Our research consisted of interviewing people about their time management and applications that help them with their time management. First, we researched other time management apps and explored what unique features we can add to make our app more convenient. Next, we did interviews and collected necessities about how UMD students manage time. Lastly, we created a prototype that allows UMD students to satisfy their time management needs.

Contextual Enquiry

Contextual inquiries are used to observe people in their environment and allow researchers to ask questions about specific actions to fill in gaps. With COVID-19 restrictions, it limited the number of people we could observe and so all of our interviews were conducted virtually. Our target audience was college students because they were more accessible to interview with the current pandemic.

We began all of our interviews by introducing ourselves and discussing why were conducting these and what we hoped to get out of them. We then received their consent to record with video and/or audio to be used as a reference and to gather quotes. Our first round of interviews consisted of 10 college students and was used to identify a problem and find a solution that incorporates joy into the design. We asked questions focused on how they manage their time and how their priorities have changed with the recent pandemic. We ended the interview by asking what kind of help they were looking for when it came to time management and if they would consider using the app as well as what kind of tools they would consider using to help them time manage (calendars, physical planners, apps, etc). In these interviews, we observed the following:

• What people wanted to accomplish

• Their environment

• How they interacted with people and things

• Objects in their environment

• Users, specifically their behaviors, preferences, and needs

Attached below is the template we followed during these interviews.

Image of empathy mapping done after interviews

The biggest limitation was having to conduct many things virtually. What helped get around this limitation was having outlines to follow for interviews and user testing sessions. Having outlines helped to guide conversations and made sure we were gathering all the information we needed. Similarly, platforms like Miro allowed us to collaborate and brainstorm together virtually.

Another limitation some of us faced was recruiting participants. Because we were conducting interviews and testing during the pandemic, it limited the participants we had access to. Prior to the pandemic we could have walked around campus to recruit a variety of students outside of our immediate circles. To accommodate this limitation, we recruited participants from our immediate friends and families and tried to have different participants for the interviews and user testing.

Before testing our Lo-fi prototype with our target audience, we gathered feedback from other teams. This feedback revolved around our design, anything that was confusing, any questions they had, etc. The goal of this session was to illuminate areas for improvement.

Some common feedback comments were:

• "What separates our product from products on the market?"

• "I liked that it was a simple and clean design, it makes it easier for users to use and understand."

• "If all app usage is being tracked, would there be features to exclude particular apps?"

User Feedback

After gathering feedback from other teams and making improvements to our prototype, we then had users in our target audience test the prototype. To test it, we gave each user a series of tasks to complete and then asked for their feedback. This feedback included their initial thoughts on the app, whether the app was intuitive to use, what could be improved, etc. The goal of this testing was to gather information from potential users and tailor the product to what they wanted.

Some common feedback comments were:

• "I recommend improving the design such as fonts and color schemes to make it more modern- looking."

• "I would recommend this app because it would help limit distractions and I could better focus on tasks."

• "The functionality of the lock-out screen was confusing because I didn't know to wait for the pop-up, I assumed it would automatically take me there."

We then took this feedback and identified the common themes through empathy mapping. Finally, we made improvements to the prototype so that it took into account our users' wants and needs.