Megan Drescher - Priority Panda

Background

Adults with ADHD have problems with time management. The inability to keep track of time can impact relationships, self-esteem, and anxiety levels, making it hard to set goals and achieve them. Traditional tech-based calendars and planning tools like Outlook and Evernote don't seem to work as a long-term solution for adults with ADHD.

Objective

To create a tech-based tool to help adults with ADHD better manage their time and feel more in control of their lives.

Research Plan

Research Questions:

1. What do adults with ADHD find most difficult about time management and goal setting?

2. What tech-based tools do adults with ADHD currently use? Are they effective?

3. What potential features might a tech-based, time management tool have that would make time management easier?

Methodology:

- User surveys will be used to find (5) interview subjects.

- User interviews will be used to find out how they currently manage their time and to discover pain points

Participant Characteristics:

- Adults with ADHD (either diagnosed or undiagnosed)

- Ages 18-40

- Uses a tech-based time management tool or calendar on a regular basis (3+ times per week)

- Has a smartphone

Recruiting Methodology:

- Find interview subjects using an online survey

- Leverage the Springboard Slack community and personal network

- Locate relevant groups on social media

I set out to find potential users, starting with social media. I found two groups that seemed to meet my criteria and posted some background and a link to my screener survey. 34 people took my survey, giving me lots of good useful information about the type of tech-based tools they use, what they use them for and how often.

You can view the results of the survey here.

Next, I interviewed five users on zoom for a more in-depth conversation with the goal of better understanding their current relationship with tech-based productivity tools.

After each interview, I wrote down the most important ideas on post-it notes and started organizing them into groups with common themes.

Analysis

Heuristic Evaluations

For my heuristic evaluation, I chose three mobile productivity tools- coach.me, 2Do, and Priority Matrix. The problem I set out to solve with my capstone project is how to help people suffering from ADHD feel more in control of their life and how they spend their time. The three products I evaluated are all in the realm of productivity but differ slightly from one another. They are:

Coach.me is a tool to help people reach their goals with a social element to help incentivize users. The app can be used for habit tracking and personal coaching, with a paid coaching option available as well.

2Do is a productivity tool with a to-do list as the main feature.

Priority Matrix is a fully-featured project management tool that is integrated into Office365.

Usability Heuristics

Using Nielsen Norman Group’s 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design, I selected three usability heuristics to evaluate the apps listed above. They include:

1. Match Between System and Real World

2. Flexibility and Ease of Use

3. Minimalist Design

Rating System

Below is my rating system for evaluating these three products using the three heuristics listed above.

Click here to see my complete competitive heuristic evaluation.

Using what I had learned from my research and interviews, I created an empathy map, affinity map and persona to help guide the rest of the product development.