Perk:
Senior Thesis Project
With today’s focus on instant results, it is easy to stray from pursuing good things because of the time required to complete them. This expectation of immediacy distorts our understanding of the time and effort it takes to complete tasks. Perk is a task-planning system that aims to retrain our brains against our expectation of immediacy, starting in the productivity space.
We have a societal expectation of immediacy meaning:
- we underestimate how much time tasks take.
- we overestimate how much work we can complete.
We are bad at planning out work.
We overpack our to-do list.
We can only complete so much.
We end up stressed with tasks looming over our heads.
Research Insights
To further understand this problem, I conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with individuals ranged 20 to 61 years old.
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Recognizing work through process builds resilience for delay.
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Too much delay or unclear timelines can be punishing and cause burnout.
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Immediate gratification can refuel us, but too much causes complacency.
Concept Exploration: Time-Centric Planner
In concept ideation, I focused on a time-centric planner that could provide users with more structure to their implementation of delay and reward.
Prototyping
To test the proposed flow of how my task planner would work, 10 week-long diary studies were conducted. Participants were given a kitchen timer, sticky notes to write their tasks, and a booklet of the proposed flow. A booklet was used for this test as it provided more flexibility to update the concept after the test.
Insights
1. The point system needs to be flexible
per user or per task length.
2. Having a physical timer is a fun interaction
point and limits distractions.
3. Participants re-arrange their tasks across
days after the brain dump.
After the diary study was complete, I collected the data to create visualizations of the participants progress. These videos were sent out to participants separately and compared in a group setting.
Insights
1. The report was a form of reward, intrinsic to the app.
2. People are encouraged by seeing their small tasks adding up.
3. Report share-ability is an opportunity for marketing and competition.
Introducing Perk
Perk has a three-part system, featuring a:
Digital Planner
Physical Timer
Digital Report
How does it work?
Anna needs to make a to-do list.
She opens the app and sets up a large reward.
She brainstorms her tasks and motivators.
She organizes her tasks and motivators.
She estimates her times and runs the check.
After forming her list, she saves.
She works to meet her estimates and thinks
about her upcoming motivator.
When she has correct estimates, she earns points. Every point gets her closer to a large reward.
At the end of the week, Anna watches her points and time spent working add up in her report.
Let’s walkthrough!
The digital planner is the center hub of Perk, allowing you to organize your tasks and implement a system to reward yourself.
This walkthrough shows the sections of perk and the different navigation functions.
Image Gallery
