Schedulfy
Existing scheduling offer little to users besides pretty views. They don’t offer users insight into their schedule. Many users of traditional scheduling applications end stop using them. Schedulfy is designed for college students, and is going to make it easier for users to input new tasks and will offer incentives for users to keep coming back (show you how you “actually” spend your time and rewards (page customizations and level up opportunities).
User analysis
The two classes of Stakeholders that apply to Schedulfy are primary and facilitating. There are two main types of primary users for our application- those who are trying to use the application as more of a gaming application and those using it for more of its gaming features. The facilitating stakeholders are us, the developers and designers of Schedulfy. Below we have created three brief personas for each of the mentioned stakeholders
Student 1: He is a rising sophomore at Northeastern University. He is studying computer science and mathematics. His schedule, though busy, is something that he is easily able to remember and execute. His past experiences with scheduling applications would only have lasted for a few weeks, but he always got tired of updating new information and didn’t see the benefit. Because he is good at managing his studies, he is able to spend much of his free time playing videogames, and derives a lot of enjoyment out of leveling up his virtual characters in the respective games. If he were to use a scheduling application in the future, it would need offer something that would engage him like his video games do.
Student 2: He is rising Junior at Northeastern University. He is studying Biology and hoping to improve his grades, so that he can go to medical school. During his last semester he failed one of this courses and barely passed two others. He has never used any time of scheduling application because they held no appeal to him. He is a light gamer, he plays the occasional popular mobile game (Candy Crush, Pokémon go, etc.) but doesn’t seek them out. He is hoping to find a scheduling application that is easy to use and that can help him do better in his classes.
Student 1: He is a rising sophomore at Northeastern University. He is studying computer science and mathematics. His schedule, though busy, is something that he is easily able to remember and execute. His past experiences with scheduling applications would only have lasted for a few weeks, but he always got tired of updating new information and didn’t see the benefit. Because he is good at managing his studies, he is able to spend much of his free time playing videogames, and derives a lot of enjoyment out of leveling up his virtual characters in the respective games. If he were to use a scheduling application in the future, it would need offer something that would engage him like his video games do.
Student 2: He is rising Junior at Northeastern University. He is studying Biology and hoping to improve his grades, so that he can go to medical school. During his last semester he failed one of this courses and barely passed two others. He has never used any time of scheduling application because they held no appeal to him. He is a light gamer, he plays the occasional popular mobile game (Candy Crush, Pokémon go, etc.) but doesn’t seek them out. He is hoping to find a scheduling application that is easy to use and that can help him do better in his classes.
Task analysis
Task 1: Create a new task
(goals, preconditions, and decomposition for creating a new task)
The reason you have the ability to create a new task is because the point of this application is for college students to manage their schedule in a fun and informative way. The only way for the application to be informative is for it to have up to date information. What makes Schedulfy different is that the creation of a new task will be easier than most schedule applications on the market. All new tasks fall into four groups (your four classes) and a few different categories (TA meeting, class, group proeject etc.). All of these will be options that you can select (instead of having to write them out every time).
(goals, preconditions, and decomposition for creating a new task)
The reason you have the ability to create a new task is because the point of this application is for college students to manage their schedule in a fun and informative way. The only way for the application to be informative is for it to have up to date information. What makes Schedulfy different is that the creation of a new task will be easier than most schedule applications on the market. All new tasks fall into four groups (your four classes) and a few different categories (TA meeting, class, group proeject etc.). All of these will be options that you can select (instead of having to write them out every time).
(Hierarchical Task Analysis for creating a new task)
Task 2: Spending in game earned currency on custom skin for profile page
(goals, preconditions, and decomposition for creating a new task)
Part of the gaming aspect of your application is that you “earn” currency and experience points for completing tasks on your schedule. Certain categories of tasks (i.e. taking a final exam, studying for an upcoming exam) earn more in game currency and points than other tasks. The reason we have the ability to spend in game currency on profile page customizations and other rewards is because the visual reward is something we think that our users will respond to. To do this you first navigate to the shop and then you select a category shop items. After you find the item you can buy it or keep looking to compare it to other item. If you do buy it, you have the option to continue looking for other purchases or to navigate to your profile to see your customizations.
(goals, preconditions, and decomposition for creating a new task)
Part of the gaming aspect of your application is that you “earn” currency and experience points for completing tasks on your schedule. Certain categories of tasks (i.e. taking a final exam, studying for an upcoming exam) earn more in game currency and points than other tasks. The reason we have the ability to spend in game currency on profile page customizations and other rewards is because the visual reward is something we think that our users will respond to. To do this you first navigate to the shop and then you select a category shop items. After you find the item you can buy it or keep looking to compare it to other item. If you do buy it, you have the option to continue looking for other purchases or to navigate to your profile to see your customizations.
Hierarchical Task Analysis for spending in game earned currency on custom skin(s) for profile page
Task 3: End of day user feedback
(goals, preconditions, and decomposition for creating a new task)
In order to make our reward system contingent on the user’s involvement in his schedule, at the end of the user’s day (or whenever they use their schedule next after the finish of a 24-hour period) they will be presented with tasks for that day as boxes stacked on top of each other. Swiping left will indicate that the user did not complete the task while swiping right will indicate that the user did in fact complete that task. We will use these metrics to compute currency and experience points earned for that day. Additionally, we will be asking the user to rate each of these individual tasks with an emoji, but that will be after this initial swiping.
(goals, preconditions, and decomposition for creating a new task)
In order to make our reward system contingent on the user’s involvement in his schedule, at the end of the user’s day (or whenever they use their schedule next after the finish of a 24-hour period) they will be presented with tasks for that day as boxes stacked on top of each other. Swiping left will indicate that the user did not complete the task while swiping right will indicate that the user did in fact complete that task. We will use these metrics to compute currency and experience points earned for that day. Additionally, we will be asking the user to rate each of these individual tasks with an emoji, but that will be after this initial swiping.
Hierarchical Task Analysis for end of day user feedback
Problem scenario analysis.
Problem scenario for Task 1: Create a new task
John is in the middle of his semester at Northeastern University and is starting to feel the pressure of this classes. He will occasionally, on a sheet of loose leaf paper, write a list of the day’s tasks, but he usually losses track of the paper after a couple of hours. He has thought of using applications like google calendar but thinks it is too much work to organize himself like that (“why bother?”).
Problem scenario for Task 2: Spending in game earned currency on custom skin for profile page
Frank is a good student and hasn’t ever used a schedule app in the past. Part the the success that he experienced before college was fueled by rewards that his parents gave to him for doing homework and excelling on exams. He really enjoyed the “realness” of Pokémon go and wants to find another game like it. He is not necessarily looking for something that encompasses Virtual reality, but something that is tailored to him and that offers him the same reward system that his parents bestowed upon him. Also, because he is a good student and is not looking for something that is going to interfere too much with his studies. Essentially he wants a game that is casual yet personalized.
Problem scenario for Task 3: End of day user feedback
Sally uses a google calendar for important class appointments and has even imputed most of her weekly schedule into it. She is frustrated by the fact that the calendar is not able to offer her feedback about what she should spend more time on. The rest of her digital life, Youtube’s suggested video list for example, is able to offer her insights about what she should do next, but her calendar is so static. She is forced to “judge” how she should be spending her time by the few grades she has gotten or some “feeling”. She wishes that there was a way for her to be more scientific about her schedule.
John is in the middle of his semester at Northeastern University and is starting to feel the pressure of this classes. He will occasionally, on a sheet of loose leaf paper, write a list of the day’s tasks, but he usually losses track of the paper after a couple of hours. He has thought of using applications like google calendar but thinks it is too much work to organize himself like that (“why bother?”).
Problem scenario for Task 2: Spending in game earned currency on custom skin for profile page
Frank is a good student and hasn’t ever used a schedule app in the past. Part the the success that he experienced before college was fueled by rewards that his parents gave to him for doing homework and excelling on exams. He really enjoyed the “realness” of Pokémon go and wants to find another game like it. He is not necessarily looking for something that encompasses Virtual reality, but something that is tailored to him and that offers him the same reward system that his parents bestowed upon him. Also, because he is a good student and is not looking for something that is going to interfere too much with his studies. Essentially he wants a game that is casual yet personalized.
Problem scenario for Task 3: End of day user feedback
Sally uses a google calendar for important class appointments and has even imputed most of her weekly schedule into it. She is frustrated by the fact that the calendar is not able to offer her feedback about what she should spend more time on. The rest of her digital life, Youtube’s suggested video list for example, is able to offer her insights about what she should do next, but her calendar is so static. She is forced to “judge” how she should be spending her time by the few grades she has gotten or some “feeling”. She wishes that there was a way for her to be more scientific about her schedule.
Usability requirements.
First Usability criteria:
User should not have to click more than 12 buttons to navigate to any feature in the application.
Second Usability criteria:
User should be able to locate and buy any shop item that we ask them to. They will rate the search ability and overall experience on a scale of 1-5 (with 5 being the best).
User should not have to click more than 12 buttons to navigate to any feature in the application.
Second Usability criteria:
User should be able to locate and buy any shop item that we ask them to. They will rate the search ability and overall experience on a scale of 1-5 (with 5 being the best).