Projects
Notion Research
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Industry
Productivity, Project Management Software
Project Type
Research
Nikki Olsen, Angel Luviano, Dessi Lang, and Natalie Schnelle
Team
Role
Project Lead, UX Researcher, Editor
Usability Testing, Participant Recruiting, User Interviews, Report Development, Persona Development, Heuristic Evaluation, Cognitive Walkthrough
Skills Used
As a college student, some sort of planning is necessary if I am going to get all of my homework done alongside work and fun. Every student I know has some sort of planner, whether it be digital or physical. One such planner is Notion, a productivity tool for both individuals and companies with high customization and focus on aesthetics. For this reason, three colleagues and I chose to evaluate Notion as a planning tool for students. Interviews with students allowed us to create 4 different personas, which then informed usability testing. We also performed heuristic evaluations and cognitive walkthroughs. Through our research, we discovered that the minimalism of the Notion interface was confusing for users, since they didn’t know how to complete their desired tasks.
Project Summary
Fig. 1: Affinity diagram of common interview topics
Fig. 2: Charting preferences of our interviewees based on trends seen in the affinity diagram.
Interview Results: Personas of Student Planners
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Amy the Type A Planner
Amy uses a spreadsheet to list all her assignments at the beginning of each term. Each class and term is color coded. She currently uses different platforms for school and personal life, but would like to combine them into one platform. She gets notifications about calendar events and due dates, but generally doesn't need them to remember what to do. She likes to be on top of everything.
Goals: Merge her platforms together while maintaining her system she uses now
Worries: In merging everything together, some responsibilities slip through the cracks
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Stephen the Casual Planner
Stephen likes to keep his school work separate from his personal life. He uses Google Calendar to keep track of his schedule, but keeps a running to-do list in his Notes app on his phone. He likes his planning platforms to be organized, but doesn't take too much time decorating them.
Goals: Stay on top of things while maintaining his separation of spheres
Worries: Integrating would make his life more stressful because he is mixing work and fun.
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Emma the Old School Planner
Emma carries around a paper planner with her everywhere she goes because she likes that it is easily accessible at all times. She doesn't believe that she can successfully keep track of everything digitally, so her planner is her best friend. In it she has sections from upcoming due dates, daily trackers, and a daily schedule. She turned on notifications for D2L as a fail-safe. She writes fast but makes sure that its legible and pretty.
Goals: An easy-to-use system that keeps everything on track, that also has a notification system
Worries: Being forced to use software that doesn't work for her, and having the software fail when she needs it most
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Savannah the "Go with the Flow" Planner
Savannah gets stressed out by planning because she gets overwhelmed by the number of tasks she has to complete. Because of this, she just uses her memory to keep track of her assignments and schedule. If she misses an assignment, she isn't super worried anyway, accepting it as something that happens from time to time. She doesn't like notifications because they remind her of her many responsibilities as a student.
Goal: Keeping her list of tasks at a managable level and maintaining a stress-free life
Worries: The software would stress her out because of notifications and long task lists
Usability Test Findings
Users frequently got lost when trying to complete a task.
Task: You realize assignments you’ve completed are listed in your To-Do’s. Because you’re done with them, change the view to exclude tasks with a status of “Done.”
Quote:
Participant: Like, I'm thinking of, like, an action that's like 1, 2… that's done. Then that action of putting it to the bottom or deleting it with.
Interviewer: But you're not seeing anything that helps you do that?
Participant: No.
Users were overwhelmed by too many options.
Task: Many first-time users use templates for an easy transition into Notion. Check out the template feature and tell us your thoughts about it.
Quote:
Participant: Oh my God!
Interviewer: Why did you say “Oh my God”?
Participant: I didn’t expect that many things.
Interviewer: Was it overwhelming for you?
Participant: A little bit overwhelming? Just because I wasn't expecting…
