SUMMARY

Task Management for young adults is fragmented.

Each tool shines in certain use cases, but young adults benefit from using them together for optimal task management.

Digital Notes

Digital Calendars

Sticky Notes

Spatial Notes

Can only offer contextual reminders

Can only offer time sensitive reminders

Can only offer contextual reminders

Offers both contextual and time sensitive reminders

Allows priority indication through color, freeform writing

Only indicates most urgent not what's most important

Allows priority indication through color, freeform writing, and spatial arrangement

Can access your notes from anywhere

Can access your calendar from anywhere

Need to take your mess with you

Can access your notes and calendar from anynwhere

Need to search with the exact keyword

Information is sorted through time

Physical context helps in finding information

User can dynamically arrange information when writing or typing a digital note

User is limited in Information organization as it is only sorted through time

Physical arrangement allows three degree of freedom to organize information

Spatial Notes along with calendar reminders allow for both time and spatial organization

Core Features

Eliminate redundant reminders

Seamless integration between Calendars and Spatial Notes

Find any information easily via spatial sound

Spatial Sound alerts make it easy to find the exact information

Know which notes are important at a glance

Spatial proximity and color choice can be used as priority indicators

Access your notes from anywhere

Bring your notes with you wherever you go

SUMMARY

Task Management for young adults is fragmented.

Each tool shines in certain use cases, but young adults benefit from using them together for optimal task management.

Benefits Comparison

Digital Notes

Calendars

Sticky Notes

Spatial Notes

Can only offer contextual reminders

Can only offer time sensitive reminders

Can only offer contextual reminders

Offers both contextual and time sensitive reminders

Allows priority indication through color, freeform writing

Only indicates most urgent not what's most important

Allows priority indication through color, freeform writing, and spatial arrangement

Can access your notes from anywhere

Can access your calendar from anywhere

Need to take your mess with you

Can access your notes and calendar from anynwhere

Only leverages the remembrance system -

Need to search with the exact keyword

Uses both reminder and remembrance system -

Calendars are sorted through time

Uses both reminder and remembrance system -

Physical context helps in both reminding and remembrance

Uses both reminder and remembrance system -

Physical context along with spatial audio helps in both reminding and remembrance

User can dynamically arrange information when writing or typing a digital note

User is limited in Information organization as it is only sorted through time

Physical arrangement allows three degree of freedom to organize information

Spatial Notes along with calendar reminders allow for both time and spatial organization

Research Question Evolution

How might we employ Augmented Reality to associate location-based reminders for specific daily tasks to optimize recall and workflow?

How can anchoring digital information onto locations in the physical environment create more intuitive organizational systems that align with innate cognitive structures?

How can we utilize Augmented Reality in synergy with established organizational tools to harness the context of physical locations and the accessibility of digital solutions, thus improving recall, streamlining workflow, and bolstering accountability in daily task management?

What benefits do digital spatial interfaces offer in physical environments that enhance task management for young adults?

THE HUMAN ASPECT

How do young adults organize information in physical space?

The 1:1 exploratory semi-structured interviews provided a more profound understanding of the various methods people utilize to process information, particularly in critical areas such as ideation, information organization, and physical context.
‍

In 2 rounds of semi-structured interviews, I learnt

Ideation

How do young adults prefer to ideate?

Information Organization

What are some of the preferred methods of information organization for task management?

Physical context

What role does physical context plays when organizing information?

indicated that effective task management systems need a blend of organizational methods with sensory cues.

interview participants use more than a single tool to help them effectively manage their daily tasks but rely on one significantly more than the rest.

interview participants prefer hierarchical organization while the rest prefer a more fluid organizational system of remembrance

Time Structured Tina

Age: 24
Occupation: HCI Masters Student
Preferred Organization Tool: Calendar (Organize using Time)

Affinity for calendars

Relies on a digital calendar to organize research deadlines, group meetings, and user testing sessions.

Prefers personalization

Uses calendar integrations with email and project management tools for seamless scheduling.

Visual timelines are beneficial

Prefers visualizing his schedule to allocate time for coursework and independent study.

Reminder creation redundancy

Tina often finds herself jotting down reminders and important points on physical notes during meetings or lectures due to their immediate accessibility. However, this practice leads to redundancy, as she later has to spend additional time transferring these reminders into her digital calendar, increasing the chances of missing critical details or duplicating entries.

Visual Valerie

Age: 26
Occupation: PhD Student in Industrial Design
Preferred Organization Tool: Sticky Notes (Organize using space and proximity)

Sticky notes fiend

Uses a combination of physical sticky notes and digital tools for brainstorming and organizing research ideas.

Visual thinker through and through

Creates visual mind maps to connect concepts in her research.

Reminders belong in her space

Values the tangibility of physical notes for initial idea generation.

Out of sight, out of mind

As she cannot carry her array of sticky notes everywhere, especially when she needs to work in different locations, she often misses out on accessing her reminders when away from her primary workspace.

List driven Leo

Age: 22
Occupation: Computer Science Student
Preferred Organization Tool: Lists or Notes (Organize using hierarchy)

Finding Relevant Partnerships

Uses digital note apps for creating detailed task lists and tracking coding assignments.

Negotiating Fair Compensation

Prefers breaking down complex programming tasks into step-by-step lists.

Managing Multiple Collaborations

Relies on list updates to gauge progress and stay organized

Difficulty Measuring Marketing Impact

He often forgets or overlooks important reminders since they are not prominently visible or immediately apparent amidst his digital lists, leading to missed deadlines or overlooked tasks.

¹Gedeon, C. (2020, October 7). Moving beyond documents, slides, and spreadsheets.
²Bellotti, V., & Smith, I. (2000). Informing the design of an information management system with iterative fieldwork.
‍
³Robin, J., Wynn, J., & Moscovitch, M. (2016). The spatial scaffold: The effects of spatial context on memory for events. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42(2), 308–315.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Do you want to find the information yourself or the information to find you?

After parsing through 30+ written resources, I realized that...

‍

People already link tasks to environments naturally with notes, piles, props in purposeful spots.¹

The problem with task management is not failure to prioritize well. The real challenge is rather making sure that the important tasks get done, even if the unexpected occurs.²

Spatial context plays a leading role in remembering events as it serves as a scaffold for encoding and retrieving episodic memories.³

THE HUMAN ASPECT

How does your Work, Relax, and Play look like?

Complementing the surveys, the exploratory interviews provided a more profound understanding of the various methods people utilize to process information, particularly in critical areas such as ideation, information organization, and memory retrieval.
‍

Time Structured Tina

Age: 24
Occupation: HCI Masters Student
Preferred Organization Tool: Calendar (Organize using Time)

Affinity for calendars

Relies on a digital calendar to organize research deadlines, group meetings, and user testing sessions.

Prefers personalization

Uses calendar integrations with email and project management tools for seamless scheduling.

Visual timelines are beneficial

Prefers visualizing his schedule to allocate time for coursework and independent study.

Reminder creation redundancy

Visual Valerie

Age: 26
Occupation: PhD Student in Industrial Design
Preferred Organization Tool: Sticky Notes (Organize using space and proximity)

Sticky notes fiend

Uses a combination of physical sticky notes and digital tools for brainstorming and organizing research ideas.

Visual thinker through and through

Creates visual mind maps to connect concepts in her research.

Reminders belong in her space

Values the tangibility of physical notes for initial idea generation.

Out of sight, out of mind

List driven Leo

Age: 22
Occupation: Computer Science Student
Preferred Organization Tool: Lists or Notes (Organize using hierarchy)

Finding Relevant Partnerships

Uses digital note apps for creating detailed task lists and tracking coding assignments.

Negotiating Fair Compensation

Prefers breaking down complex programming tasks into step-by-step lists.

Managing Multiple Collaborations

Relies on list updates to gauge progress and stay organized

Difficulty Measuring Marketing Impact

He often forgets or overlooks important reminders since they are not prominently visible or immediately apparent amidst his digital lists, leading to missed deadlines or overlooked tasks.

DESIGN IMPLICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

Unveiling the Insights: Discoveries and Findings

Redundancy in Reminder Creation

^Requires^{Adaptive Organizational Structure}

Physical tools are preferred because of convenience but digital tools are more manageable over time.

Design MUST help young adults minimize redundant reminder creation

Centralization in Note-Taking

^Allows^{Ubiquitous Access}

The preference for a centralized repository for notes and reminders emerged as a strong theme among users.

Design MUST make it easy for young adults to recall when the reminder is due and access it easily

Challenges in Note Retention and Recall

^{Is addressed if}^{Information is easy to find}

Design MUST streamline the physical and digital reminders and notes

Proximity and Urgency in Physical Spaces

^Uses^{Physical Space as a Priority Indicator}

Design SHOULD use proximity as a metric for reminder notification and/or sorting

Mitigating information overload

^{Is possible with a minimal}^{Notification System}

Design SHOULD allow young adults to customize how many reminders are being shown to them

DEVELOPMENT TOOLKITS

Translating insights into action

Central to this development was the integration of the Microsoft Mixed Reality Toolkit 2 (MRTK2) and Meta's Presence Platform, which together provided a robust framework for building the augmented reality interface.

Core Technologies

PROTOTYPING

Building and testing a spatial task management system

Through these 1:1 semi-structured interview rounds conducted with the headset, the users preferred a symbiotic spatial note and calendar interface due to familiarity and ease of use

13 Participants

with diverse technical expertise

5 rounds

of interviews conducted with Meta Quest 3

3 designs

tested for their ease of use

Spatial Notes with sound reminders

Spatial Notes mimic sticky notes for familiarity

Spatial Calendar

Combined spatial note and calendar for better flexibility

Physical Space as a Reminder

Eliminated - too obtrusive for daily use

AR Note Mockup #7

During initial testing a user revealed

AR Note Mockup #24

Another user mentioned

"Note Colors should be interactable buttons."

AR Note Mockup #54

During initial testing a user revealed

"Dynamically change hitbox sizes to respond to user intention."

Design Idea #3

Spatial Calendar

Spatial Calendar Mockup #65

In the next rounds of testing, users said:

"Combine spatial note and calendar for better flexibility"

Spatial Calendar Mockup #70

In the next rounds of testing, users said:

"This adds too much clutter in my space. which adds to my anxiety"

Spatial Calendar Mockup #70

In the next rounds of testing, users said:

"Sound, Color, and Animations were the most effective attributes at grabbing attention"

Design Requirements

Design Ideas

Augmented Reality Note

Physical Space as a Reminder

Spatial Sound Alarms

Spatial Calendar

Minimizes redundant reminder creation

Offers Centralization in Digital Note-Taking

Tackles the Challenges in Digital Note Retention and Recall

Uses proximity as a metric to indicate urgency

Mitigates information overload

ATTRIBUTE EVALUATION

What if the note changes with distance?

Throughout this study, the distance between participant and spatial note was standardized, allowing us to isolate and understand the impact of each attribute variation on the control group.

6 Participants

with diverse technical expertise

5
Rounds

Sound Loudness & Pitch
Color Saturation & Hue
Animation Speed

3 Attributes

Sound, Color, and Animation

The alert getting louder as you it gets closer feels more immersive and helps in locating the note
Decrease in Note Color Saturation as it goes away means In focus vs Out of focus
Animation speed is a good indicator of urgency but changing its speed with distance is not relevant to user.