage to "All-Day"
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Users can enter the date & time
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Label colors to personalize tasks
To-Do List - Task UI
Findings
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Lacks visual design
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Didn't show priority features
Iterations
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Label color is shown on each individual task
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Shows the level of priority
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Implemented a Start button
TEST
After making changes in the red routes to improve the UX, I went ahead and created high-fidelity wireframes. Two rounds of usability testing were conducted with 5 participants in each round. Testing the high-fidelity prototype, helped validate the product’s goal. It helped pinpoint any usability issues to improve the design of the productivity app.
10 Usability Testing Insights:
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Intuitive To-Do List when asked to input tasks
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Unfamiliar with the verbiage "Motivational Breaks" and "What are Motivational Breaks?"
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Unaware of unlocking a game once all tasks are completed
Unfamiliar Verbiage
Unlock the Busy Bee Game
FINAL DESIGN + TAKEAWAYS
This was my first product design project from start to finish. I enjoyed the experience despite, encountering some challenges in the red routes wireframing phase to tie the UX into my framework. I learned it's better to get inspiration and test out other apps instead of recreating a new learning experience for users when I can optimize the current UX procedure and apply it to my design.
If I had more time, I would create an onboarding page for users to better understand the Busy Bee productivity app. This will reduce any unfamiliarity with the verbiage or game feature that can be used to help user’s improve their productivity.
