01 28 21 brainstorm

Brainstorm Meeting

Team: Powell's Owls | Group 33

Overview

Date	Time	Type of Meeting	Where
01/28/2021	6-7pm	Brainstorm	Zoom

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Agenda

• Brainstorm the Pomodoro app by discussing ideas such as basic features, intended problem to solve, target audience, etc.

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Key Points

• Reflected on Chad's discussion section and talked about details of overarching goal
  • What problems are we trying to solve?
    • Distractions, burnout, getting started, chunking up tasks
  • What differentiates our app from others?
    • Ideas included automation, gamification, satisfying to use, intuitive/accessible design
  • Who is our user?
    • Procrastinating college students doing complex assignments and large projects
• Discussed bare-bone features of the first iteration of app
  • Simple, minimalistic design
  • Timer, buttons for starting and restarting, title to determine if on Pomodoro, short break, or long break
  • Likely manual rather than automated
  • Little to no customization, closely follows Pomodoro Technique

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Attendance

• Michael Donaldson
• Richard Duong
• Brandon Liu
• Bryant Shao
• Steven Steiner
• Nicole Trappe
• Vy Truong
• Felix Zhang
• Lulu Zhu

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First Sprint (MVP)

• no automation, everything is manual
  • user must push button to start pomodoro and break
• traditional pomodoro
  • 25m pomo session, 5m short break, 30m long break
  • 4 pomos = set, long break comes after a set
  • user does NOT get to decide on the length of break (set as short or long)
• clear timer takes up screen
• UI is minimalist, focuses on count down, changes color depending on mode currently in
  • add small text labelling the mode (e.g. "short break")
• user input: start, restart

Second Sprint

• show the simplified time left in tab text (e.g. 24m NOT the seconds)
  • lets user see time remaining without having to switch back to that tab
• design the UI such that a very condensed, small window just shows off timer nicely
• add settings to allow user to modify length of time
  • put MINIMUMS and MAXIMUMS on this time: e.g. for pomo, min 15m, max 2h
  • also add settings for other simple UI changes (e.g. color, 24m vs 24m 03s)
• decide on notifications: audio/push/none?

Future Sprint

• record
  • tasks you were able to accomplish (like a did-list)
  • productivity ratings
  • #pomos completed
• notifications
• todolist
• gamification

Hate These Features

• progress bar
• flashing, moving text, animations, distractions
• unstoppable sounds
• pause/stop button
• captcha

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Full Notes

The Problem:

• Using phones
• Life is full of distractions
• App not distracting
• Hard to get started (activation energy)
  • Tries to motivate you
• Avoid burnout, space breaks

Our Goals:

• improve flow in the future (Track flow)
  • Future integration
• Let manually adjust duration of work + let them keep track of Pomodoros
• At end of session, get to see Pomodoros for that day/log them

How Our App Is Unique:

• Automatically go to break
  • (A) into short/long
  • (B) just into a break
• Automatic cycling for Pomodoro (vs timer on phone)
  • Feel a sense of urgency to go into the mode (not ignore it?)
  • If manual, take as long as you want
  • After break, if manual, don’t wanna go back into working
• Break issues
  • First iteration: just Pomodoro
  • Give option later to auto cycle (time out function)
  • Or notification of “you done watching” sort of time out for forever loop
    • Goes against technique bc just wanna work + don’t want any interruptions
• todolist
  • Minimalist says no todolist
    • Probably not better than other ones out there
    • Not helpful, clutters up the space
  • Write down after the Pomodoro of what you do (achievement)
    • Record of what you did
    • Satisfaction of completing info
      • Keep engagement in website
• Attractive
  • Want people to use app
    • Add game (like dinosaur network down)
    • Therefore diff than a todolist bc makes the break fun and keeps you on the site
  • Simple
• Most Pomodoro apps not successful, want ppl to use app, monetize it/gamify it to keep people on
• Agile development

Who Is The User:

• Procrastinating college student
• constraints: work day/time excluding lecture to usually get one big assignment done
• Both trying to solve small + large tasks
• Some people say it’s busy work
• Other people say high level stuff (chunking the project into sizable pieces)
  • Small assignments don’t require a break
• Ppl use the app when at desk/online
• Calendar is a constraint (time slots available for work)