Students and faculty members alike share the perpetual struggle of being overwhelmed by the amount of revolving tasks at hand. Without visualization, it is easy for one to suddenly feel overpowered by the number of assignments they have. The mere thought of the ginormous cloud of “To-Dos” hanging over one’s head is a very real and debilitating feeling, that may be remedied by certain task managers. A popular method of organization for those in academia are GTD or “Getting Things Done” apps. As most who have used these in the past know, all of the moving parts of GTD apps may become distracting or overwhelming for the user. So many options often does the opposite of intended, and dissuades the user from using the task manager further because it actually complicates the workflow process. AcademicLife OS, was designed by our client, a junior faculty member at UNC to remedy this issue.
AcademicLife OS has a slew of goals and values for the intended users: students and educators. The biggest goal of AcademicLife OS is to be purposely restrictive. This will remedy the major issue that many GTD apps have had of being too overwhelming with superfluous options. To achieve this goal, the options provided to the user on AcademicLife OS are very intentional. Long and short term goals are prioritized with semester long planning and weekly planning. This allows the user to break down semester long projects as smaller tasks, and accomplish them in a timely, placed fashion. The app also includes a daily workstation which aids in daily visualization of tasks currently at hand. The series of dashboards AcademicLife OS offers also helps users categorize their work. For example, our client uses the prototype’s dashboard feature to separate his research and courses. All of these goals and features are moving parts that make AcademicLife OS unique.
Why are these goals important, and how will they help the users’ quotidian lives? As discussed earlier, the stress of workload is a common daily force for those in academia. The visualization that AcademicLife OS provides in key in diffusing some of this stress. The ability to break down semester-long projects into weekly tasks aids the user in picturing what the work process will look like, decreasing some trepidation about those larger scale tasks. The ability to have separate dashboards as well for different facets of work is key for the user. This aims to isolate each project as its own and make the total sum of work one has more approachable. This is an important concept because often GTD apps can be cluttered with work from many sectors, and it can be cumbersome for the user. Overall, AcademicLifeOS will be an important, unique tool for students and faculty to manage their stress through goal setting and planning.