Wunderlist was acquired by Microsoft in 2015 and we set out on building its successor, Microsoft To-Do. A unique opportunity to build a new application from scratch, I helped define the high-level product direction, visual identity, and brand strategy of the app. I also led the design of multiple features, owned the Android design system, and contributed code (Java) to the native To-Do Android client—building out many view and implementing micro interactions.
To-Do for Android
Next to conceptualizing Microsoft To-Do with the larger product team, I owned the design of our Android application. This meant defining the fundamental UX and aesthetic of the app, collaborating with our Development team to bring the product to life, and building out the design system in Sketch. The goal was to blend the unique To-Do branding and personality with the familiarity of Material Design.
Alongside the core application, I also designed the accompanying home screen widget and app shortcut. The widget has a minimal design with a progress indicator that allows users to get a glance at their progress directly from the home screen; the quick add shortcut allows for to-do creation through the App Shortcut feature released in Android 7.1.
I also contributed to the development of the app, ideating and implementing many of the details seen in the app, including the parallax toolbar, checkbox completion animation, and many of the surface and scrolling transitions.
Theme Options
With theming we allowed the user to customise the appearance of their list based on the content or purpose, providing a more personal and emotional experience. The goal with the theme setting design was to provide effortless customisation from within the context of their list. On mobile we were able to achieve this by using a bottom sheet for a more ergonomic experience that allowed for emphasis of the list header.
Repeat To-Do's
I worked on the Repeat To-Do's feature, allowing users to repeat their items on a schedule. The challenge was exposing a set of options that was robust enough to cover the majority of scenarios, yet simple and unintimidating for the average consumer.
We shipped an MVP that exposed only a refined set of repeat options, with the mentality that it would be easier to add additional functionality at a later date based on feedback, rather than ship an overwhelming experience that we'd have to reduce later. We designed a set of “quick” actions that were exposed when the user interacted with the repeat field, making it super fast to set the most common recurrence. Additionally, we added a "Custom" option that allowed for a more granular recurrence setting.
I worked cross-platform (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Web) on designs that felt as native to the device as possible.
Android Development
I helped with the frontend development of the To-Do for Android client. I designed and developed some of the core animations and micro interactions, including the parallax toolbar transition (below), checkbox animation, and some of surface animations within the app. I also helped build and optimize screen layouts, and reviewed peers code for quality.