BUJU, Bullet Journaling made digital
OVERVIEW
- Summary
/ˈbo͝olət/ /ˈjərnl/ A bullet journal, or "Bu Jo" for short, is a method of personal organization designed to systematize schedules, reminders, to-do lists and progress tracking in a single notebook. We made BUJU, the native app version of a bullet journal.
- Role & Responsibilities
UX/UI DESIGNER
Attitudinal surveys
Persona development
User story development
User flows + story boardsInformation architecture
wireframe sketches
Paper prototype
Digital wireframeClickable lo-fi prototype
Usability testing
Summary of findings
recommendations - Problem STATEMENT
Users need to organize and manage everything from big, once in a life moments down to daily habits.
They need notes, action item tracking, photos consolidated in one app instead of in disparate locations.
This calendar, journal, photo album hybrid helps organize major events like weddings, marathons, or grand openings to lifestyle tracking like an IVF journey, gratitude journaling and hydration quotas.
Not all calendar entries are created equal.
Understanding distinctions between entries is the first step to prioritizing them.- CALENDAR ENTRY DISTINCTIONS
- EVENTS
- Actionable
- Time Constrained
- In person or digital
- Sometimes involves advanced preparation
- Typically involve other people
- TO-DO's
- Actionable
- May or may not be time constrained
- Usually a solo task
- NOTES
- Generally not be actionable
- May pertain to a particular date
- Varying degrees of importance
- HABITS
- Actionable
- Performed with high frequency
- Generally not time constrained
- Varying degrees of importance
- Usually a solo task
HOW MIGHT WE help users hone in on high priority items amidst the noise?
Important > Mundane - USERS & audience
professional planners
Ambitious or Type A
organized
educatedsmart phone users
Men & Women
Ages 25-45
parentsMindfulness practitioners
Working professionals
entrepreneurs
StudentsTest the high-fidelity prototype here
View Prototype
Process
- DISCOVERY & RESEARCH
People use a mix of paper and digital calendars to stay "organized" but are still dissatisfied
IN-HOUSE SURVEY
A survey conducted testing 9 men and women found:
6/9
8/9
9/9
aRE TRYING TO FORM OR BREAK A HABIT
OFTEN MAKE LISTS OR NOTES FOR THEMSELVES
WOULD LIKE ability TO TRACK PROGRESS ON AN APP
- user personasjenny t. | Calendar Chaos
- STATUS
- 26 years old, female, single
- From Denver, CO
- Motivated, type A, people pleaser, extroverted
- BIO
Jenny came from a household of high achievers. She puts a lot of pressure on herself to succeed at school, life and dating. She is nearing the end of her MBA program and she wants to spend as much time hanging with her friends before they all graduate and move away.
- GOALS
- Graduate on time with an A average
- Secure a good job or internship before graduation
- Snowboard, hike and hang with friends as much as possible
- FRUSTRATIONS
- Being late to virtual events because they snuck up
- A cluttered calendar
- Google Calendar's desktop notifications
"I need to see assignment due dates and meetings first. Everything else comes second."
GABE J. | 30 days to form a new habit
- STATUS
- 29 years old, male, in a hetero relationship
- From Spokane, WA
- Gentle, spiritual, artistic, easy going, intelligent
- BIO
Gabe is an art teacher at a popular Montessori School. He loves his job because art and social impact are very important to him. He works on "atomic habits" daily so he can evolve into the best version of himself.
- GOALS
- Drink 100 oz. of water, meditate for 20 min and journal daily
- Connect with and inspire the kids he teaches
- FRUSTRATIONS
- Missing his daily habits because he is too busy
- Being impatient or short with his students
- Feeling rushed
"As a teacher, I need to be patient and compassionate. I work on this daily through meditation and breath work."
Sara B. | big goals, little steps
- STATUS
- 35 years old, female, wife & mother
- From San Diego, CA
- History buff, gardener, artsy, likes her alone time, sleepy
- BIO
Sara and Mark are making good money and they want to learn how to invest it so they can travel, save for Dominic's college fund and retire one day. Gardening, cooking and marijuana help Sara to relax when she needs to unwind.
- GOALS
- Be a good mother and a loving wife
- Grow organic produce for the family
- Learn about passive investing in the stock market
- FRUSTRATIONS
- Having little to no alone time
- Judging herself about whether she is doing enough
- Overwhelm from investing information
"If I can read or watch YouTube for 20 minutes here and there, in six months I'll be ready to start investing."
- Competitive Analysis & Mental Models
Existing productivity apps primarily fall into a task, note taking or calendaring niche. BUJU's aim is to bundle the most common user needs from these three categories.
SWOT Analysis of the of Google Calendar app
"I'd love to be able to set a reminder for the same numeric date each month,
ya know, like how most bill payments..." - Everyone"Monthly on March 13" is not a recurrence option, yet is an extremely common use case (most bills!). "Monthly on the second Saturday" or "Repeat every 1 months" is not the same as the 13th of each month.
BUJU's draws inspiration from Google Calendars but recognizes and addresses its failures.
DESIGN PATTERNS
BUJU emulates the long press or touch and hold gesture to open a menu of options, similar to apps Pinterest and The Guardian, shown below. This design pattern was selected because it's a great solution to a minimalist UI.
Guided by the Gestalt Principles of similarity and proximity, BUJU's Add New ( + ) button opens a swatch of the 4 entry types ( events, to-do's, notes and habits).
- user flow
The most common user flows center around adding, reviewing or revising entries.An empathetically ideated consideration was the need for the 4 different entry types (events, to-do's, notes, habits) to be threaded together by tagging them to a parent journal entry.
This was design was justified for users who are planning major endeavors that involve various components and/or incremental steps.
For example, a bride-to-be planning a wedding or runner preparing for a marathon will organize daily/weekly to-do's, notes, photographs, a calendar of next "sub-events/to-do's," or habit tracking statistics that all tie into the pinnacle event. - Sketches & Storyboard
REQUIRED FUNCTIONS
Review calendar or journal entries
Modify calendar or journal entries
Add a new event, to-do, note or habit
Mark a habit complete
The assumption was made that users want to see all entries for that day on their home screen.
DISTINCTIONS OF A "HABIT"
Storyboarding the Habit Entry process was familiar for me because I track daily habits with symbols on a physical calendar. For example, a "V" means I took my vitamins that day, "E" for exercise, and so on.
The goal is to gently remind the user so it is brought to their attention but without cognitive overload and clutter. Habits are not displayed on the calendar because they typically do not adhere to a time of day and there is little consequence if not completed. Habits are displayed as small customizable icons that have symbolic significance to each user.
- WIREFRAMES & CLICKABLE PROTOTYPES
Significance can be more important than chronology, when it comes to calendar entries.
Guiding Principles of the WIREFRAME process
HI-FIDELITY COPY
In order to properly visualize the way users might interact with the product, placeholder text was scarcely used. By carefully considering various use cases, polished copy was implemented in initial wireframes.
PRIORITIZATION
Being able to filter a view by entry type is an imperative to be able to prioritize actionable and time sensitive items. Hierarchy can be more important than chronology when it comes to calendar entries.
INTERCONNECTIVITY
Triaging and interconnecting entries is important for large goals that need to be broken down into smaller steps. Entries with affiliated sub entries help organize actions and keep the user organized.
NOTIFICATION
Being able to choose active, passive or no notification support the need to prioritize. Reminders for a job interview or flight require more emphasis than a reminder to hydrate.
Visual DesignMOOD BOARD
Taking inspiration from existing Bullet Journals, a pastel palette and a variety of colors were selected to reduce stress and help convey entry differentiation. These images are intended to inspire tranquility, optimism and peace to counter the stress from life planning.
MOCK UPS
Initial mock ups utilized a textured, paper canvas to create the feeling of a Bullet Journal or a paper calendar, however, survey responses concluded that the look was distracting.
ProTOTYPE
- USABILITY TESTING & RECOMMEDNATIONS
Five Usability tests were conducted over the course of two days to gather feedback about the UX of the BUJU app.
Task scenarios included creating a new event, asking what the different entry types were and where they might expect to find the Habit Tracker page.
All users were able to perform all task scenarios, however, most insights came from the qualitative feedback. Issues discovered during the usability tests, lead to the following solutions and recommendations:
ACCESS
The Habit Tracking icon location was moved to the home screen and was converted to an icon for easier navigation. It became apparent that this feature was in higher demand than originally hypothesized, and was therefore moved to a more prominent and intuitive location.
REDUCE
When editing an entry, the user was prompted to save the edit and then save the entry. Unnecessary clicks were removed from the process in order to make the experience more intuitive and user friendly.
RESPOND
Based on existing mental models, we know people have grown accustomed to understand meaning through icons. Because calendars are already data heavy, the continued effort to minimize text and communicate via icons is a high priority. The original interaction for habit completion was to have the icon disappear, again to reduce visual noise. But user insights indicated that the response would be more rewarding if the interaction provided some trace like a “green check mark” as opposed to nothing. Reinforcing the action through reward is a feedback loop we want to encourage.
ONBOARDING
Because the app favors icons over text, it was noted that an improved onboarding experience could be an ideal time to introduce users to the location, meaning and ability of the symbols. This allowed us to remove redundant links and further improve the look of the home page.
VERBIAGE
Though the jargon is specific to Bullet Journaling, it was ultimately decided that we use the word “Journals” instead of “Collections” when referring to the note taking part of the app. “Journals” is more familiar and requires no explanation. One user stated “The word ‘Collections’ requires people to think too hard about what it is.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
- OUTCOME
DEEP DIVE
If given more time, I would collect more information about:
Frequency of habit tracking. What entry type do people use most? Do people thread associated to-do’s, habits or events together like expected? Would it be useful to have entries connected to others or not?
WHAT WORKED?
Brainstorming use cases I personally experience (as the intended target audience) and surveying other user needs. At the time I was planning my friends wedding, so I was graced with insights into a unique use case.
WHAT DIDN'T?
Assuming how often people want to view their habit trends/tracking. Prototyping all of the variable views for the time increment and entry type: Day, week, month, year BY event, to-do, note, habit, all.
WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY
Use components more wisely. Start lower fidelity at the outset. Iterate more on the visual designs later on. Discussed more use cases with potential users.
WHAT WAS LEARNED?
I learned that:
Even in 2021, scheduling and life planning apps need a lot of improvement. The great need for filtering or customizing views. Making interactions responsive. A good onboarding can make or break an app. Most competing apps don't connect or "thread" related entries. People need BUJU.