How can time management app better support college students with ADHD in their time management?

Research Process

Secondary Research

We approached this problem from two perspectives: first, identifying time management challenges faced by college students with ADHD as outlined in the literature; and second, evaluating the features and offerings of existing time management apps designed for adults with ADHD.

1. We conducted a brief literature review on the time management challenges faced by college students with ADHD and found that nearly all students with ADHD struggle in this area. To further contextualize these challenges, we explored social media platforms like r/ADHD to gain a deeper understanding of specific difficulties. Our findings revealed significant variation in how ADHD manifests, with individuals experiencing different aspects of time management challenges.

2. We compiled a list of apps commonly used by adults with ADHD for time management, noting that some were general task management tools, while others were specifically designed for adults with ADHD. To better understand the specialized options, we focused on apps tailored for adults with ADHD and conducted a competitor analysis (see screenshot below). This allowed us to identify features uniquely designed to address the specific needs of this audience.

Research

Consultation with SME

We consulted with a psychologist and counselor experienced in ADHD to help navigate this complex problem space effectively.

Through secondary research, we identified core challenges faced by students with ADHD, including difficulties prioritizing tasks, estimating time, maintaining routines, impulsivity, task initiation, susceptibility to distractions, overcommitment, emotional dysregulation, and co-occurring conditions like anxiety or depression. These challenges are well-documented and form the foundation of many existing ADHD support strategies.

Our competitor analysis revealed that while numerous apps address these challenges, most focus on a single aspect at a time. Although tailored strategies exist for ADHD-specific issues, there is a lack of integrated technology that meets users' comprehensive needs. Adults with ADHD often need to juggle multiple apps to manage their time effectively—an ironic challenge given their difficulties with organization and focus.

Recognizing the complexity of building an all-encompassing solution, we consulted with subject matter experts and carefully considered the feasibility of addressing every ADHD-related issue within a single product. Based on these insights, we decided to focus on enhancing features in existing apps, aiming to improve their ability to support users more holistically.

User Interviews

1. We identified undergraduate students with ADHD at our institution. We were able to identify 6 participants total, 2 women, and 4 men. They use some type of application to manage their time. The findings identified the following insights:

   1. Apps tends to only meet one aspect of their needs, and it can get overwhelming trying to manage the apps that are used to manage time. Many apps that are designed are not integrated with tools that are used in educational institutions, which makes it worse.

   2. Even with most apps, ADHDers need to plan all tasks in details, which is overwhelming in itself, which would decrease their motivation. ADHDers often suffer from "time blindness", which refers to the inability to assess how much time it actually needs to complete a task, it is very challenging for them to plan well.

   3. Assistance with task chucking can be helpful, allow easy reprioritization is important.

   4. Persistent reminders can be helpful, and it would be useful to integrated with system that can detect if a project is done complete.

   5. Support is important, especially from people that understand the ADHD struggles to provide the emotional rapport when they in a bad groove.

   6. Continue to learn about ADHD helps to manage ADHD.

Synthesis

Users Pain Point #1

1. It is overwhelming to plan tasks in itself. It is challenging for ADHDers to assess time needed for tasks, and prioritization of tasks.

Generating Design Principles

1. Minimalism. Design an onboarding and planning process that requires minimal contribution from the users.

2. Personalized support. Have system guide the planning process, and allow the system learn users habits and suggest a list of balanced activities through out the day.

3. Integration. Allow users to integrate calendars and messages from various sources and manage their life with one time management tool.

Personas

We distilled the following two personas to help keep us focused during the design process.

User Pain Point #2

1. It's a challenge to stay on task, and event harder to get started on a task and stay motivated.

Design Opportunity #1

1. It would be great to turn the table and have the system to initiate and guide the planning process. System can also learn about user habits over time and provide suggestions for activities throughout the day.

Design Opportunity #2

1. System can help users to stay focused when they should. Help users to prioritize tasks based on their goals and time they have at hand. Provide assistance with breaking down tasks. Motivate users by making them feeling accomplished and sense of control at the end of the day.

Key Research Insights

#1 Students with ADHD struggles with planning and prefer tools that make this process easier for them. This is more than just breaking down tasks and allow prioritization of them. It should be easy to accomplish without being overwhelmed by the task of breaking down tasks.

#2 Helping students with ADHD to get motivated to start on a task is just as important. ADHDers often feel a sense of defeat because their To-Do list never gets cleared. A sense of accomplishment can give them a sense of control in life and feel more motivated on a regular bases.

Ideation

Brainstorming

We wanted to redesign a whole new user experience, rather than just a feature enhancement. Therefore, we dreamed big!

Virtual Assistant Integrated Time Management Tool

The concept of a virtual assistant can help to provide a sense of personalized support to users. It also offers a system guided process of setting up the schedule and breaking up tasks into bite size based on an individual's habits and routines.

Voice Control Plugin

Another idea is to offer a voice control option for widely used calendars (e.g. Google Calendar). Being able to talk through the schedule and task breakdown makes it a bit more efficient.

We also discussed an idea of enhanced version of a gamified experience, where the system guided planning process would be implemented in the game as well. Among all the ideas that we discussed, we decided to go with the Virtual Assistant idea to provide users maximum amount of personalized planning support and integrated experience. The following chart explains the general idea of how this might work.

Further, we created a User Journey Map to illustrate how might our target user use this new virtual assistant integrated time management tool in different scenarios.

Low-Fi Prototype of Design Solution

Feature #1

We want to use the virtual assistant to guide the planning process. Example scenarios we used were planning for the next day.

Feature #2

We re-envisioned the virtual assistant guided process of breaking down a large task, reorganize schedule after an event, and prioritization.

Concept Evaluation

We created paper prototypes to help us to evaluate the concept of virtual assistant guided time management. We also created generic prompts about situations where the virtual assistant can help and how it might help with the process (e.g. plan for upcoming week/day, assist with breakdown a task, reorganization of schedule after unexpected event). We curated a series of processes to demonstrate how we believe the system can support users to manage their schedule.

Concept evaluation result shows that users believe that the virtual assistant is a good idea to help with managing the schedule. Users also agree that the integrated calendars and the ability to learn about habits and make suggestions of activities could be useful. However, it is more important to determine how it might work specifically. Through concept evaluation, we realized that this was a very big project and we did not have time to make a complete prototype of what it could be. Instead, we decided to focus on a few features that is tailored for students with ADHD with time and task management.

Implementation

Reflection

1. You can dream big, but you have to start small. It is great to dream up about what it could be. Many amazing designs started with an idea that is very out there. But to come up with a design solution, we have to start from somewhere. In this design exercise, we decided to focus on the experience of planning, which is something many ADHDers struggle with.

2. If you are not consulting with users, you are guessing. It is more visible with this project because ADHDers needs different support when it comes to planning, any assumptions the design team makes could be very wrong. Validating concepts and ideas with users is crucial in every step of the design process.

3. Diverse teams achieve higher! We conducted this study during the COVID where all aspects of university life is remote, which made it more difficult to recruit participants, and our team was very small. A more diverse team with members have more technical backgrounds, expertise or experience with ADHD could have been very beneficial. It made me realize the power of diverse teams that could make our work more efficient and more inclusive.

4. Inclusivity from the get go! In an ideal world, our technology should be created with inclusivity in mind. Could a virtual assistant be useful to someone that does not have ADHD in planning a calendar? Sure. What about integrated calendar? I think most students would appreciate calendars would merge and work with each other. Inclusivity, in a way, means that technology is well designed and easy to use, for everyone (within the target population). Why can't we start with that mentality from the get go?