Preface

We – Sara, Chris, David, Yosief – are team Anteater! Over the course of this quarter we have been working on understanding why students procrastinate and how we can help intervene. More information below!

Baseline Study

1.1 Study Overview

Introduction 

This baseline study was designed to investigate the procrastination habits of college students, aiming to understand the underlying reasons for their procrastination, how it impacts their academic performance and well-being, and what practical steps they can take to manage it more effectively. The study was created to help identify patterns in students’ procrastination behaviors, understand the emotional and literal triggers behind their task avoidance, and evaluate potential interventions or strategies that could help students improve their time management skills.

Step one of understanding how to approach this study was understanding what our problem was. The problem we are addressing is the cyclical procrastination in college students – which can happen for a variety of reasons. Recognizing that procrastination takes many different forms, ranging from academic pressure to personal habits, made us make sure that our study methodology was carefully designed to capture these nuances through structured data collection methods, including diary tracking, interviews, and surveys.

By using this multi-faceted approach to data collection, we aimed to uncover both general trends and individual differences in procrastination patterns. This foundation allowed us to develop targeted interventions that could help students change their approach to work and better manage their time.

Key Research Questions

To provide a clearer framework for our study, we focused on the following guiding research questions:

• Why do students procrastinate? – What internal and external factors contribute to procrastination?
• How does procrastination affect students’ productivity and well-being? – Does procrastination lead to increased stress, lower academic performance, or other consequences?
• What conditions are important for productivity? – Are there specific times, environments, or mental states that help students overcome procrastination?
• How do self-awareness and reflection influence procrastination? – Can tracking procrastination habits lead to meaningful behavior changes?

These core questions helped guide our brainstorming sessions, interviews when things got off topic, and our comparator research.

Study Methodology

The study employed a four-day diary study format on 8 Stanford students across different disciplinary backgrounds, beginning with a pre-study interview to establish a baseline understanding of each participant’s experiences, perspectives, and self-awareness of procrastination. These preliminary interviews provided insights into participants’ existing habits and their perceived challenges with task management.

Each morning, participants documented their intended tasks for the day, noting their top priorities and the reasons for selecting them. This process was designed to help participants organize different priorities, particularly action items that might otherwise be forgotten in the grand scheme of their workload. Writing down tasks also served as an accountability measure, as the act of recording them reinforced memory retention and intention. In the evening, participants reflected on their day by identifying which tasks they completed, which they procrastinated on, and when they were most productive. They were encouraged to explore the emotions and thoughts accompanying their procrastination to uncover underlying trends. This reflection process aimed to identify recurring patterns in procrastination and whether certain types of tasks were consistently avoided. Participants were provided with structured handouts to ensure consistency in documentation, and daily reminders encouraged them to complete both the morning planning and evening reflection exercises. To complement these self-tracking efforts, they also assessed the percentage of tasks completed and described how that percentage influenced their emotions and overall sense of productivity. 

At the end of the study, a 30-minute post-study interview was conducted to analyze participants’ experiences, discuss observed patterns, and evaluate any behavioral changes that occurred over the four-day period. This concluding phase allowed for deeper insights into how self-reflection influenced procrastination habits and provided additional context for the qualitative and quantitative data collected throughout the study.

Participant Recruitment

The study targeted college students who identified as habitual procrastinators and were open to reflecting on their behaviors. Recruitment focused on individuals who self-reported frequently delaying important tasks, acknowledged that procrastination negatively impacted their academic performance or well-being, and expressed a willingness to track and analyze their habits over the course of the study. A screener questionnaire (linked here) was used to ensure that participants met these criteria, helping to establish a sample that accurately represented students struggling with procrastination. The recruitment process emphasized voluntary participation, ensuring that all individuals involved were genuinely interested in understanding their procrastination tendencies and exploring ways to manage them more effectively.

For your reference, here is a link to a google drive with all of our raw data from this study including forms, interview transcripts, and diary logs. 

Our Grounded Theory Approach 

In order to analyze the raw data from our interviews, we decided to use methods discussed in class such as affinity mapping, as well as extracting notable quotes from interviews and diary logs on sticky notes as a team so we could group these topics and help identify key pain points for our users.

Affinity Mapping

Following our experiment, we intend to synthesize insights from the data regarding stress, social interactions, and productivity in relation to procrastination. We started with Affinity Grouping to flesh out and organize all the different data points we covered across our interviews. Below you’ll see a picture of our first Affinity Map, as well as a bulleted list of our largest takeaways following the mapping session.

Key Takeaways from Affinity Mapping

• Social pressure can have a large impact on combatting procrastination
• The effort needed to begin a task is often the limiting factor – this comes out both in large and small tasks, getting started can often be the hardest part
• Procrastination can be tied together with self worth
• It can serve as a form of self sabotage/punishment
• People rely on a variety of different tools to combat their procrastination problems
• Procrastination problems remain prevalent because people still find a way to get their work done, reinforcing this behavior
• People procrastinate different kinds of tasks
  • Large, stressful tasks (Exams, papers, applications, etc.
  • Small tasks (laundry, emails, etc)

In order to better understand student needs and pinpoint challenges, we will take a deeper look into some key theories and insights by creating some grounded theories that build on this. 

Grounded Theory 1: Effort is a key determinant of procrastination

• Subtheory: The greater the perceived effort required for a task, the more likely students are to procrastinate.
• Example: Tasks that require extensive time, cognitive load, or physical effort—such as going to office hours or starting a large assignment—are frequently postponed in favor of smaller, easier-to-complete tasks. This trend suggests that the perception of effort plays a significant role in task avoidance.
• One of our participants Iman talked about how she would procrastinate laundry much more frequently this year than last year because she lived only a few further doors down from the laundry room this year. This matched with literature we have read in class related to procrastination.
• Another one of our participants, Susan, talked about how they struggle with starting things and how she makes things out to be a bigger task in her head. For example the perceived effort of going to office hours felt like it would be eating into too much of her day, when in reality it would have been a 1-2 hour excursion, or sometimes just a short email to a TA away from understanding a concept or completing her work.
• Question(s): What emotions/feelings/experiences cause people to overestimate the perceived effort of a task? Is it coming from a place of anxiety? Why can’t people be realistic about time allocation since that would help them plan better?
• Contradiction: The most important things that students shouldn’t procrastinate are the ones they’ll procrastinate the most!

Grounded Theory 2: Social pressure influences procrastination behavior

• Subtheory: Students will sometimes create unnecessary work for themselves because they feel pressure to appear busy and productive
• Example: Feelings of unworthiness in higher academic institutions, also known as “duck syndrome” causes some students to believe that they do not deserve to be at their respective institutions, which can subconsciously lead to these students over-complicating their work with procrastination in order to feel busy. This is also related to the feeling of guilt when students have free time.
• For example, Iman mentioned feeling that “everyone around me is doing so much, and if I take a break, I feel like I’m falling behind.” Rather than taking strategic breaks, students may avoid work entirely as a response to burnout.
• Question: How does the pressure to constantly achieve contribute to cycles of procrastination?
• Contradiction: Students may actually be hooked on the feeling of being stressed because it helps them feel worthy. 
• Subtheory: Students are more likely to work on an assignment if they see their peers making progress on it.
• There is a strong social influence on task initiation. When students observe their classmates discussing an assignment or making progress, they feel pressured to start their own work to avoid falling behind. Conversely, if they perceive that their peers are also procrastinating, they feel less urgency to begin. This was evident in one participant’s case, where she stated, “Once I found out that my peers had already finished most of the assignment I decided to skip lunch to work on it because I suddenly felt like ahhh… I’m falling behind.”
• Question: What role does peer influence play in shaping students’ procrastination habits?
• Contradiction: Students who procrastinate and don’t focus on their own work, actually focus on the amount of work their peers are getting done as it can trigger their own work to begin

Grounded Theory 3: Procrastination as a form of self-sabotage and self-worth struggle

• Subtheory: Some students procrastinate as an act of self-deprecation, reinforcing negative self-perceptions.
  • For certain individuals, procrastination is not just about task avoidance but also tied to feelings of inadequacy. When students struggle with an assignment, they may spiral into self-doubt, which leads to further procrastination. This cycle can be exacerbated by imposter syndrome and duck syndrome.
  • Susan, for instance, shared that “when I don’t understand something right away,  start thinking maybe I’m just dumb. Then I avoid it completely, which makes it worse.” She also stated that “Sometimes I don’t let myself go to the restroom until I finish a certain amount of work. Or like I won’t do something fun if I don’t think I deserve it and I end up doing nothing. Similarly, Iman noted that “sometimes I just feel like there’s no point in trying because I don’t even know if I’ll end up getting it.”
• Question: How does self-worth impact procrastination behaviors, and how can interventions target these beliefs?
• Contradiction: Students “fail” by procrastinating because they want to inflict self deprecating behavior

Grounded Theory 4: The inevitability mindset—“It will get done eventually”

• Subtheory: Some students embrace last-minute stress as an unavoidable part of their process.
• Rather than viewing procrastination as a problem, some students see it as an integral part of their workflow. They believe they will always finish their tasks in time, even if it means enduring high levels of stress at the last minute.
• Tina described this mindset by saying, “I think at the end of the day, things have always gotten done. They’re not always done well…[but] I’ve been making them just fine. So it’s like, I’ve never felt the need to seriously reevaluate my [procrastination]  there.
• Question: How does the belief in eventual task completion influence students’ motivation to adopt better time management strategies?
• Contradiction: Some procrastinators have complete faith in their ability to get work done, when there is no evidence to believe so (false confidence)

Grounded Theory 5: People prioritize tasks they feel competent in

• Subtheory: Students naturally gravitate toward work they feel confident completing, often at the expense of more pressing but difficult tasks.
  • Rather than tackling high-priority assignments, students may first complete tasks that allow them to feel accomplished. This can lead to a pattern of avoiding more difficult work in favor of tasks that provide immediate validation.
  • Luke mentioned that he likes to start with things he knows he can do well, just to get into the groove. Similarly, he said if he feels stuck, he will switch to something else he’s good at so he doesn’t feel like a failure.
  • Question: How can interventions encourage students to face difficult tasks head-on rather than retreating to easier, confidence-boosting work?
  • Contradiction: Rather than practicing what they’re not good at (where they would benefit the most), some students prioritize what they are good at to feel good about themselves.

1.3 System Models 

Below we have two system models inspired by our ground syntheses.

In this model, we created a procrastination ecosystem which highlights a handful of the factors that go into a typical process of procrastination. This was largely inspired by grounded synthesis 4 which seemed to represent a common pattern for most of our participants – believing that it will “get done” eventually, giving them the confidence to start things late.  It starts with some type of task that is put off, either because it is too difficult, too boring, or just not that important. From there, many different distractions can aid in procrastination. Eventually, procrastination will end as the individual finally completes their task. There is usually a specific cause for their sudden completion of the task – often a deadline that brings about stress or panic for the individual, finally moving them to action. This diagram shows how similar processes of procrastination come about for different types of tasks, indicating that often it does not actually matter what is being procrastinated, as individuals become so accustomed to that way of operating.

For our second system model we have a  loop that shows the dangerous cycle of procrastination that many of our participants fall into. This is largely inspired by ground synthesis 4 and 5. Showing how students put off things that are most important for them to work on. It is especially difficult to break free from this cycle because students will ultimately find success in the end. Whether it is turning in an assignment barely on time or successfully cramming for a final, students quickly forget about the stress that they endured as a result of their procrastination as soon as the task is out of their mind.

Here are some summarized key insights from both of these models: 

• Panic can cause two opposite results – sometimes it can serve as a productive feeling that triggers action and task completion, otherwise it can be extremely unproductive, triggering more stress without any pragmatic steps to completion. 
• This made us think about why there is this discrepancy for different people at different times. This caused us to look more into why panic manifests itself into productive completion in some cases, and in other cases causes debilitating stress that stops people from getting anything done. We hypothesized that it may be different person-to-person, or perhaps could be related to the circumstances of the situation. 
• After healthy forms of procrastination, people feel more equipped to deal with the task that they were procrastinating, as opposed to unproductive procrastination. 
  • As seen in our system model and confirmed through our baseline study, is that after productively procrastinating (doing laundry, cleaning room, responding to emails, etc), people felt far more equipped to face whatever tasks they were putting off. This makes us believe that productive procrastination could actually be a useful stepping block to addressing procrastination. We found repeatedly when people used unproductive procrastination (social media scrolling, etc), that there was less motivation and enthusiasm to break out of their procrastination and start the important task at hand. 

• There is a reason that most procrastinators are serial procrastinators – the more experience they have procrastinating, the more false confidence they have in their ability to procrastinate. 
  • There seems to be a connection between procrastination and the sense of urgency that comes from working under pressure. Some students rely on this adrenaline rush to push them into action, which makes procrastination feel like an effective, if stressful, approach to work. This realization led us to think about how we could make not procrastinating just as engaging. If procrastination is thrilling because of the last-minute intensity, could we design a system that makes completing tasks ahead of time feel just as rewarding?

1.4 Secondary Research

Literature Review

The study “Time Perspectives and Procrastination in University Students: Exploring the Moderating Role of Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction” by Codina et. al (2024) shows how perspectives on time can have a major impact on their procrastination habits. A future time perspective, where students often think about the future, may indicate less procrastination. This would support the value of goal setting – something that many competitor solutions have tried to address. Encouraging a future oriented mindset may be  a piece of the solution. 

“Perceived Social support and procrastination in college students: A sequential Mediation Model of self compassion and negative emotions” by Yang et. al (2021) College students who feel that they have the support of family members behind them are less likely to procrastinate. This goes hand in hand with self-compassion – higher perceived social support is connected with higher self-compassion which together combat procrastination The opposite effect comes with isolation and negative emotions

The study “Predictors of Academic Procrastination in College Students” by Saddler & Buley (1999) examines factors that contribute to procrastination among college students, focusing on perfectionism, motivation, and beliefs about learning. Focusing on extrinsic goals can actually reduce procrastination. Surprisingly, focusing on grades may help a student procrastinate less. Students who care deeply about the quality of work may suffer from perfectionism and have a harder time starting their work as they know it will take more effort from them.

Procrastination and Stress: A Conceptual Review of Why Context Matters by Fuschia Sirois (2023). This shows that stressful environments drain emotional and mental resources, making procrastination a tempting form of relief. This only enhances stress, leading to a vicious cycle that can be damaging to a students perception of self.

Competitive Analysis

1. Notion (No-Structure + Tasks) is highly flexible but lacks predefined structures, requiring users to build their own workflow. These intervention applications are ideal for highly motivated and organized individuals who are looking for a place to fully maximize their thoughts.
2. Focus Keeper and Forest (No-Structure + Goals) encourage focus through Pomodoro timers and gamification but do not provide structured goal tracking. These intervention applications are ideal for highly motivated goal oriented individuals who need a push to get started. Either social accountability or gamified time pressures helps to empower their willingness to achieve their goals.
3. Opal, Griply, and GoalsWon (Structured + Goals) offer clear frameworks for reducing distractions (Opal) or habit-building (Griply, GoalsWon), with GoalsWon adding human accountability. These intervention applications are ideal for users who have a lot of goals they hope to accomplish, but lack the drive/discipline to overcome the persistent procrastination that stifles them. These serve are hardcore reminders and offer friction to procrastination triggers.
4. Structured (Structured + Tasks) provides a built-in timeline-based planner for managing daily tasks, offering a more guided approach than Notion. These intervention applications are ideal for users who are highly motivated but lack the organizational skills to structure their commitments and goals. 

4 Main trends among competitors:

• Goal-oriented – These apps are focused on high level goals and allow a user to battle their procrastination from a top down approach

These systems will often break down big goals into smaller, more attainable tasks

• Task-oriented – These apps prioritize daily tasks and planning. They focus more on the low-level tasks that a user may face and are more centered around day to day life
  • Ex: Notion usually serves as a sort of note-taking and planning tool that will include everyday tasks from doing your laundry to stretching in the morning
• No Structure – These apps give users extreme flexibility in how they want to battle their procrastination
• There are usually a variety of different ways that these apps can be used and it is up to the user to determine what is the best approach for them
  • Ex: Focus keeper uses a pomodoro timer to encourage users to stay focused during their work sessions; They specific work being completed and how long to set the timer is completely up to the user
• High Structure – The foundation and use cases for the app are well defined and do not offer the users as much flexibility in their interaction with the platform
  • Ex: GoalsWon revolves around individual performance coaching and it is expected that all users use this feature.

How These Will Affect Our Ideation

Our research has shown that procrastination isn’t just about poor time management—it’s driven by effort perception, social pressure, self-doubt, and even the rush of last-minute adrenaline. Understanding these factors means that rather than simply designing a tool that reminds students to work, we need to create something that makes starting and completing tasks feel as rewarding as procrastinating.

One of the biggest reasons students put things off is the amount of effort a task seems to require. If something feels too difficult or time-consuming, they avoid it. To counter this, our solution needs to make getting started easier—whether by breaking tasks into smaller steps or making the first step feel more approachable. Social influence also plays a major role, as students are more likely to start working when they see their peers doing the same. This opens the door for features that leverage peer accountability or competition to create positive pressure.

Another insight is how false confidence keeps students stuck in a cycle of stress. Instead of relying on looming deadlines to create urgency, we need to introduce it earlier in a way that feels natural and motivating. Gamification might be one way to achieve this—by incorporating elements like point systems, progress tracking, or small challenges, we could create a sense of stakes much earlier in the process. If procrastinators thrive under pressure, the goal would be to bring that same level of engagement into working ahead rather than waiting until the last possible moment.

Another factor reinforcing procrastination from our research is the excitement and adrenaline of last-minute work. While this is just one of many findings, it suggests that one way to counter procrastination is by making not procrastinating feel just as engaging. Whether through gamification, real-time feedback, or reward-based progress, we could explore ways to shift the excitement of last-minute scrambling into the experience of working ahead. This, along with all our other insights, will shape how we approach our ideation process.

1.5 Proto Personas and Journey Maps

For selecting our proto personas, we discussed all the personas we created and selected the most common problems faced from our users. Our first persona is Last Minute Larry, who struggles prioritizing work—waiting until the last minute to complete their work. An insight that last minute Larry showcases is a procrastination feedback loop—last minute Larry is able to successfully complete his work despite waiting until the last minute. This reinforces his behavior of waiting until the last minutes, leaving him in a perpetual state of procrastination. 

Persona 1

• Name: Last Minute Larry
• Activated Role: College Student
• Goal: Complete things in as little time as possible, no matter how small or large the task is
• Motivation: It feels good to avoid responsibilities and Larry believes that he will actually be more productive and efficient if he wait until the last minute
• Conflict: Larry is conflict averse. He avoids his problems and puts things off until they are absolutely essential. This is likely because the effort it takes in his head is greater than the actual effort in practice
• Attempts to Solve: His procrastination by writing down what he has to do in advance. This is not usually successful and he ends up forgetting about his list and then scrambles to get it all done in the end
• Setting/ Environment: College campus
• Tools: Calendar, iPhone, notes App
• Skills: Extreme focus in extreme circumstances

Journey Map

Throughout last minute Larry’s day, we see Larry’s perception of his time decrease. He wakes up believing there is ample time to complete his work. However, Larry exhibits an “I’ll get to it later” attitude when he believes he has the whole day. We see a transition into thinking about his work, but it is met with him needing a break from essentially not doing anything that tackles his work. In the end, Larry is scrambling to complete his work. Additionally, we see his emotion spiral into a panic as the day goes forth. His actions showcase a scrolling individual who is not prioritizing the assignments that are due that day. There is a lack of structure to his priorities. Last minute Larry has a tendency to falsely reward himself which may lead to him having a false sense of accomplishment.

Our second persona, Substantial Sally, embodies an archetype of someone who dreads big/substantial tasks: essays, exams, projects, applications, etc. The anxiety that comes from completing these seemingly monumental tasks, results in their reluctance to get started, which unravels into this negative feedback loop where the task gets even more monumental due to a time crunch. In the end, by overestimating the work needed to get done, Sally delays her tasks and is unable to productively and incrementally accomplish the major tasks she needs to complete in order to thrive and grow in the ways she hopes to.

Persona 2

• Name: Substantial Sally
• Activated Role: College Student in STEM
• Goal: I want to solve my procrastination habits because it would hope me succeed and thrive in my endeavors
• Motivation: Career goals.
• Conflict: Sally often underestimates time and effort needed for big tasks and assignments, meaning she delays her work and runs out of time and falls under tremendous pressure. 
• Attempts to Solve: Fill up blocks of time with small management tasks that could overcome procrastination
• Setting/ Environment: In the dorm room, dining hall, classroom, library, etc
• Tools: iPhone Notes app to map out my tasks, and Google Calendar to map out all commitments
• Skills: Performs well under-pressure
• More: N/A

Journey Map 2

Throughout Sally’s day, she assumes she has the entire day ahead of her. She doom-scrolls and feels pretty optimistic about the day. As she gets ready for class, she thinks about her work, but realizes that the assignment requires too much effort. In between her classes, she is under the impression that there is not enough time to produce meaningful work. Then, later after class, Sally has to prepare herself to take on her task, but feels defeated. This unravels into a procrastination spiral of trying to finish her work, but feeling overwhelmed and anxious. 

Intervention Design

2.1 Assumption Mapping and Testing

Our assumption map was an important step in better understanding the problem that we were trying to solve. The most important points of consideration lie in the top right corner at the intersection between important and unknown. Some important trends that we identified in this map are as follows:

Key Insights:

• Because we are dealing with a population of people who frequently avoid their responsibilities, it is important that our product does not feel like an extra task for the user.
• These students will need to have some genuine desire to improve their habits for this product to be successful
• More research needs to be done on existing products in this space to figure out what aspects of these tools users like and don’t like
• Students may have a diverse range of responses to social pressure – this aspect is definitely not a one size fits all.

Given this analysis we decided to test these assumptions:

Assumption #1: Using our product will not feel like an additional task to the user

To test this assumption we created a questionnaire and sent it to as many of our friends as we could. Here is a link to the screener https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd_ymi4PRkmCZzCBvhnv8fDtEDSPcGVHygLGiC46JpgsaFX_Q/viewform

Questionnaire rationale

In testing our assumption we wanted to understand a few different things about how people currently deal with procrastination. We wanted to find:

• The role social pressure plays in procrastination
• The types of interventions that people prefer
• How much data people would be comfortable sharing
• What people currently do to combat procrastination

Together, these topics could help us better understand how we might make a tool that is both easy to use and something that the user actually wants in their life.

Participants:

• College students. This demographic is exactly who we are primarily designing for so it worked out well
• 

Assumption test 1 Results:

• We found that the majority of our participants appreciated some form of social accountability
• Users would prefer some form of control over their privacy. Giving users the option to select which information of theirs is available for others is a popular choice.
• Similarly, productivity groups could strike a balance between complete privacy and sharing with friends.
• Our users seemed to have prior experience with a variety of productivity tools that are not much more involved than ours is intended to be. Therefore, we feel confident about our assumption and do not believe that our tool will become an additional task. It may instead serve as an alternative or replacement for existing tools.

Assumption #2: College students would enjoy tools that force them to address their procrastination habits

To test this assumption we performed a competitive analysis where we had participants explore the websites of 4 of our competitors. The competitors were:

1. Focus keeper – a pomodoro timer app
2. GoalsWon – App that sets people up with personalized accountability coaches to achieve their personal and professional goals
3. Griply – All-in-one productivity app designed to help users set and achieve their goals by integrating goal setting, habit tracking, and task management into a single platform.
4. Forest – productivity app that helps users stay productive by planting virtual trees that grow during work sessions.

Procedure: We gave participants 5 minutes to explore the website and get a feel for the different products before giving them the opportunity asking them these questions:

1. Would you use this app? Why or why not?
2. Have you had any experience with similar products before? What are your thoughts?
3. What do you like/dislike about this product?

Participants: We interviewed 3 college students with varying levels of procrastination.

This learning card displays an aggregated response from our 3 participants.

Assumption Test 2 Results: 

• Games are engaging (from Forest) This was helpful in pushing us towards focusing on healthy competition by trying to gamify productivity.
• Alternative formats for to do list other than checking boxes is interesting
• Seeing progress in real time is helpful (ex. 80% of goal achieved). This inspired us to encourage users through progress updates that reflect the work they have put in towards a task even if it is not all the way done.
• Hiring a procrastination “coach” feels too extreme.
• Simple UI that is easy to use and understand is huge. This further encouraged us to focus on simplicity when designing our app.

2.2 Storyboards

STORYBOARD 1

Description: Storyboard 1, focuses on the insight that a better self-image leads to a more productive person. In this intervention, the participant is checked-in and validated in their emotions. When they are writing their TO-DO list they are reminded to be kind to themselves. Additionally, we have provided them with words of encouragement when constructing their To-Do list and throughout the day. At the end of their day, we would want to check in on them, and remind them that they do not need to complete everything, that tomorrow is another day. This intervention goal is to uplift the participant and validate their emotions as they navigate the stress of their day. All these check-ins would be via text/notification reminders. 

Pros:

• The participant is encouraged throughout the day, potentially motivating them. This is important because we want to encourage participants to accomplish tasks.  
• The participant is validated in their emotions which could potentially help them feel seen.
• This intervention promotes self compassion, which could potentially lead to better mindset when approaching their to-do lists. 
• This intervention could potentially reduce stress and burnout by reminding the participant that not everything needs to get done. This fosters a sense of comfort and  

Cons:

• The encouragement may not be personalized enough, leading to generic phrases that are rendered essentially meaningless. 
• It is dependent on external validation which is potentially counterintuitive to trying to promote validation within oneself.
• It can be overwhelming to see notifications if the participant  has not completed anything on their to-do list, this can cause further anxiety for the participant. 
• This intervention requires a lot from the participant because viewing oneself in a better light requires a substantial amount of time and external resources.

STORYBOARD 2

Description: “Win the Day” is an AI-driven productivity tool designed to help users make meaningful progress toward their long-term goals. Users input their 2, 5, and 10-year goals, along with their current schedule, priorities, and standing. The system then generates a personalized, itemized list of three key tasks each day—tasks that will have the most impact in moving them forward. By focusing on just three achievable actions, users can reduce decision fatigue, combat procrastination, and ensure they’re consistently working toward their aspirations in a manageable way.

Pros:

• They are given tailored daily tasks based on the user’s long-term goals, schedule, and priorities, ensuring maximum relevance and efficiency.
• Instead of being overwhelmed by endless to-dos, users are given few tasks which stops them from experiencing decision fatigue
• Helps users live more intentionally towards long term goals that can sometimes be hard to visualize 

Cons:

• For the tool to be effective the user needs to input quality data about their current life standing and goals which may be hard to prompt them to do.
• AI bias may affect certain goals and recommendations

STORYBOARD 3

Description:

This is a collaborative productivity tool where friends set a shared deadline—like a night out or a weekend trip—and commit to finishing their individual tasks before then. Each person adds their to-dos to a shared workspace, tracking progress together. The app provides reminders, updates, and encouragement, ensuring everyone stays accountable and can enjoy plans without unfinished work looming over them.

Pros:

• Friends keep each other on track, making it harder to procrastinate.
• Helps people finish responsibilities ahead of time so they can fully enjoy social plans
• A shared goal makes finishing tasks feel more rewarding and less isolating.

Cons:

• Makes it harder to claim you’re busy if you actually don’t want to go to plans which is an invasion of privacy
• If some friends don’t engage it may not be as effective
• Could encourage toxic competition with friends

Our top Storyboard: The storyboard we selected was storyboard 3 because we want some sort of social accountability for our users. Our vision for our product is using friends as a pillar to be more productive. We felt like this storyboard best aligned with our vision for WeDo. 

2.3 Intervention Study Design

Description: For our intervention study, we will be texting our participants in 3 hour intervals throughout their day. First, the participant will be asked to send us a to-do list, we will let them know that they are competing with other participants throughout their day. With each 3 hour message, we will ask for their progress and/or provide the following information: 1) encouragement to complete more tasks 2) an update on how other people are doing 3) a recall to previous times they completed more or less work in previous days or in similar situations 4) a congratulations for completing certain tasks. When all tasks have been completed, or at the end of the day, users will receive an affirmation message and a reminder to “State their intentions” for the next day in order to maintain their productive momentum. 

In terms of our visualizations and understanding of success, it’s heavily rooted in self reported tasks and self reported completion. For more context, our metric for “winning” is a task progression bar that visualizes the % or # of tasks completed in a given day for each user. By populating the UI with both personal and select friend progress bars, we’re able to provide an easy to understand interface that enables us to target 2 questions. Does gamification promote productivity? How does social pressure impact or hurt productivity? 

The following list showcase an example of the time, and messages that will be sent to each participant of our intervention study:

9 am: “Good morning! Hope you’re ready to take this day by storm!! Before you get started, please send me a quick list of all you hope to accomplish today — ( go to gym, meet with teacher, lunch w friend, 1/2 cs Pset, go to psych office hours…). 

• This message starts the day early for the participant, reminds them to think about their goals/tasks for the day and helps them jumpstart their morning.

12 pm: “What have you accomplished so far!”

• Going into or out of lunch, this message reminds the reader to not slump during the day, and if classes were on their to-do list, it will help them feel a sense of accomplishment. Furthermore, over the course of the study if there is a pattern of no strides being made to complete work by this time, it can help the participant pinpoint times in their mornings where they could be more productive going forward. 

3 pm: “Any updates? Just a heads up, your friend [insert name] is already 50% done with their tasks!! Don’t let them pass you!

• This evokes friendly competition. Reminds them that there are other people close to them working, and encourages them to respond to that social pressure dispute being physically distant from peers. We included this because many of our participants claimed they have a positive response to social pressure from peers in terms of productivity.

6 pm: “You’re catching up! You’re the 2nd most productive today! Before you grab dinner, take a few moments and update us with what you’ve finished.”

• This message serves a very similar role as the 3PM message.

9 pm: “Congrats! You’re the first to reach 100% completion!! State your intentions for tomorrow or send a message to your friends to motivate them!”

• This message is the first real affirmation message of this day. Although the night isn’t over, we hope for users to have spent the day productive and look to give them a recap on their progress. 

12 am: “Great work today! You and [name #1] completed all your tasks. Let’s sleep well and conquer the day tomorrow!”

• This last message is a soft reminder to end their night well in order to encourage a repeated productive day. 

Data Collection Plan: For this study, we will be collecting both qualitative data and quantitative data. We will be sending out a survey at the end of each day asking questions like how  they felt during this process. We also look at the percentage of completed tasks. Further, there will be a post study interview. 

Study Materials:

Introduction Document
Thank you for joining our study! Over the next four days, we will be sending you text notifications in 3 hour intervals. We will begin by asking you to construct a to-do list every morning. We want to let you know that this is a competition and you will be competing among 7 other participants. Some of the notifications will include how your fellow competitors are doing.  

At the end of each day, we will ask you to fill out a survey regarding your experience.  Additionally, at the end of the study, we’ll schedule a brief interview to hear your insights and ideas for change.

Our goal is to learn from your experiences and develop tools that help college students combat procrastination. Your honesty and reflection are invaluable, and we appreciate your dedication to this project!

Discussion Guide
Throughout the study, we want you to think critically about your procrastination habits.

• How did knowing about your competitors make you feel?
• What external forces impeded your productivity if any?
• How did you eventually begin or complete your to-do list, and what motivated you?

The more detail you share, the more valuable your insights will be. Don’t worry about perfection — just share your authentic experiences!

Intro and Closing Emails

Subject: Welcome to the Procrastination Habits Study!
Hi _____,

Thank you for joining our study! We’re excited to work with you to explore the habits and challenges of college students when it comes to procrastination.

Over the next four days, we will be sending you text notifications in 3 hour intervals. We will begin by asking you to construct a to-do list every morning. We want to let you know that this is a competition and you will be competing among 7 other participants. Some of the notifications will include how your fellow competitors are doing.

At the end of each day, we will ask you to fill out a survey regarding your experience.  Additionally, at the end of the study, we’ll schedule a brief interview to hear your insights and ideas for change.

Look out for reminders and tips as we begin. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out at any time!

Best,

Subject: Thank You for Participating!
Hi _____,

Thank you for dedicating your time and energy to this study! Your reflections on procrastination habits have provided valuable insights that will help us understand the challenges students face and how we might create strategies to address them.

We hope the experience was insightful for you, too, and that it gave you new perspectives on managing procrastination. If you have any additional thoughts or feedback, we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks again for participating in this study!

Best,

Who Was Recruited?

We recruited our own friends for this study, ensuring that participants were paired with someone they already felt comfortable with. This was important for maintaining a positive and non-toxic accountability dynamic. Since the study relied on self-reported progress, recruiting friends helped ensure honesty and engagement.

Key Questions Being Addressed

• Does receiving progress updates about a peer increase task completion?
• How does peer accountability affect motivation without introducing unhealthy competition?
• What level of detail is needed in progress updates to make them most effective?
• Would a clearer tracking system (e.g., a point system, leaderboard, or progress bar) make the intervention more impactful?
• Does pairing people with friends improve engagement compared to more impersonal productivity tools?

Synthesis:

Our study revealed that while peer updates can be a motivating factor, they often lack the necessary context to be truly effective. Simply knowing a friend’s progress—such as being told they have completed 40% of their tasks—was not always actionable without a clear way to compare it to one’s own progress. Additionally, the way updates were framed played a significant role in how they were received. Some participants preferred encouragement-based messages rather than straightforward numerical updates, suggesting that the tone and delivery of progress notifications impact their motivational effect. Lastly, we found that a more structured tracking system could improve the intervention’s effectiveness. A visual progress bar or point system could provide clearer feedback, making it easier for participants to assess their own progress in relation to their peers.

How Does This Change Your Solution Design?

These insights highlight the need to refine how progress updates are communicated in our solution. Instead of simply reporting percentages, incorporating a progress tracker would allow users to see their own completion rate alongside their friend’s, giving them a more tangible sense of where they stand. Additionally, introducing a point system could make comparisons more intuitive and engaging, offering a more structured way to measure progress. To ensure that the updates remain motivating rather than overwhelming, we could also implement customizable notifications, allowing users to choose how and when they receive updates. By integrating these features, our solution would become more engaging, actionable, and effective in helping students combat procrastination in a supportive and non-pressuring way.

2.4 System Paths

The image below shows the system path for four of our personas including Last Minute Larry and Substantial Sally who’s journeys start on the left hand side.

The process for the system path began with Last-Minute Larry. We utilized Larry’s persona to walk through our product’s lifecycle, which gave us insight into how our system would function. Additionally, it helped narrow down the major features needed for our MVP. The most important insight gained from this experience was: How do we get procrastinators to join our app? We realized that all our user personas would have been invited. This prompted us to reduce friction for onboarding by allowing users to sign up with just their phone number. Similarly, we wanted to prioritize a way to suggest friends and emphasize adding friends for our clickable prototype.

Our other personas, as previously mentioned, are similar to Larry, meaning their user journeys would follow a similar path. This is because they are all procrastinators who struggle with staying on top of their tasks. 

Key interaction: The most important interaction would be the invitation. We realized how important the entry of our product is. Additionally, we realized the importance of adding friends. This is because all of our personas will need to add friends to make our product successful.   

2.5 + 2.6 Story Maps and MVP Features

During this process, we envisioned what life must be like for Last Minute Larry. Rushed. Stressful. Busy. So when thinking about the intervention platform, we wanted the quickest and most engaging sequence of sets to guide a rushing user to complete enough tasks to enable intervention. In the image above you’ll see an A category and B category. 

Features listed in the A category are our priority for implementation in our MVP. These are features we believe are crucial to the user experience of our app, and maximize the usage we intend. Other features in the B category will likely be introduced in future iterations. 

In a detailed explanation of our story map for a user like Last Minute Larry, we’ll detail the Our story map is as follows:

• Login: With a simple phone number and text verification Last Minute Larry’s account can be created and/or signed into. No need for an email, email verification, username, password, 2FA, etc… This quick and easy login is intended to keep the Last Minute Larry’s of our world engaged.
  • MVP: This stage of the process will remain the same for our MVP. We don’t intend to add more and we believe it’s sufficient enough to refrain from making it less.
• Registration: Understanding that asking for too much information at the time of a quick account creation might deter a user like a Last Minute, we decided to limit this stage of the process to simple Enabling app access to the phone. With access to notification and contexts, the app could remind Last Minute Larry to connect with friends and add more information to his profile. 
  • MVP: We identify obtaining access to notifications as the most crucial feature at this stage. In our intervention study, we saw the effectiveness of reminders in helping people remain focused and on track with finishing up tasks. Furthermore, this process will only require the user to press “Allow” or “Don’t Allow.” Future integrations could enable users to create unique usernames, passwords to bypass phone verification in the future, and additional data permissions.
• Adding Friends: After the account is created and access to the phone is permitted, we want to direct Larry to a page to add Friends. This direct transition enables Larry to select which of his peers he wants to enjoy the app with, and encourages him to continue using the app while inviting new people to join. This is the first of many experiences of social pressure this app will use to motivate Last Minute Larry to be productive. 
  • MVP: For our MVP, we won’t have a Page we direct users to, to see who is on the platform. Being that the beginning stages of our platform and design will be void of users, we will direct the user (like Last Minute Larry) to share an invitation link to people he could imagine using the app with. Future iterations will have specific page of users Active on the platform you have in your contacts: similar to how BeReal, TikTok, and Snapchat use personal phone contacts to connect users with likely friends. 
• Set Goals: After friends are added, we want to direct the user to the set goals page. By allowing them to quickly set goals we hope to hit the ground running and get users like Last Minute Larry to begin thinking about and working towards various tasks and/or goals that he would like to complete and whatever time frame he’d like to complete. This process makes it very easy for Larry to begin thinking about areas of which he wants to be more productive in and things that he would like to accomplish.
  • MVP: We understand that choice paralysis could be detrimental to obtaining users onto a platform. Understanding that Last Minute Larry would turn away from what would seem like a lot of work, our goal for the MVP is the minimize the amount of information we ask users when adding tasks, while maintaining enough information to remain relevant and useful. In our case, we decided that visually showing and requesting Importance of task, Category of task, Notifications preferences for tasks would be unnecessary for our MVP needs.
• Update Goals: After the goals are set, we imagine a user like Last Minute Larry wouldn’t interact with the app until they are notified by the app, and/or asked to provide an update on their goals. To make this process as quick and fast as possible, as we ask of Last Minute Larry is to check a box to mark tasks as complete. From there, the app will update his progress and send motivating messages to both Larry and his friends.
  • MVP: Although our final iterations of design include a progression bar that helps to gamify the experience, our MVP will not include this. Our intention with the MVP is to ensure that users like Last Minute Larry find the process of setting and updating goals as easy and quick as possible. Once we can prove that the flow of our products work well to engage the user in the basic functions, we’ll implement the gamification features.

Our final prototype features changed slightly from our MVP expectations listed above as we decided that logging in and setting up an account, although important, did not need to be a priority for the user. 

In addition to the MVP features listed above, we added:

• Creating groups
• Comparing progress with friends

To our final prototype. Both of these features were essential to the focus of social pressure and competitive productivity that our app is built upon. Both of these features  allow users to find motivation from their close friends and hold one another accountable. These are two of the key features that set us apart from our competitors.

With these additions, our final MVP features included:

• Creating tasks: This included customization of timeframe, priority, and task description as well.
• Completing tasks
• Creating groups
• Sending invites to friends
• Comparing progress with friends

See section above for more detailed explanation on each feature’s presence.

2.7 Bubble Map

Our process began with listing all major MVP features and organizing them into a bubble map. The larger bubbles represented the most important features, helping us visualize our priorities for WeDo. By comparing the sizes and connections between bubbles, we identified core functionalities that aligned with our vision. This exercise helped us clarify which features were essential for our MVP and which could be secondary additions for our interactive design. The visual layout also helped us communicate our ideas more effectively within the team. Additionally, organizing our features this way helped us see which features could be grouped together in our interactive design. Overall, our bubble map gave us insight into which features to prioritize and what they had in common.

 

Interaction Design

3.1 Wireflows

Wireflow Justification

• Open Invitation Like and/or Download App
  • Being that Last Minute Larry is unlikely to go out of their way to research a solution, we imagine that the most likely initial contact with our platform would be through a mutual friend invitation, or word of mouth discussion prompting the downloading of the app.
• Sign in
  • Phone Number & Verify Phone Number 
    • To set up an account (like Partiful—very easy and fast). Being that Last Minute Larry is unlikely to join an app with heavy friction, a simple 10-11 digit phone number is all we require to start a profile/account.

• Accept access to Contacts
  • This enables the app to recommend friends to invite and add. Last Minute Larry could see his personal connections to other users on the app, encouraging Larry to use the platform (an intended anti-Friction).
• Accept Access to Notifications
  • This enables the app to send reminders to complete tasks. This will help Last Minute Larry remain aware of the tasks he has to complete, as well as receive messages of encouragement, nudges from friends, and updates on progress.
• Add Friends
  •  Suggested Friends
    • This enables Last Minute Larry to know who within his current close circle (contacts) are on the app! This motivates Last Minute Larry to add people that could hold him socially accountable.
  • Sent Invite Link
    • This enables Last Minute Larry to invite people he doesn’t see on the app. This helps Last Minute Larry create the online community he thinks can best support him, expanding his in app connections.
  • Create or Join Group 
    • • This enables Last Minute Larry (LML) to work towards common goals alongside peers. By giving LML the power to join pre-existing groups or create his own, LML 

• Set Goals
  • Setting goals helps Last Minute Larry organize his thoughts and tasks in a place that uses gamification and social pressure to help Last Minute Larry stay true to their goals.
• Update Goals
  • Update goals in order to complete your progression! This gamified approach rewards the user for completing tasks of any size or importance. Furthermore, by making their progression public, it will hold them socially accountable as their friends could see their progress or lack thereof. This will keep Last Minute Larry engaged.
• Check Friend Status
  • Could see how well they’re performing in comparison to their friends. Furthermore, could learn more about their friends’ public goals/tasks to 1) hold them accountable 2) see if there’s any overlap or 3) provide support — or just be nosy. Last Minute Larry will be motivated by seeing other people’s progress.
• Nudge Friends
  • Send funny pre-determined messages to your friends. An easy way to contact and remind your friends to do work without drafting a message or working too hard. Makes it easy to communicate and forcibly remind your friend to be productive…though it is a 2-way street.
• Send Message to Friends
  • Last Minute Larry could use the app to send detailed messages to their friends. Messages will likely be in the context of work and productivity. This can help spur productive conversations between friends, unlike places like Instagram or Tiktok where the chat/message features are primarily used to send Memes and content.

3.2 Sketchy Screens

Login & Registration Screen

No Critiques or Updates during Group Feedback! :

• We intend to implement a Login/Registration screen just like this!

Updating Tasks Screen

Group Feedback:

• Showing some sort of in-progress

• Removing task (Sense of completion)

• Panda UI feature that encourages users (A Sense of Reward)

• Small button to clear list

• Have, Could, Extra beyond categories.

• Consider longer to-dos

Updates made given Group Feedback:

• We added a clear list button to easily clear our list
• If you complete a task we are assuming it is removed
• When all tasks are completed they get to see a cute anteater
• We provided a new form of categorizing and have now included the option to add a due date.

Group Screen

Group Feedback:

• Bottom right is most simple to understand
• Make color coordinate more to group progress
• Include time remaining to induce some 
• Make tab layout consistent
• Include profile setup – username, profile pic, etc
• Page asking for access to contacts

Updates made given Group Feedback: 

• Changed the highlighting color of the progress percentage to reflect how close the group is to their goal
• Added tabs at bottom to maintain consistency throughout our app
• Added time remaining to create a sense of urgency and understanding of timeframe
• Ability to click into individual users to see more info about what they have left to do

Friends Screen

Group Feedback:

• Positive competitiveness
• Pop-ups may look outdated
• Need more details on what features we can put on the you/them screen
• Decide on privacy of user tasks – is it too invasive for friends/users to see what you are working on? 

Updates made given Group Feedback: 

• Removed pop up for sent requests and instead used the standard twitter/insta/facebook UI of having the button change to whatever status is there
• Decided on protecting users privacy and hiding what you are working on from others
• Added a clearer UI button for the gamification feature (the finish line page)

Setting Goals Screen

Group Feedback:

• Consolidate all different pages we designed
• Decide how many pages/tabs we want
  • Get rid of top buttons: Design w/ Chris’ tab design
• Simply Task Page (top Left/top right) 
  • Decide most important qualities and focus on those
• Bottom Left — More clarity on what that page will be
• Show how the different pages link together more clearly
• Use more WORDS

Updates made given Group Feedback: 

• Added more words to provide more context to what buttons/features are offered
• Added more clarity to the flow of different pages
• Updated the tab/page button to match our group decision
• Moved the placement and size of the progress percentage
• Added titles to each page
• Removed the Notifications Page (where users could place different notification reminders for different tasks)

3.3 Moodboard

Our mood board conveys a playful, fun, and productive vibe through bright, lively images. It features visuals of people who appear engaged, successful, and productive, reinforcing our theme of productivity. While the board includes a variety of colors, blue is the most prominent. As a team, we chose blue because it evokes a sense of productivity while still maintaining a playful and inviting feel. Overall, we have many playful images and professional images that come together to set the mood for a Playful, Sleek, Straightforward, and Professional design.

3.4 Style Tile

Breaking down our Style Tile, the fonts we selected were Raleway Bold (Header/subheaders) and Nuninto (Body). These fonts were selected on the principle of emitting a playful, sleek, and professional vibe. Our color selection is a range of shades of blues. We have our main color as a bright blue to draw attention. In contrast, we have a lighter blue to be more fun. Likewise, we have a darker blue for potential subheaders, offer contrast from our bright blue, and evoke a professional feel. Lastly, we have a greyish tone for secondary buttons and black/white for all the words. This color scheme, we believe, best represents the essence of WeDo.

3.5 Prototype + Usability Testing

Walkthrough

• CS247B Final Prototype.mov is a video walkthrough of the prototype we tested in class. This video will walk through the product functionality and flow.

Link to Interactive Prototype:

• Try It Yourself!

 

Our Usability Testing Script can be found in the previous link. Please navigate to the document to get access to the full script we asked during our usability testing. Through this script, we intend to receive real time feedback on how engaging and empowering our design is for supporting productivity. The key questions we asked are as follows:

•  On a scale of 1-10, how intuitive was our website and why? 
  • This directly measures how users perceive the usability and engagement of the design. 
• How easy or difficult was it to create a task? 
  • Since task creation is a core functionality, user feedback here indicates how well the design supports productivity.
• Was it clear where to find the nudge feature?
  • This ensures that users can easily locate and use the nudge function, which supports the social aspect of our product.

Evolving from Moodboard + Style Tile Design Choice 

• Evolving from the moodboard and style tile, we made intentional color choices throughout our design—with blue and grey highlights throughout our various buttons and visuals. The bright white background with light grey and bright blue visuals are intended to draw attention to the most important parts of our site, the Progression Percentage and Add Task button. We had initially planned to place a playful Panda Logo throughout the platform, but inspired from the sleekness and professional designs in our Moodboard, we felt the lack of a Panda at this stage would enable us to test the user’s feeling of professionalism on our platform.

Following the Usability Testing of our Prototype, we compiled all of the different critics and suggestions that our participants provided. The User feedback regarding areas for improvement as as follows:

1. Ability to sort tasks based on severity
   1. Moderate
      1. This was something that multiple users pointed out and requested. All of our tasks are labeled with a priority, but there is no way to order them
      2. This is definitely something that we would like to implement. Additionally, the ability to filter and sort tasks by date or type of tasks would be nice to have.
2. Automatic sorting of tasks based on completion
   1. Severe
      1. Multiple users mentioned that it would’ve been nice to see the task list self organize when tasks are complete—complete tasks fall to the bottom of the dropdown list and incomplete tasks rise to the top. This is the intuitive mechanism that they expected but failed to see in our product.
      2. This is something we would like to consider implementing, either directly or core aspects of this. We will decide between the user suggestion and/or creating a secondary tab where completed tasks are moved to. This other approach would reduce the eye-clutter and contribute to the feeling of accomplishment (feeling of I have nothing else to do!) that some users strive for.
3. Task Graph Breakdown
   1. Trivial
      1. Some users mentioned that they would’ve preferred different, or more simplified graphs/stats in the friend compare tab. Although this critique had merit, it is not a priority in this stage of our project.
      2. This feedback is something we would like to implement after gaining more user insight. Figuring out what specific comparative metrics are most appealing, and easy to read is a great next step. That being said, we don’t see this as a priority given our goal of helping users to find the tools and social connectivity on our platform most helpful.
4. Make the Add Task Button Bigger
   1. Severe
      1. This is something that we should’ve prioritized in our design, alongside the social aspects. It’s important to make adding tasks as easy and thoughtless as possible, in order to minimize friction and encourage the habit of self-reporting. 
      2. We will make the Add task Button Bigger, and likely add some sort of background/bubble around it to embolden its presence and redirect the user’s attention.
5. Group Due Date
   1. Moderate
      1. Multiple users said that they did not want to add a due date when they were creating a group.
      2. Adding an optional deadline on group creation would be an easy fix to this problem.
6. Adding Friends to Group
   1. Trivial
      1. Users want to be able to add their friends to the group upon creation, rather than making the group and then adding people after the fact.
      2. Including an “add friends” step to the group creation window would solve this problem.
7. Find friends button
   1. Trivial
      1. Wording on “find friends” button was confusing when the search bar for existing friends was right next to it
      2. Change “find friends” to “add friends”

3.6 Final Prototype

Here is the link to our Final Prototype. There might be some difficulty accessing the live version of the platform. Please complete the following in order to access the Final Prototype if it’s not active.

1. Email or Slack: Anteater and/or Individual Team Members
2. Default to previous the prototype to understand flow and functionality. Our previous prototype and final prototype are very similar products with nearly identical workflows. Major changes will be shown below.
3. Access our Codebase
   1. Run Project
   2. View “Webview”
   3. Open in New Tab

 

Evolution from Insights gained During Usability Testing

• We decided to focus on the 2 usability critical insights we received from our usability testing to enhance the overall user experience. Based on the severe feedback, we implemented automatic sorting of completed tasks, and enlarged the add button with a distinctive background. For the sorting update, by organizing tasks at the bottom, we intend to reduce visual clutter and reinforce a sense of accomplishment. By enlarging the add tasks button, we ensure that users can effortlessly and quickly enter tasks, helping to streamline the core task creation flow and directly addressing user pain points.

 

MVP in Final Design

• Our final prototype encapsulates many MVP features and core interactions. For example, once signed in, the interface prominently features an enlarged plus button—making it effortless to create tasks—which, along with automatic sorting that moves completed tasks to the bottom, ensures a clutter-free task management experience. Additionally, the prototype incorporates group functionalities where users can invite friends, compare progress, and even send nudges, helping to reinforce the social accountability aspect of our design.

For a detailed video that walks through our final flows and explains the rationale behind each design decision, please watch the following video: CS247B Final Prototype.mov. We will cover the modifications we made in the screenshots below, and walk through our intended impact.

• Updated Add Task Button: 
  • It is now enlarged and pulsates. There is a blue ring that grows from the button every 1-2 seconds. This rhythmic design choice serves as a dynamic visual cue that naturally guides users to initiate task entry with minimal friction. 
  • In the screenshots below, you’ll see how the pulsating feature is a subtle design change that helps drift user attention towards the Add Task Function.

• Updated Sorting of Tasks
  • Completed tasks now sink to the bottom of the To-Do list! From the feedback we received, this helps to reduce clutter and reinforcing a tangible sense of accomplishment—which are insights directly drawn from user feedback.
  • In the screenshots below, 2 out of 3 remaining tasks are completed, and both are dropped to the completed section of the To-Do list.
  •