PieTime
UX/UI, Mobile App Development
PieTime is a task-oriented visual timer app that helps users better manage their time. As the sole designer on the project, I worked on a team of three other developers to bring the app from concept to reality.
Problem
Keeping track of time when you have multiple tasks can be difficult, especially for those who experience time blindness, such as people with autism or ADHD. Devices like visual timers are popular in these circles for their ability to make the passage of time more tangible, but can only represent one task at a time. This makes visual timers frustrating to use when you have multiple tasks to complete in a set period of time.
Process
Due to our timeline, my team and I decided to adopt a lean UX approach to go alongside our agile development workflow. This involved drafting an MVP early on and regularly consulting the dev team at stand-up meetings and throughout sprints to keep it up-to-date and as realistic as possible. I also helped out with the front-end implementation of the app in Flutter to ensure that it adhered to our mockups and theming conventions.
Research Insights
The initial user research into time blindness and executive dysfunction
translated into a competitive analysis of time management apps built to combat
them. While combing through the features and user reviews of existing visual
timer and schedule-making apps, I identified some recurring pain points:
Visual timer apps:
Inability to create a “sequence” of timers
1-2 hour limit on most visual timer apps is too restrictive
Distracting visual clutter
Time management and schedule-making apps:
Sharp learning curve due to wide range of features and options
Complicated and/or time consuming setup process
Lack of images and graphics to effectively “visualize” time
Results
PieTime currently allows users to set a timer and divide that time up into tasks
with customizable titles, durations, and colors. Each task appears as a labelled
“slice” on the timer face, which darkens as time elapses to illustrate the
relationship between individual tasks and overall time limit. Users can stop,
play, and reset the timer, or save the current sequence of tasks as a preset
to use later. All tasks can also be viewed in the bottom drawer in list form,
which also allows users to check them off as complete.
One of the main challenges of the project was in balancing the roles of designer
and software engineer in a totally new framework throughout the development
process. It meant that I was constantly revising the design to match what was
possible on the frontend side and to better cooperate with Flutter’s built-in
UI. That being said, PieTime has been a blast to work on and my team
and I hope to release it to the app store later this year.
