Creating a time management and planner app for busy college students. Time management is hard for college students, especially first-year students who are struggling with the transition from high school to college and have a hard time balancing academic responsibilities with social life. How can we help students effectively balance their time between academic responsibilities and social activities with friends?
Busy college students, particularly first-year students, struggle with time management during their transition from high school to college. They often find it challenging to balance academic responsibilities with social activities and personal time. This difficulty can lead to stress and overwhelm.
Design a time management solution that effectively meets the diverse needs of college students while addressing their unique struggles with balancing academic responsibilities and social activities.
I began this project with research and user interviews with college students to gain a better understanding of the pain points that students face with academic life and time management. During interviews, I asked students about their courses, their activities outside of classes, their current methods of time management (if at all), and how they feel about their current practices. My main takeaways are that not everyone benefits from a strict schedule, people enjoy flexibility and customization, and people desire to share schedules with their friends to find overlapping free time.
Using the needs and insight statements I gathered during user interviews, I created user personas to help me decide on how to frame this mobile app solution and ways to address the users’ needs.
After crafting user personas, I moved onto competitor research to better understand similar time management platforms and the features they implement.
I moved on to site mapping and building out the information architecture for NUPlan along with a user flow to map out how users would interact within the app.
Alongside Lo-Fi Wireframes, I built out a design system to guide the visual design of the mobile app.
During my rounds of user testing, I received a lot of feedback regarding the overall intuitiveness and experience of my app.
After user testing implementation, I compiled the final screens into a prototype. This video walks you through all of the main screens and flows.
NUPlan's time management app effectively addresses college students' unique challenges in balancing academics and social activities. By emphasizing flexibility and customization, the app empowers students to manage their schedules effectively, enhancing productivity and reducing stress. The integration of social features fosters community and collaboration among peers, allowing students to coordinate schedules with friends. Continuous improvements based on user feedback ensure the app remains intuitive and user-friendly, ultimately promoting greater academic success and a balanced lifestyle.
