Workload Wizard
Helping students balance school, work, and life
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
4 Months
Team
Solo Project
Tools
Figma, Illustrator,
Photoshop, ClickUp
Overview
Workload Wizard is a time and workload management app made for students who are constantly balancing classes, jobs, and everything in between. It helps them prioritize tasks, plan realistic schedules, and track their progress without the chaos of juggling multiple planners or apps.
The Challenge
How might we create a planning app that feels flexible, supportive, and sustainable for students balancing school, work, and life?
Most productivity apps are built for predictable 9–5 schedules — not for students whose routines change every week. Between shifting class times, part-time jobs, and overlapping deadlines, staying organized can feel impossible. Many rely on a mix of Google Calendar, paper planners, and sticky notes, which often leads to more stress than structure. The goal was to design a tool that adapts to students’ real schedules while helping them plan confidently and avoid burnout.
The Outcome
A student-centered planning app that empowers students to balance their academics, work, and personal lives, helping them stay organized, confident, and in control.
Understanding The Need
Designing for balance, focus, and peace of mind.
Before designing, I wanted to understand how students actually manage their time, what works, what doesn’t, and why existing tools often fall short.
I conducted a survey with 59 college students, asking about their planning habits, challenges, and priorities. The goal was to uncover the gaps between how students want to plan and what current productivity apps allow them to do.
Key Insights
Students don’t need another productivity app, they need one central, adaptive planner that fits their unpredictable schedules and supports their well-being
How Students Currently Plan
Biggest Time Management Challenges
Students rely on multiple tools, showing a fragmented planning process.
Students struggle most with balance
and procrastination.
82% of students often feel
overwhelmed by their workload
65% of students have a job or
internship while in college
Over 70% of students said their biggest challenges when balancing their time are either balancing responsibilities or procrastinating, showing that having a tool that helps them stay focused and organized without the stress matters.
Competitive Analysis
I analyzed the apps Evernote, Forest, and Todoist to understand what worked and what was missing.
Apps
Strengths
Gaps
Evernote
Strong note organization
No time awareness
Forest
Engaging focus experience
Not for scheduling
Todoist
Lacks holistic planning
Opportunity: Build a single, student-focused app that combines priority, focus, and scheduling with built-in well-being support.
Defining The User
A user persona was created to represent the core audience and inform the app’s design decisions.
Design Goals
Insights from research shaped four main design goals guiding Workload Wizard’s experience and interface design.
Simplify Planning
Combine calendars, tasks, and deadlines into one clear view.
Promote Balance
Encourage realistic scheduling and regular breaks.
Reduce Burnout
Use progress cues and prioritization to ease
stress.
Boost Motivation
Highlight progress and celebrate small wins.
Design Process
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
I began by researching how college students manage their time, combining survey data and real feedback to understand what causes stress and disorganization. From there, I sketched early layouts that prioritized simplicity and adaptability, bringing together calendars, tasks, and reminders in one space.
As I moved into prototyping, I tested designs with students to refine what mattered most: clear task hierarchy, easy rescheduling, and visual balance. Each iteration focused on making the app intuitive and approachable, something that helps students feel more in control, not more overwhelmed.
Sitemap
Lo-Fi Wireframes
Design Solutions
Core Design Solutions
Integrated Calendar View
Problem
Managing multiple calendars and reminders made students feel disorganized.
Solution
The calendar view combines assignments, meetings, and personal events into one space with day, week, and month options. Color-coded tasks and spacing reduce clutter and make deadlines easier to visualize.
Task Tracking & Completion
Problem
Students often lose track of what’s done versus what’s left, making it harder to stay organized and motivated.
Solution
Introduced task tracking with clear status indicators, including “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Completed” tabs. Tasks can be checked off with one tap, instantly updating across views. The layout emphasizes clarity and gives users a small sense of accomplishment with each completion.
