Found

Would this work for anyone who isn’t me?

That was the feedback on an earlier submission. Obvious, slightly deflating, and fair. So I took an existing Figma prototype of a task-and-reminder app, made minor edits to the flow, and got it straight into other people’s hands.

Testing it in a living room

Two tasks: water the plants, drink some water. I mapped the user journey, wrote a short interview, and staged the tests in my living room — vocalising a beeping sound that sped up as someone got closer to the task and slowed as they moved away. A very low-tech stand-in for proximity detection.

Then I ran the results through an affinity diagram and pulled the themes out: games, ease, sound, useful.

The thing they didn’t want was the fun bit

The gamification didn’t land. People wanted something fast and straightforward that didn’t add effort to their day, and the layer I’d been most pleased with was the layer they were least interested in.

“I wasn’t really feeling the whole game aspect.”

“Constant beeping started to grate.”

“Less about the game, more about just getting stuff done.”

A couple of people did find it helpful during the test, but I’d expect that to curdle into irritation within a week.

So the next iteration dropped the sound for vibration and proximity beacons — closer to a “Find My Task” than a game — and moved off the watch entirely, toward something that stays out of the way. One tester’s suggestion became the biggest change: let the system generate the tasks first and let the person edit them, rather than spending all their cognitive effort on setup before they get any value.

The gamification that survived was tone. Not points — just feedback that’s warm and a bit over-the-top.

What I’d do differently

I never got to a second round of testing. Time blew out, largely because I pushed the prototype to a fidelity it didn’t need — the jump in form factor meant rebuilding a lot of things that were only ever going to be looked at once.

The plan had been to Wizard-of-Oz a working version with an AirTag and Find My, run the same testers plus some new ones, and add a couple of co-design sessions with people who already live in calendar and task apps.

The lesson is unglamorous and I’ve kept it: high fidelity is fun, and animation is fun, but if they aren’t helping you gather insight they aren’t worth it this early. Build the smallest thing that can be tested, then stop.

Prototype walkthrough (YouTube)

The full case study is the PDF below.