With the release of Todoist Next in 2014, it was introduced a new design alongside new features. From the beginning, the team was focused to modernize the app and improve the user experience across the board. Postponing tasks was one of the things we especially wanted to improve.
The previous version of our app had only two options when it came to rescheduling tasks. Whenever you needed a bit more control you needed to use the full calendar, or type in a new date. We wanted to give our users more options and make it much more visual so that it would easier to use on mobile devices, but also great on other platforms.
One initial idea was a smart system that would look into your tasks and would suggest the best dates magically (before AI were all over the place).
Early stages of development: from circular menus to really complex sets of options with date suggestions marked on the calendar and additional feedback on tap.
The first mockups were looking promising. We tried different layouts, even a circular menu, and iterated quickly on the options range. Soon we started to think about how to cut interaction steps, how to increase choice options and reduce taps, fitting everything into the same screen.
One of the first problems we detected with the “magic” was the lack of feedback on the dates. Another problem became obvious: we didn’t have enough information about the users to truly make the best possible suggestions. To do so would probably have required a lot of input from the user or, really, spying on everything they do.
Also, the interface was getting really cluttered with a lot of choices, and too many taps were required for some simple selections.
With the precious help of Khoi Vinh (amazing designer and UX guru), we started to realize that we weren’t achieving our goal of simplification, we were making the app more complicated.
Although Android and iOS versions work the same way, the UI was adjusted to better fit each platform. Although it’s the final layout, the options set would still be adjusted before the release.
From there, we needed to take a step back and rethink the entire system. We strongly advocate simplicity in user interfaces, so our new visual scheduler couldn’t be complicated. The options set was restrained and date suggestions were removed altogether.
The layout was also simplified. The final solution is a 3×2 grid of options, with access to a full calendar as one of the options, so it’s easy to know what to expect at any point. Some of the other solutions might have been good choices, but after testing, we figured they were harder to use and required a steeper learning curve. Sometimes it’s just better to keep it simple.
There was a lot of effort put into developing the system and, in the end, we decided on an easily understandable group of choices. All of this in order to offer a great user experience that actually helps the user make decisions about due dates, and ultimately get things done.
Full blog post: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2014/04/how-to-beat-the-paradox-of-choice-in-ui-design/
