Final project.
Background
With this new project, I have decided to base it on something I can relate to and something I love so I decided to focus on daily life issue, I spent a long time on BEHANCE, there are countless user experience and product design work, but I didn't find new idea, so I changed the research method and focus on my daily life, then I found a normal issue is a large group of people is hard to manage time, and actually the bad habit have adverse impact in myself. After that, I searched the existing product on the internet, and I found a large number of the app made for manage time by several methods. When I finished the background research and used XMIND to make the information to be visual graphic. According to the function of the app I researched before, I brainstormed the basic and prominent function, and then I made the 5 different groups of aim persona who depends on the main issue. I decided to draw a storyboard that describes a different kind of issue for reflecting how my product solves problems. After these I did before, I am brainstorming my app function for solving the aim user problem now. I plan to visualize the software in addition to the existing app in conjunction with some practical time-managed book methods so that it can guide users to master this habit in the process of using. Then I will draw the flow chart to realize the basic functions of the software, then sketch the basic UI framework, and finally complete the interaction between color matching and UI. All in all, almost all the steps require different software technologies, including illustrator, sketches for vector graphics, and Photoshop for finished product landscaping.
In daily life, people always thinking things in every moment, whatever normal or ambitions plans, generally we always decision do something at any moment that is a common human thought. But it is hard to decide which thing should to finished now is more important, if there are many things in their mind, especially people usually prefer to do some interesting things for them, which means deciding what thing should to finished now, or wasted time is not important things, there always have a group of person faced these issue. Besides, whatever people finally chose which thing, people usually will forget another thing when he finished. If people saved todo list in their mind, it's hard to choose right thing in right time, even people know which thing is important because the person who chose things and execute things both is our brain, its depends on status and our feeling in that's the case.
Actually, I was thinking I should design something I found in my daily life and manage time is such a bad habit for me. So I was thinking should make a product to help t who still faced the issue.
Problem research
Why is time management important?
Essentially, good time management matters because it means two things: Firstly, you spend more time doing what truly matters to you. Secondly, you feel better about how you’re using your time. In other words, the better you do, the better you feel.
Research
Search survey research center about any manage time
1. Focus on your “why.”
Inspired by https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/better-perfect/201703/11-ways-overcome-procrastination
If you've been putting off cleaning out a closet, imagine walking into the closet when it is decluttered and how good that will feel. And consider how much money you will make by selling the items on eBay, or how those in need will feel when they receive these items as donations.
Solution: try focusing on why you are doing this task: What are the benefits of completing it? When performing a task, use a medium to show the user what can be achieved after doing this.
2. A theory from a book - Algorithms to Live By
Inspired by https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-to-manage-your-time-more-effectively-according-to-machines-brian-christian
I was finding a good manage time method on internet and I noticed a TED Talk about a theory that described how to like a computer to manage our limited time, and I was attached to the theory. The main theory described do not wast time may better than excessive time organisation.
One of the first insights is that all the time you spend prioritising, your work is time you aren't spending doing it. For instance, let's say when you check your inbox, you scan all the messages, choosing which is the most important. Once you've dealt with that one, you repeat. Seems sensible but there's a problem here. This is what's known as a quadratic-time algorithm. With an inbox that's twice as full, these passes will take twice as long and you'll need to do twice as many of them. This means four times the work. If we didn't noticed that and sometimes spent more time ranking tasks than doing them. So I would like a solution to guide the user to sort tasks in an efficient way. First of all, if you want to find a way to collect the user's usual time is spent on some things, and then through the data to sort out whether the user has spent some unnecessary time in some things, and then through the software to remind the user, according to the weekly The monthly periodic feedback every month allows the user to know and remind the user to gradually let the user control their time.
This is some of the products and methodologies I have collected that are helpful for my research:
Then I divided the main content of this video into three parts on here. It can help me analyse the video easier.
TED-1 Over-organization is actually a waste of time
TED-2 a example of computer saving energy
TED-3 Like a computer manage our time
I further summarised it according to the theory of TED, and gave a preliminary solution. 我认为这在后面的软件的设计中可以起到很好的用户引导作用。流程图解析如下：
3. Focus is really important
Inspired by https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/42211629
This research report demonstrates the TRN in human brain work for task switch, but it need 5-15 min to prepare to next task. It means if you would like to do several task in one moment will spend long time than normal as possible.
In the industrial revolution, Let the overall efficiency of society, because the division of labor has brought great improvement. To build a car, it takes dozens of skilled technicians to work around a car for more than 700 hours, and Henry Ford has shortened the manufacturing time to 12.5 hours by means of assembly lines.
The reason of the high efficiency is because everyone in the assembly lines is more focused than Original production method.
Unrelated interference information in the background knowledge will affect your normal thinking process, and even lead you to output wrong conclusions. These interference information have a proprietary name in the book Element Information Theory called: Noise, and this book published by Thomas M.Cover,Joy A.Thomas.
This is why many closed training camps are more useful than scattered learning, because if you enter the same kind of information for a period of time, you can use the same background knowledge to understand them, no need to switch back and forth, no "noise" The interference, your learning efficiency will naturally improve a lot.
Moreover, the mind is related to the background knowledge, your thinking will save the process of constantly searching for background knowledge, and now only the grooming, the efficiency of thinking will be improved.
What makes you unable to focus?
The first category: internal interference
Because human's distractions are born with them. In ancient times, you must always pay attention to the surrounding environment. Every change, every call, and even every change in smell, you need to pay attention, or you will lose your life. It can be said that always paying attention to all the information around us is the habit of engraving in our genes. If you have done meditation, when you start to carefully observe your inner thoughts, you will find that all kinds of thoughts come out one after another, and you can’t stop... This is also the nature of the brain.
The second category: external interference
Others need you，
Friends ask you to have a meal?
What are you looking for?
Brothers need a conversation?
Various App reminders constantly?
The mobile phone has brought your distance closer, but it has broken your living space.
The specific ways to focus:
To solve the problem of nature, we can only use another nature to fight against him! In the long-term evolution of human beings, there are two kinds of things. When they appear, our nature will naturally switch to a state of concentration, and you will find it difficult to distract yourself.
First, get rid of internal interference: choose things that can focus
1. Escape from fear
When we are facing threats, we will gather attention in an instant. For example, there is a lion coming to you in front of you. There is no protective device around you. Do you still think about the evaluation of friends in the social applications? Or think of the warm sands of the Maldives?
will not!
You will only focus all your attention on this moment, just thinking about one thing in your mind: alive!
When there is no threat, we are distracted to alive. When the threat occurs, we concentrate and it also is for alive! There is a another method make you concentrate: limited time. For example, on the last day of the subject deadline, the efficiency will suddenly become really high, and you don't need any auxiliary methods to help you to concentrate on it, and long time concentration make you complete the task efficiently! That's because you are facing a threat: if you do not finish it on time the consequences are very serious!
2. Pursuit of pleasure
When we do something that brings us pleasure, we often enjoy it, we can’t extricate ourselves, and we don’t even notice the passage of time, like playing game. If you can't concentrate, it only show that you are not interested in this matter.
So what will bring us pleasure?
Two key points:
Deterministic satisfaction;
Uncertain rewards;
What is an uncertain reward?
In TikTok, Every time you slide to the next video, you don’t know what the next video is, it’s an uncertain reward;
Sustained deterministic satisfaction + uncertain reward = addiction
But also there is a condition to get concentration: ability matching.
This kind of satisfaction is acquired with certain abilities, such as playing games, you lose everything; singing, no one applauding; then you will lose interest because of frustration. And if this is too simple for you, like playing chess with a bad chess player, you will also feel bored and leave...The ability is too high, or too low, can not make you feel satisfied, not satisfied, not happy, no pleasure, your mind is not willing to concentrate and continue to invest... Therefore, to solve the problem of concentration, first we have to choose the right thing. Otherwise, the process of concentration will only make you feel pain.
When you choose the right thing, focus is no longer a problem. But what if this is really important, but what if you are not interested? That is to set a threat object and time limit for things!
Tell yourself: this 3 month project is only one month left and then it is dead line!
In my app, I can set an early deadline for each time-limited item, perhaps by asking the user or guiding the user to set it up. The purpose is to give the user a sense of time, but it must be in accordance with the user's achievable range. Come, start with an easy time limit, judge the effective time limit according to the completion rate of the user, and also give the user the difficulty to choose the entrance. In terms of rewards, you can create a reward mechanism to motivate users and set them according to the user's own situation.
Second, block external interference: create a pure environment
Now, there are no more interference from our inside, and we more focus on the thing behind us. But the environment you are in may not allow you to be so quiet, there will be others who need you, there will be him looking for you, all kinds of messengers, mail, phone, APP constantly disturbing your thoughts, interfere with these external environment. It is necessary to solve the problem of environmental interference. In addition to turning on the do not disturb mode, You need to create an overall environment that will help you get into a state of concentration. It is built by the following three steps:
Third, pay attention to rest
A good rest is your most important logistical support.
This is the power of concentration, In my product, I would like to think a function force user try concentrate finish one thing in short period as possible.
4. Questionnaire making and report
Report:
I put the oringinal website report below.
The results of the questionnaire show that:
Nearly half of the people often don't know what they should be doing and often delay the more important things;
It also seems that about 80% of people suffer from procrastination and inefficiency.
5. Functional Brainstorming
A.
b.
c.
then I made flow chart that is about the general process of the app:
I used different colour shows the main process which is directer. After this, I start to thinking about the grafical user interface.
6. Designer's work on BEHANCE
IDEA: Flat design helps display more different information in a limited interface
so I tried makeing some flat design on user interface:
You can see the every flat that is directer shows the informational detail of every task below.
After this Wireframe, I made the first one interface, and the effection is very direct that is reached my first aim.
Icon and name of App: Freedom
But I noticed there is a digital lane looks like a old fashionable style of interface, and also I thought if there must have a lane to saperate the top and others area, I did these work:
was changed the lane to be like this
I like the change, because it not only have oringinal function, and also be a instrument panel in every interface.
Finaly, I made all of these interface.
Then I am working on my poster that is bout the function and others.
Theory to be graphic
1.
I did some change:
2.
Assistance
I thought these theory is hard to understand by users, so I begging start making these proceses of flow chart to be graphic user interface. Interface not only directer than flow chart theory, and also it is a new way to guide user to involuntarily learning useing app.
This is the first trying in interface.
The idea from a game called ReignsGot.
This game can make user immersed in a conversational scene, so I made the one of conversation trying to guide user learning my app's habit quiker and easier as possible.
It looks to good purpose, so I continue making the whole process of the Guidance Interface.
and then, I made the interactive, like moving card to chooce user's feeling.
The whole interface process of assistance
Accroding my research before, I made the White Noise functional interface.
The final outcome:
TEXT for EXHIBITION
Wei Zhang (James)
Freedom
In general, people have too many things they need to think about. When they remember one thing, they will forget another.
Additionally, people find it is hard to prioritise: especially in the busy world of today.
For this reason, I have created ‘freedom’, an app which helps people collect together their to-do lists.
I investigated the vast majority of existing software on the market, except for the standard to do list App, which is based on The Eisenhower Method, but my research shows it just used for more strategic thinking about life, but it is not suitable for daily tasks. My survey report of sixty people shows that nearly half of the people often don't know what they should be doing and often delay the more important things, it also seems that about 80% of people suffer from procrastination and inefficiency.
I researched the existing theory further, and as a result: I made this humanity app for daily event processing, it can manage tasks more efficiently and improve time utilization efficiency.
UAL (LCC) London College of CommunicationBA (Hons) User Experience Design
1. USER INTERFACE
2. Assistant Functional Flow chart
3. LOW-FI FLOWS & Functions
Final written evaluation
I believe that I achieved my purpose that is making an app to help people easier manage time. In the early period, the research of time management issues and personal survey report of sixty people shows the large percentage of public concern, like procrastination and inefficiency. After I classify three personas who are suffering from different problems of organising time. Therefore, some method and time management theories that I collected in order to solve that. However, graphics form is complicated. Firstly, making flow chart in order to achieve the relevant theories and functions. Then after massive sketch and brainstorming, the positive feedbacks in my presentation made me more confident. The most difficult obstacles are digital transformation. These theories about manage time are complicated and Incomprehensible. After I understood the specific meaning, and I need to think about the feasibility of this method. In the step of brainstorming transform opinions to be a graphic interface. In order to that, I draw a flow chart to demonstrate the app of working mind map, after I approved it is useful, sketching a fancy interface is easier to understand. However, some methods are not accepted on an interface, which spent me extremely long time than other steps. I successful realise the interface of the graph theory, which let the user more comfortable to focus on dealing tasks. The users are able to skimming the tasks details in the new interactive flat design. The questionnaire of 60 people
inspired me, like some unpopular app’s function will be helpful for themselves. The most effective aspects of the project are the interface, graphics interface always easier understand and accept by people, in our era of information explosion，attractive information is really important, like this project transformed theories to be an interface. The interactive method can easier guide user which is more intuitive. I belive these work proved my ability on User Experience Design. However, if I did the project again, I would spend more time focusing on how to making the interface more concise and clear. In this finished project, I created the main function called assistant to teach the user how to handling tasks, but I think the best user experience should like to be a no guiding interface, and the user can easier understand how to use the app. I probably will redesign the assistant in the future.
Bibliography:
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