Project Management - Subtasks

Taskworld

My Role

Product Designer - User Research, Competitive Analysis, User Testing, Interaction Design

Timeline

Aug to Oct 2020

Overview

Taskworld did not have a way for users to break down large tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. This means complex projects can feel overwhelming, making it harder to stay on track.

I teamed up with another designer and a product manager. We refined the user needs, designed a solution to address their needs, and tested it with real users. We also collaborated with the development team to bring the solution to life.

The subtask feature is seeing good adoption, with 11% of users now creating subtasks each week. This suggests the feature is helping users manage their projects more effectively.

Research

Analyze User Feedbacks

The purpose of the research was to get an understanding of what patterns our users typically do in regards to task management. This research is the summary of the user's feedback and requests about Subtasks and Checklist items that we have gathered. I categorized our support requests into these categories.

Problem

“There's no way for users to break their tasks into smaller items with full-fledged task's functionalities”

Key Insights

🗓️

Set Date Functionality

Users consistently express challenges in task breakdown due to the absence of a feature allowing them to set dates for individual items.

⚙

Subtask properties

Users express the properties they would like to have on checklists. Those are Date, File Attachments, Description, Time Spent Record, Reminder, and Comments.

🖼

More Alternative Views

Users are keen on having alternative views for subtasks with requests such as Timeline/Gantt chart, and Overview page (a centralized page providing an overview of all tasks)

🔍

Competitor Insights

Some users mentioned competitor indicating points for consideration. By 8% of users feedbacks brought up Asana regarding subtasks functionalities.

Competitive Analysis

I chose and compared the major competitors with similar services and business models to Taskworld, aiming to determine what aspect we should consider for the template feature from user’s requests.

The competitors provide either subtasks or checklists to break down the tasks. ClickUp is the only product that provides both subtasks and checklist functionalities.

According to the research and brainstorming with the product manager and other designers, we decided to aim for a subtask feature as a new way of breaking down the task instead of improving the checklist functionality to provide more levels of execution structure.

Solution

Low-fidelity Wireframes

Wireframe: Creating Subtask (selected screens)

Hi-fidelity & Prototype

Create a subtask

User can create subtasks from the main task properties

Duplicate subtasks

Ability for users to duplicate a task with subtask. User can also duplicate a subtask under the main task or as a separate task.

Multi-location subtasks

Users can move subtasks freely from the main task. And add subtask to another project like a normal task.

Subtasks view settings

Ability to show and hide subtask list on the main task.

Usability Testing

Usability test with four participants

Success

Allow users to track data based on their preferred filter criteria, such as Period, Projects, Assigned to, and Tags.
All users showed interest in using the subtask feature to organize their work more efficiently.
The users found the option to choose whether to view the subtask as a separate task or as a part of the main task useful.

Learning

All users found it difficult to differentiate between subtasks and the actual tasks on the board.
All users felt that the subtask list within the main task looked too similar to a checklist and did not convey the hierarchy of tasks.
Three out of four users could not find the option to hide the subtask list on the board. They expected to find it near the main task instead of in the view setting.

Design Changes

Main task card

Updated the subtask list to have a different appearance from the checklist.
Ability to collapse/expand subtask list from within the task.

Subtask card

Change the appearance of a subtask to be differentiated from the main task.

Main Task Card

Grouped the settings options, as well as the ability to show/hide items to display on a task.

Results

Data from January 2021 to December 2023

Since the subtask was first introduced in 2021, there has been a consistent increase in the feature usage year over year as seen in the graph

On a weekly basis of all the users who created subtasks, on average they have created 7 subtasks each with a median of 3 subtasks each week.

1.8%

of all tasks created have subtasks

18%

of workspaces have created subtasks

11%

of users have created subtasks

Key Takeaways

🗓️

Prioritizing Design Under Pressure

The Subtask project taught me to focus on essential design elements under tight deadlines, ensuring user needs were met without compromising quality.

🧪

Usability Testing Matters

Early usability tests revealed design issues before implementation, enabling smoother development and reducing costly revisions.

⏳

Saving Time Through Validation

Validating designs through testing helped avoid pitfalls, saving time and costs while improving project efficiency.