DoToday
ROLE
Product Designer
DURATION
October — December 2022; 8 weeks
PROBLEM
Canvas, the service used for University of California Davis students, is difficult to navigate. Assignments are listed across several areas for students, making it difficult to keep track of priorities. The existing tools fail to easily organize all tasks into one intuitive platform
INITIAL THINKING
“How might we create a platform strengthening student’s time management to improve academic success?”
TARGET USERS
Students at the University of California Davis--where assignments are listed on multiple platforms.
PROCESS
Empathize
Research
Analyze
Ideate
Prototype
User Testing
OUR SOLUTION
Fetching system for all your assignments using Canvas API.
Easy viewing of your tasks alongside your schedule.
All Tasks
Starred
Incomplete
HIS019
GEL001
ECS032
New Group
DES117
GROUPS
45%
Tasks done for Mon Aug 10
Today
All Tasks
Overdue Tasks
2
See overdue tasks
Discover
LOOKING AT COMPARATIVE EXISTING PLATFORMS
I first looked into four existing platforms most widely used by students to manage their productivity and analyzed their strengths and weaknesses.
RESEARCH GOALS
01
Identify existing scheduling/task managing systems and their strengths and weaknesses
02
Analyze how students are currently tracking their assignments
03
Examine the efficiency and satisfaction of existing systems
04
Identity which organization layouts help students work the most effectively
CANVAS
+ Offers two viewings: dashboard and calendar
+ Tasks are directly linked to assignment page
− Difficult to differentiate between assignments, announcements and other files
− Poorly named assignments
− Overload of information
− Not a dependable platform for all assignments
GOOGLE CALENDAR
+ Integration of assignments with schedule, allowing management of tasks alongside events
+ Very customizable, can tailor experience to user’s preference
− Relies on users self-inputting every individual assignment
− Limited to google ecosystem
PHYSICAL PLANNER
+ Tactile experience
+ Minimal distractions
+ Highly customizable
− Lack of synchronization to digital platforms
− No search or retrieve tasks functionality
− Can easily get disorganized
NOTION
+ Highly customizable, can create different workflows
+ Integration with vast digital platforms
+ Supports media files
− High learning curve
− Potential for overload due to the flexibility notion offers
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
I then conducted a survey to gain a deeper understanding of specific student pain points, collecting 56 responses, and supplemented the research with 7 user interviews.
What platform do you use to manage assignments and your schedule?
42.1%
26.3%
10.5%
5.3%
5.3%
10.5%
Physical Planner
Google Calendar
Canvas
Memory
Notion
Reminders
“Sometimes it gets too boggy so I think there should be a distinction between daily schedule and turn in assignment schedule.”
“I think of things in terms of classes. I separate it in my head for each class instead of each day. It becomes too mushy and overwhelming if I’m paying attention to too many things at once.”
“I use an unreliable method right now, I wish I could separate assignments by class and have everything that's due on one page”
“You can't differentiate between things [..] that way I can feel more confident about what I need to do and what is expected of me.”
From this study I realized the importance of a highly organized centralized location for tasks that can best fit the needs of busy students to help ease the overload of assignments.
Define
AFFINITY MAPPING
Utilizing the research gathered, we created affinity maps to organize pain points and identify patterns in order to lead us to our solution space.
TAKEAWAYS
01
Students have different organization preferences, but existing task managers don’t adapt to their needs.
02
Students struggle to distinguish priority tasks, leading to feeling overwhelmed and inefficiency.
03
Students feel more motivated when they can visualize their progress, but most tools lack meaningful feedback.
THE SOLUTION SPACE
To address each of these takeaways, I established clear objectives to guide my next design ideations.
PAIN POINT
SOLUTION
01
INDIVIDUAL ORGANIZATION PREFERENCES
CUSTOMIZABLE TASK VIEWS
Ensure flexibility in how students view their workload.
02
DIFFICULTY DISTINGUISHING PRIORITY TASKS
CREATE DISTINCTION
Highlight high-priority tasks and show weights of assignments.
03
LACK OF MEANINGFUL FEEDBACK
PROCESS ANALYTICS
Introduce a visual breakdown of progress to keep students motivated.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
In order to understand how users progress through the platform, I created a comprehensive information architecture to organize all functionality points in their journey
Design
Phase 1
During user testing, I identified several key pain points that needed to be addressed in my design iterations.
01
Cognitive overload from too much information displayed on the screen
02
Unnecessary features contributed to visual crowding, diverting attention away from essential actions
03
Excessive text overwhelmed users rather than guided them through the experience
Phase 2
Based on user feedback, I focused on reorganizing the visual hierarchy to create a more intuitive and digestible interface.
But there was still too much information displayed on the screen for users to focus on what’s important—their tasks.
I had to ask myself, how can I create customizable viewings for clearer displays?
SOLUTION
Allowing Users to Switch Between Views with a Toggle
I introduced a toggle feature that allows users to switch between different views for the schedule, progress, and menu bar. This enhancement enables users to customize their experience by focusing on specific sections—such as individual classes or schedule segments—without unnecessary distractions.
Schedule with task view
Only task view
DESIGN SYSTEM
Once our prototype was established, I created a design system. To create a clean and focused user experience, I opted for a minimal color palette, reducing visual noise and ensuring that key elements stand out
Core Experiences
Switching between Schedule and Tasks View and Tasks Only View
Hiding specific class assignments
Viewing analytics and progress
