MindScrib is a first attempt of a developer and his friend to create a task management software.
UX Designer/Researcher
2 x Stakeholder
Graphic designer
My help gave the client an idea of what should be improved for a better understanding of the software.
Unfortunately, the project has been stopped after adjustments to the UI and adding the notebook feature. More important changes have not been implemented.
To start with, I've interviewed the stakeholders about their needs and desires to get an idea of their expectations towards me. I've conducted a competitive research to get to know the competitors and also to find unique value of MindScrib, which was found in a very clearly stated loose and flexible planning possibilities.
By doing this, we understood what’s the current position of the product and got the opportunity to think about where we are headed. Of course, we also could see clearly the apps’ shortcomings.
It was not expected of me, but I decided to take a step back and conducted a few user interviews to discover anew & just understand the topic of people’s organizational habits firsthand.
I wanted to make sure we were going in the right direction and in fact, the results were satisfying and confirmed users’ issues with the flexibility of typical planners. I've also learnt that it's best to stick to the script to stay within the expected timeframe of the interview.
When I joined the project, MindScrib had at least a hundred users who checked out the app or were already using it regularly. Thanks to stakeholders, I got my hands on a 100 pages long document with feedback from their users. Those were short notes, containing information the interviewer (developer) thought was important or interesting, not an actual transcription of the conversation.
I decided to organize the vast amounts of feedback into to help the stakeholders get a sense of what those interviews meant for the software, what & why needed to be done to improve the user expierence.
I collaborated with the stakeholders to prioritize changes based on users’ feedback and business priorities they shared with me. We put together a plan for the following months.
To summarize, the goal for the first update was to make the softwares’ current features function properly, look good and to maximize MindScrib’s unique value: flexible planning. Then we’d slowly go on with adding the other necessary functions.
When I joined the project, MindScrib had at least a hundred users who checked the app out or were already using it regularly. Thanks to stakeholders, I got my hands on a 100 pages long document with feedback from their users. Those were short notes, containing information the interviewer (developer) thought was important or interesting, not an actual transcription of the conversation.
I decided to organize the vast amounts of feedback into to help the stakeholders get a sense of what those interviews meant for the software.
Lack of visual hierarchy & high contrast – everything seems important
Overall lack of context increases the cognitive load – it's difficult to start using the software because of no nudges and context
Aesthetic-usability effect in place – visuals give off an early 00' aesthetics, increasing the feeling of confusion
Poor signifiers – copy such as "Add an item" does not bring enough meaning, it is not showing what's about to happen
We’ve learnt that users start planning by braindumping what they have to get done and just then they proceed to put stuff in the calendar. Another insight was that the users often check what is to be done this day/week/month.
We’ve decided to add a notebook view (where the braindumping can happen) and a calendar view (for those daily to-do check-ins) with nudges how to use the app. The hope was to fullfill users' needs without taking much of developers' time.
Unfortunately, the project's been stopped since that moment, so I don't have any further information about how users welcomed these features.
Major changes need to be implemented so the software is usable and desirable, so the stakeholders stopped the project from progressing any further.
Currently the interface is difficult to navigate & there's a lot of friction in the user journeys.
One of the ways of reducing cognitive load on first-time users would be to incorporate UX patterns users know – examples below.
