Evernote Tasks-
Smart due date recognition

Evernote Task is a tool that helps users organize their to-dos in notes with features like priority flags, due dates, and reminders. The due date feature, the most used among all sub-features, is the most important to survey respondents.

Evernote's goal is to increase habitual use and analysis shows that more task due dates mean more habitual use. By increasing due date feature usage, Evernote Task usage will increase and habitual use of Evernote will improve.

Approach

To test our hypothesis that increasing the usage rate of the due date feature will drive Evernote Task usage and ultimately increase habitual use of Evernote, we took incremental steps to improve the overall task due date experience. We began by implementing smaller improvements, and collected user feedback throughout the process to ensure that we were headed in the right direction before investing in more complex solutions.

Project Goals

Boost utilization of the due date feature.

Phase one :
Suggested due date pills

Strategies for increasing the usage of due date feature

Original flow:
Users needed to click "add due date" to open the due date modal and add a due date.

Research insights

To increase due date usage, we researched why users don't add due dates. User research and data collection provided insights into user behavior. We found:

New flow:
Suggested due dates now require only one click to add a due date.

Task detail modal

Task in note

Mobile

In the future, we plan to implement a horizontal scrollable feature that allows us to display suggested metadata based on users' behavior.

Phase two :
Smart due date recognition

A more streamlined and intuitive method for setting due dates

Users can create due dates for their tasks by entering the desired due date and time in the task title field. Our MVP supports both recurring and non-recurring due dates.

Desktop: In note task

Desktop: Task detail modal

Mobile

Modifying tasks with existing due dates

We conducted research to determine user preferences for modifying tasks with existing due dates as opposed to creating new tasks with due dates. Our findings aimed to identify user preferences and determine the most effective flow for modifying existing tasks.

A: Auto-updating date input.

B: Additional click for due date confirmation.

Research

Through testing two different flows, we discovered that users prefer (B) an additional click to confirm changes to the due date, even if it requires one extra step.

Final design for modifying task with due dates

Desktop: Task detail modal

Desktop: Task in note

Mobile experience

To improve the mobile user experience, we have utilized the suggested pills field that was introduced in phase one. As opposed to the desktop version, where we use a dropdown menu, the suggested pills pattern offers better usability and navigation on mobile devices.

Key takeaways

Break larger projects into smaller, incremental steps, and learn from each step to iterate and refine the project direction.
Collaborate closely with engineers to understand technical constraints and define an MVP (minimum viable product) together that can be completed within a reasonable timeline and provides a good user experience.
Find a balance between Mobile and Desktop experience, they can be slightly different in detail interaction but follow same logic for overall experience.