EMILY MEER
brand
Essentialize
Project
improving engagement
with a scheduling feature
Summary
I led design in creating a scheduling feature that allows users to schedule tasks connected to their objectives and Key Values.
Role
UX/UI Design
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a need to Facilitate the pursuit of key values
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Many Essentialize users struggle to align their daily routines with key values. While they have clear intentions—such as prioritizing health, relationships, or career—they often find it difficult to consistently integrate these priorities into their schedules.
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Without a system to plan and track value-driven activities, users risk feeling disconnected from what matters most, leading to frustration and disengagement. The challenge is to create a scheduling feature that incorporates meaningful activities into their routines, reinforcing values through daily actions while remaining flexible enough to adapt to real-life constraints.
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Understanding the problem
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To understand user engagement with Key Values, the CEO spoke directly with users about their experiences. While many appreciated the idea of aligning their lives with their values, they struggled to consistently follow through.
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KEY FINDINGS
Through these conversations, several key challenges emerged:
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​Lack of time: Many users felt too busy or overwhelmed by daily responsibilities, making it difficult to prioritize activities aligned with their values.
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Disorganization: Some users wanted to integrate their values into their week but felt they needed to “get their life in order” first, delaying action.
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Abstract goals: For many, their values felt too broad or conceptual, making it difficult to translate them into specific, actionable steps.
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TAKEAWAYS
These insights highlighted a clear problem: users needed a structured yet flexible way to turn their values into daily actions without feeling overwhelmed.
This discovery led to the development of a scheduling feature, designed to provide users with a tangible way to plan and track activities related to their values along with their existing daily obligations.
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INITIAL HYPOTHESIS
We hypothesized that users are more likely to successfully align their daily actions with their core values when provided with a structured yet adaptable scheduling system that helps translate abstract values into concrete, actionable steps.
Exploring possibilities
Based on our research, we hypothesized that users would better live by their values with a structured yet flexible scheduling system. By integrating this feature into Essentialize, we aimed to help users plan, track, and adapt value-driven activities to fit their busy lives.
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COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
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TRADITIONAL CALENDAR & TO-DO LIST APPS
Google Calendar, Todoist, Notion, etc.
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​Strengths: Strong scheduling functionality, reminders, and recurring events.
Limitations: These tools focus on tasks and productivity rather than values and personal meaning, making it difficult for users to tie activities to their core beliefs.
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HABIT TRACKING APPS
Streaks, Habitica, Fabulous, etc.
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Strengths: Gamification and streak-based motivation to encourage consistency.
Limitations: These tools focus on tasks and productivity rather than values and personal meaning, making it difficult for users to tie activities to their core beliefs.
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KEY CONSIDERATIONS
A weekly calendar allows users to visually track completed programs or activities. It provides a quick glance at their activity history, promoting a sense of accomplishment and helping them identify gaps in their schedule.​
ACTIONABLE SCHEDULING
Users needed a way to take broad values (e.g., “running” or “kids”) and translate them into specific, manageable activities (e.g., “go for a 20-minute run” or “read to my children before bed”).
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FLEXIBILITY & ADAPTABILITY
Since schedules often change, the feature had to allow users to reschedule or adjust planned activities without feeling like they had “failed.”
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VISUAL CLARITY
The interface needed to be intuitive and lightweight, ensuring that scheduling didn’t become another overwhelming task.
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MOTIVATIONAL REINFORCEMENT
Users needed gentle reminders and progress tracking to stay engaged with their scheduled activities.
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BUILDING IT OUT
With a clear understanding of user needs and competitive gaps, we moved into prototyping, using Figma to design and refine the scheduling feature within Essentialize’s existing design system. This ensured visual consistency, brand alignment, and a smooth development handoff.
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STRUCTURE & LAYOUT
We designed a simple, list-based interface where users could assign specific activities to certain days.
EARLY INTERNAL FEEDBACK & ADJUSTMENTS
Before conducting external testing, we gathered internal feedback from the team to identify initial areas for improvement:
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CROSS-FEATURE INTEGRATION
Finding: Users wanted to integrate the objectives feature with the scheduling feature.
Iteration: We adding a scheduling component to the objectives feature, allowing for the addition of recurring tasks related to objectives to the schedule.
TO-DO LISTS
Finding: Users wanted to see a broader view of all their scheduled tasks and activities, not just a day-by-day list.
Iteration: We updated the interface to include a to-do lists that can be filtered to show all, this week, later, or overdue activities.
FLEXIBILE SCHEDULING
Finding: Instead of having to choose a specific time to complete a tasks, users wanted a more flexible way of scheduling tasks that need to be done sometime that day as opposed at a specific time.
Iteration: We added a “Some Time Today” section to categorize tasks without a definite time to do it.
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refining the mobile experience
After implementing the scheduling feature, we gathered user feedback to assess its impact. Our goal was to validate whether the feature successfully helped users integrate their values into their daily lives while maintaining flexibility.
After implementing the scheduling feature, we gathered user feedback to assess its impact. Our goal was to validate whether it effectively helped users integrate their values into daily life while maintaining flexibility.
USER FEEDBACK & ITERATIONS
We introduced the scheduling feature to a beta group of Essentialize users and monitored their interactions. Through interviews, we identified key areas for refinement:
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IMPROVED ORIENTATION
Problem: Early testing revealed that some users found it hard to orient themselves within the day.
Solution: To address this, we will update the UI to include some indication of the time of day and which tasks are up next.
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ENHANCED FLEXIBILITY
Problem: Users appreciated the ability to reschedule but wanted an even more seamless way to adjust plans.
Solution: We plan to implement a drag-and-drop rescheduling feature.
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PROGRESS VISUALIZATION
Problem: Many users experienced friction in adding a task if they did not have a value already set that related to it.
Solution: We will make a “Quick Add” in the task creation to allow for the seamless addition of values.
IMPACT
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It's too early to have any significant quantitative data on this feature. However, users reacted favorably to the feature, some saying that the feature allowed them to manage aspects of his life better than Notion.
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Through continuous refinement, the scheduling feature will not only help users align their actions with their values but also reinforce Essentialize’s core mission—empowering individuals to live with intentionality.
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​Streamlining Collaboration
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Bringing the scheduling feature to life required close collaboration between design, development, and product. From concept to implementation, we prioritized clear communication, iterative feedback, and shared alignment on user needs to ensure a smooth integration into the Essentialize app.
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COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
DESIGN TO DEVELOPMENT HANDOFF​
Component consistency: A shared design system was maintained to keep UI elements (e.g., buttons, scheduling cards, modals) uniform across different states and edge cases.
Prototype walkthroughs: Prototypes in Figma were used to demonstrate intended micro-interactions, easing the development process.
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL COLLABORATION
Sync meetings: Regular check-ins between design, development, and product ensured alignment on priorities, resolved technical constraints, and incorporated feedback efficiently.
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MAIN CHALLENGE
ALIGNING DESIGN VISION WITH TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY
Early discussions between design and development revealed differing expectations about the scheduling feature’s complexity. Designers envisioned fluid, flexible interactions, while developers raised concerns about performance and backend limitations. We addressed these issues during sync meetings to find a balanced solution.
LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE
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Developing the scheduling feature for Essentialize provided valuable insights into designing intuitive, flexible, and high-performing user experiences. Through challenges and iterations, we refined both our design approach and our collaboration processes.
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GUIDING USERS FROM CONCEPT TO ACTION IS KEY
We learned that abstract ideas—like aligning daily life with personal values—need clear guidance to become actionable. By incorporating guided prompts and predefined suggestions, we helped users bridge the gap between their values and real-life activities.
Lesson: Future features should continue to emphasize structured yet adaptable frameworks to support user decision-making.
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PRIORITIZATION PREVENTS SCOPE CREEP
Despite the benefits that the scheduling feature brings to the app, there is some debate surrounding its ultimate allegiance to the business objectives.
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Lesson: Aligning user needs with business objectives helps prioritize an MVP approach, ensuring a polished, user-friendly release.
There’s always more to do
As we continue refining the Essentialize app, we plan to build on these insights to further enhance user engagement and functionality. Future iterations may explore adaptive scheduling based on user habits, deeper integration with goal-tracking features, and improved AI-driven recommendations to make value-based planning even more seamless.
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