The Schedule
UXD course work General Assembly
concept • research • UX design
Have you ever had a flatmate that never cleaned? Or did the constant nagging about you not cleaning enough drive you up the walls?
The Schedule is an app for young adults living with flatmates, proving overview of tasks and motivation to clean by cheering each other on.
So you can chat about fun stuff in your group chat.
context
I completed this project during the UX design course at General Assembly. It was a 10-week part-time program. I undertook this course alongside my full-time job.
General Assembly works with the Double Diamond method.
Creating a more enjoyable experience living with flatmates
choosing a problem sphere
problem sphere
Most people live or have lived with flatmates at some point in their lives, often as students or in places where rent is high.
Flatmates offer companionship, tremendous amounts of fun and they teach you life lessons, like co-existing with other people on this planet. But, they can also cause irritation, and might even push inhabitants out.
Passionate about this topic I set out to research what flatmates need to maximise joy and avoid unnecessary friction.
User persona
Finding out what causes issues in shared living
through interviewing
interviews
To find out what causes issues among flatmates, four comprehensive interviews were conducted.
interview methodology
The interviews were structured in three parts:
1. Contextual questions, for building trust
- 2. Open-ended questions, for qualitative data
- 3. Specific questions, for quantitative data
I learned that when leaving a silence after a specific question, participants offer a lot of qualitative information to support their answer.
Summing up the interviews, people expressed satisfaction with the camaraderie their flatmates offered. But showed frustrations about cleaning, specifically doing chores on time and taking responsibility, and communicating about cleaning in group chats.
Graphed answers to scaling questions.
graph
- Scaling questions generated quantitative data. I differentiated the target audience from outliers in the answers and illustrated the trend with a graph.
key findings
1. The role of 'who cleans the most' reveals more about social relations than actual cleaning.
- 2. Observing others making an effort motivates people to do the same, and vice versa.
Sketching a household task list
the minimal viable product
solution
In order to help flatmates create a more enjoyable co-housing experience, a solution to improve the communication around cleaning had to be found.
This solution should focus on the social relationship between participants and motivate by showing the efforts of others.
minimal viable product
Immediately many many ideas came to mind for small and big features, as well as motivation strategies and reward systems. But needing to find a starting point for the design, all of this had to be converged.
Sketching, analysing competitors and task diagrams helped to define the minimal viable product:
A list of household tasks — that can be marked as done — with several participants.
This gave a clear starting point and focus to the design sketches. It also immediately showed there would be several ways to construct this foundation.
Testing initial wireframes
first round of testing
first wireframes
In order to determine the most effective foundation for the design, three different ideas were wireframed and tested by users.
The three wireframes underwent testing with four individuals in a moderated setup. The assigned task was to 'Mark a task as done,' and the order of variants was randomised to avoid bias.
Among the wireframes, one stood out for its high success rate, error-free performance, and user preference.
However, in my quest to identify the preferred option, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the feedback gathered during testing held significantly more value for the project.
feedback
Main takeaways were:
- 1. Completed tasks should not disappear.
- 2. The results of other participants should be visible.
- 3. Improve clarity of back button and navigation.
Two variants of the same feature
testing in Maze
the next step
The moderated tests offered clear pointers for expanding the design into a functional cleaning schedule.
However, at this stage, it fell short of facilitating interaction among flatmates, as initially envisioned in the project.
“I’m motivated to do my tasks when I see someone else has already done their chore.”
— Key quote from the initial inquiry
motivation
To create positive behavior change in flatmates' regarding chores, peers should have the ability to reward each other. This taps into intrinsic motivation, where external push would only cause resistance.
This idea materialised in a 'react-to-task' feature:
- 1. The main page displays tasks completed by flatmates, motivating users by showcasing completed chores.
- 2. Users can send reactions to acknowledge and reward flatmates for their efforts, creating a positive reinforcement cycle.
SWIPE to send heart
misclick 82.4% (heatmap)
tester votes 46%
TAP to send heart
misclick 0.0% (heatmap)
tester votes 54%
outcome
Two iterations of this feature were tested in Maze, the test was un-moderated and had 14 responses.
The test is still online, curious?
The swipe option was my personal favourite but resulted in a very high misclick rate. Given the absence of misclicks, the alternative proved to be the better functioning option.
The final prototype
it’s alive <3
prototype
View the entire Figma prototype
🙏 thank you
I would like to thank teachers Letizia Ghisletta, Monika Koziol and TA Gary Parker for their engaging lessons and enlightening feedback, as well as my classmates for their camaraderie, jokes and encouragement.