Hey Apple! Fancy a new feature?
How iOS Calendar (could) keeps track of your habits
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, than, is not an act, but a habit.
Will Durant
O boy, it's week 3 of Ironhack bootcamp and after two really intense group projects, this project will be all about adding a feature to an already exsisting app. All by myself.
My task is to create a habit-tracker to iOS Calendar that helps the user implement new habits in their daily routine and cut out bad ones.
The idea for this feature came from Tanyel Taran, a fellow classmate from my cohort. Cheers, Tanyel — I really like this!
But for now- let's see how this works.
Context
Everyone who owns an Iphone probably knows about the calendar app that ships on every Apple device. The app lets you see your appointments, schedule new ones and invite people to scheduled events, but thats about it.
I found that having a feature that keeps track of your own set goals within the calendar app would be possible and maybe even suitable. Not only do I already use different habits-tracking apps, I also use the calendar app almost every day and therefore I would probably use this feature if provided by Apple. But — as we all know- I am not the user, so I did some User research before starting the implementation.
Research
After doing a short survey, I found out that 92 Percent of the participants are willing to get rid off their “unhealty” habits or want to introduce new “healthy” ones into their lives. Another 30 Percent indicated, that they use their calendar app on a daily basis. This sounds like good news- maybe it is time to introduce the calendar users to a new feature?!
Implementation
Now, my next step would be to focus on how to implement the feature within the app without messing up the slick and minimalistic design of Apple.
I found two spots where to put my feature within the landing page of the app. I decided to put the feature in the footer next to Todays Tasks, Inbox and Calendar.
Another alternative would be to have a kind of a dropdown-menu when pressing the plus-icon. The user could decide wether to create a new calendar entry or a new habit.
My idea was to to provide the Mid-Fi Prototype with both options, in order to observe the users behaviour and decide afterwards to keep both or eventually get rid off one of those two.
User Flow
Now that I decided where to implement the feature, I started to create the userflow. This step was a bit challenging, since I kind of always struggle with the schematic representation of the user flow. Don't ask why.
In the end, I came up with two user flows. The first user task would be to add a new habit, set a regularity, choose a color and even set a Remind-me option. The second user flow would be all about the insights of certain already established habits.
The user would check on the progress and how she/he is performing. I also thought about linking the performance to Apple's Health App, where it could be synchronized.
Mi-Fi Wireframes and User Testing
In order to let people test my feature I created a Mi-Fi Wireframe prototype.
In the end I did three rounds of user- testing. In the first round a user noticed that he could easily create a new habit, but that there was no overview for all existing and up coming habits. Dang! Why I didn't I think of this in the first place? So I created an additional page, where all habits are listed and could be edited or deleted in the next step.
Another users pointed out some misunderstandings communicationswise. I remembered the Nielsen Heuristic Evaluation principles, because I completely failed especially the principle of “Visibility of System status”.
The user did not know where she was and wondered if she could ever get back to the landing page without deleting her habit.
In the last testing round one user pointed out that the Remind-me Toggle was actually useless because he wouldn't be able to set a time or day for the reminder. This was a funny moment, because I felt biased by the designs I see everyday, especially in a calendar, but would never use it.
What I've learned:
- Create an overview page for already existing habits
- Get clear in terms of navigation
- Don't put something out there without understanding the concept of this element 😅
- The users would equally choose both options in order to create a new habit. I didn't need to get rid off one of the options.
The feedback of the user testing was REALLY helpful. To see them interact with my prototype made me see my own design with different eyes as well. Delightful!
Hi-Fi Prototypes
After adjusting all the given feedback into my prototype I created the Hi-Fi Prototype. I have to say, I loved this part because it was all about recreating and crafting my feature into an already existing app.
Key Learning and next steps
I have to say, I had some troubles defining the “performance” page. After my presentation a collegue pointed out, that she would like to know, if the habits would end at a certain time. Maybe it would be better to show the progress with bars instead of the Full circle. If I did more rounds of user testing, I guess this would have been the next task to adjust.
Other than that, I really liked the idea to implement a feature to an app — I got to use Figma for dozens of hours and I definetly appreciated the help of the users.
I wonder if Apple would be interested in enhancing their calendar app. It doesn't necessarily has to be a habit tracker, but…actually, why not?
