About Project
TaskBee is a time management app designed for university students who often struggle with organisation, procrastination, and keeping up with deadlines. Many students tend to leave assignments until the last minute due to poor planning or a lack of effective tools, and TaskBee aims to address that issue directly. The app allows users to easily track deadlines, organise tasks by subject or priority, and set reminders to stay on top of their workload. Its clean, intuitive interface helps reduce stress and boost productivity by making time management simple and engaging. While primarily designed for university students, TaskBee is versatile enough to benefit anyone seeking to improve their daily organisation, productivity, and overall time management habits.
Project Overview
My Role:
Visual Designer, UX/UI Designer
Product Date:
24/02/2025 - 06/06/2025 (3.5 Months)
Product Scope:
Mobile App
TaskBee
The Problem
The Goal of this project is to design a mobile app that tackles a common challenge faced by students at Murdoch University: time management and organisation. Interviews with students revealed that many tend to leave assignments until the last minute, often due to the lack of an effective scheduling system. Further research showed that 78% of students struggle with procrastination, with 86% of women and 69% of men reporting difficulties in managing their time.
The Solution
The solution was developed using insights from user interviews and competitor analysis to create a mobile time management app specifically for university students. The app helps students stay organised by tracking deadlines, managing tasks, and improving productivity. Key features include task lists, automatic reminders, a clear calendar for planning, and a daily schedule that highlights important tasks. Its primary goal is to offer a simple, effective tool that helps students manage their time efficiently and reduce procrastination.
Research
Interview
My research involved interviewing university students at Murdoch University to understand the challenges they faced throughout their studies. Common issues included difficulty navigating campus, managing self-enrolment, website usability problems, poor time management, and limited food and housing options. Many students, especially international ones, struggled with meeting deadlines and adjusting to university systems. While peer support and student services were helpful, students suggested clearer communication, improved navigation tools, and more diverse food options. Despite these challenges, most appreciated the supportive environment, approachable staff, and accessible learning resources. From these insights, I chose to focus on addressing time management and organisation.
User Personas
I created two user personas and journey maps to better understand my users and empathise with their needs.
Persona 1: Kai Renderfield, a third-year Games Art and Design student, needs an easy way to manage multiple assessments and deadlines at once, as he struggles to balance coursework with personal interests and adequate rest.
Persona 2: Lena Vectoris, a first-year Graphic Design student, needs a simple method to organise her classwork, as she often procrastinates and wants to complete assignments on time.
Competitive Analysis
I also conducted a competitive analysis to identify gaps in existing mobile time management apps. The research showed that few apps are specifically designed for university students, with most being general-purpose or work-focused, and therefore not fully suited to student needs.
Calendar/ Schedule
Organise, manage task, schedule appointment, quickly and easily.
Tasks
Help you manage your time and work more convenient.
Reminder
Be notified, reminder, no need to waste time remembering work.
Concept Development
App Main Features
System Map / TaskFlow
A system map is a visual representation that illustrates how a digital product, its users, and the surrounding ecosystem interact. It helps designers and stakeholders understand the relationships, dependencies, and flow within the system.
A task flow is a visual guide that outlines the steps a user takes to complete a specific task within an app or website. It highlights the user’s actions and decisions, mapping the path from start to finish to achieve their goal.
Usability Report
Summary
The prototype shows strong potential, especially for students and young professionals looking for a clean, easy-to-use organisational tool. With refinements to the dashboard, visual layout, and customisation options, the app could become a popular productivity solution. User feedback was largely positive, confirming its usefulness and relevance for its target audience.
Visual Investigation
A bee theme suits a time-management app because bees represent productivity, structure, and teamwork. The app uses a warm yellow, neutral, and earthy colour palette to create an energetic yet calming environment. Poppins is used as the main font for its clean, friendly, and easy-to-read style. Overall, the app aims to feel warm, fun, and motivating while staying professional and focused on helping users stay organised.
Usability Report
Summary
The prototype shows strong potential, especially for students and young professionals looking for a clean, easy-to-use organisational tool. With refinements to the dashboard, visual layout, and customisation options, the app could become a popular productivity solution. User feedback was largely positive, confirming its usefulness and relevance for its target audience.
Digital Wireframe
Digital wireframes are used to plan the website’s structure, layout, and content placement, including design elements like colours, images, and fonts. We created wireframes for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices to ensure a responsive website that delivers a seamless user experience across all platforms. Each team member was responsible for different sections: Sean, the team leader, handled the home section; Trey worked on the about section; I managed the news and events sections; and Jiabin focused on the blog section.
App Element Development
App Icon Iterations
The app icon design began with quick concept sketches incorporating feature-related elements and the bee theme. These were vectorised in Illustrator, leading to 11 draft icons. Five were refined into solid vector shapes, with a honeycomb background added for depth. Applying the colour palette and gradients improved the appearance, but the design still felt too flat. The icon was set aside to revisit later, once the overall app design was clearer.
App Name
To decide on the app name, I brainstormed several options including BuzzyBee, Bee on Time, Bee on Task, TimeBee, CalendarBee, TaskBee, and Bee Task. I chose TaskBee because it’s short, simple, and clearly reflects the app’s focus on task management. Since the app’s main features revolve around tasks, TaskBee felt like the most fitting choice, while the other names were either too long or less relevant to the app’s purpose.
Icon Iterations
After completing the app design and naming it, I wanted the icon to match the overall style. I aimed for a design that used negative space to stay simple and professional, yet still playful without feeling childish. I experimented with different ideas and settled on a bee holding a checklist, evolving from an earlier bee icon. I simplified the checklist into a single checkmark and added a hexagon background. After refining the outline and colours, the final icon was completed and used on the welcome page and as the main app logo.
Final App Icon
For the final icon, I used the version from the welcome page and expanded the outer border to form the complete icon shape. I added a gradient to the border to give it more depth and make it stand out. Overall, I’m pleased with the result.
Onboarding Icons
There are three onboarding icons. I based them on the second-to-last version of the main icon, rotated the hexagon background 90 degrees, updated the colour scheme, and changed the item the bee is holding to match each icon’s purpose.
App Feature Icons
For the app’s dashboard, there are 10 icons. Each bee holds an item representing its respective feature, except for the account icon, which is just a bee without any object.
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
Mock-Up