Now that I have defined what the problem is, I am now going to undertake a competitor analysis. This is to see what other similar apps are doing, what I think they are doing good and what I think they could improve on. I also just want to get a better understanding of routine planner apps and how they should function.
The first app I came across was Structured, a routine planner mobile app. It is used to help users structure their day blending a to-do list with a calendar. On first impression I thought that the app was very nice and allowed me to enter in what I was doing for the day. The main screen is the ‘Timeline’ screen, where the user can view their tasks for the day and also add new ones. I do think that there is a lot going on in this page, and it was quite overwhelming for an onboarding experience. I thought that the ‘New Task’ page was good, as it allowed you to enter in what type of task that you wanted to do, then select the time and how long it takes. Structured also uses external notifications, and this is quite a big part of their app, as users don’t need to open the app every time they want to see what their next task is. This is something that I also plan to implement into my routine management app.
Another app that I looked at that helps people with routine is RoutineFlow. I downloaded this app to have a look around and see if there was any similarities to Structured. The first thing that I noticed about RoutineFlow was how granular and extensive it’s onboarding process was. At first I thought that it was great because it meant that there was some personalisation that meant it would be tailored to me specifically, but in fact there was a lot of unnecessary questions that simply didn’t need to be there. This made me tired of the app before I actually properly got into it. Questions like “How old are you” seemed unnecessary and some of other questions didn’t seem to have much purpose. Apart from this I thought that RoutineFlow’s UI was much better than Structured. I like the way that the next task is clearly displayed alongside what time it is at. I like how the screen isn’t as clustered as Structured, but only gives the user the information they need, which is what they are doing next.
The last app that looked at as part of the competitor analysis is Routinery. It is a routine planner app that lets users create their own routine. Unlike routine flow, there was only some onboarding questions, and this made onboarding a lot less tiring. I love how easy it is to add a new routine, and how to add things to that routine. I also really like the colour scheme that is used throughout, but the other competitor apps that I looked at allowed the user to change the colour of their app. Overall I think that Routinery is the best routine app out of the 3 that I have looked at. I think this because there is no information that doesn’t need to be there. Sometimes it feels like the other 2 are trying to do more than they need to. A problem with all 3 of these apps is the amount of times a screen pops up that wants to sell a premium version of the app, and this got quite annoying quickly.
From doing a bit more research and asking some others more questions I found out that Google Calendar is a tool that is commonly used to organise events and tasks. Although this isn’t exactly what my brief is about, it is loosely adjacent to what I am also doing. On initial download and onboarding I thought that this app was extremely good at what it does. It has a very simple interface and allows the user to see what they are doing for the day and the ability to add new tasks and events. I love how there isn’t any excess information that isn’t needed, but only what the user needs to see at that specific time. I also love how you can change the view from ‘today’, to ‘3 days’, and also ‘week’, which allows the user to be as specific or broad in what they want to see.
Todoist is a digital reminder and planner app. I wanted to turn my attention to apps that function like a digital to-do list, as I think this is the direction that I want to go down instead of a routine planner app. On first look I was really impressed by this app. I love how simple and to the point it is. It works just as a normal to-do list would work, you write down what you need to do, and put it on the list. You can set the time as well if you want to get a reminder notification which I like. You can also see your tasks for just today and you can also see other days or the week as a whole. Overall Todoist is a great app and serves its purpose without over-doing it with extra features that are unnecessary.
I learnt a lot from doing this competitor analysis. I mainly learnt that I need to ensure that my app doesn’t try to do more than what it has to do. I loved Google Calendar and Todoist, and think that somehow combining the two would be a great idea. I also learnt that for a productivity app you don’t want to be spending too much time on the app doing unnecessary things, as this defeats the purpose of it. For my project I will ensure that the focus will be on the need of the user, which is providing them with what their next task is.